There are foundrys that will take a steel, like A8 modified, and tweak it a bit for you if you are going to buy the whole heat. Buying a batch of steel gives you the opportunity to have it done your way, including rolling into the size specified . Stuff like that. The infi formula is very similar to an off the shelf steel, just a bit changed.
When talking about the "heat treatment" that might include in your definition normalization cycles, austenitizing, cooling ( which can be over a long time with some steels), tempering, sometimes several times, even cryo. etc.
Saying a 40 hour heat treat cycle probably takes this kind of different steps of the production process and groups them together. Looking at it like that a "40 hour" heat treat isn't all that uncommon or exceptional for some of the alloy steels, especially from the air cooled class that may have to cool at, say 25 degrees per hour for instance. The actual heat treat hardening, or "austenitizing" temp., once it is reached may only be 20 to 30 minutes. The way I explain it sure isn't very good. The best way is to look at some of the steels on the manufacturers websites and read the heat treatment instructions. Repeating a mantra about a 40 hour cycle that is proprietary does not mean that much to someone that has made knives, or been involved with heat treats.
Infi is a fine steel, but so was carbon V. Their names are made up marketing tools though, nothing more. Personally I'd rather really know what I was buying, but not everybody sees it that way.
It's not a secret in the industry any more than Carbon V was, nor is 40 ( appx) hours for the production heat treat cycle all that unique for production of fine tools, which is what Busse knives are.
I don't really care for some of the hype, and for sure I don't like their marketing strategy, but there is no denying they are quality tools. Not worth the price to me, but fine quality nonetheless. The finish and edge geometry of non custom ground knives are not my style either.
