INFI for EXTREME slicers?

If I could pick up another 2-3 460's at the original factory price ($80 or $90 iirc), I would do it in a heartbeat!!! :cool: So wish I'd have purchased multiples of that knife! :(
 
SpyderPhreak said:
If I could pick up another 2-3 460's at the original factory price ($80 or $90 iirc), I would do it in a heartbeat!!! :cool: So wish I'd have purchased multiples of that knife! :(
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yup...nothing wrong with .25" stock or greater for hard use...but when I need something SLICED...I reach for the 460...she ain't sexy looking-- she looks kinda like Granny's paring knife on steroids....but.... oh...can....she cut!
 
There was a one-off of the ScrapMax's that I always thought looked great. It was like the 460, but with a nice sloping drop point. Not too many made I believe. Man I'd like to see a full run of those!
 
Hard Knocks said:
There was a one-off of the ScrapMax's that I always thought looked great. It was like the 460, but with a nice sloping drop point. Not too many made I believe. Man I'd like to see a full run of those!
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Weren't they DCBB too?
 
Hard Knocks said:
There was a one-off of the ScrapMax's that I always thought looked great. It was like the 460, but with a nice sloping drop point. Not too many made I believe. Man I'd like to see a full run of those!
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Yup, drop point for THE WIN!

BOTOH, that sweep makes it pretty nice opening appliance boxes, plastic sheeting, and parcels containing other Busse! :cool:

As an improvement, I'd like a full choil or no-choil...not a fan of 'tweeners...I understand the philosophy behind an elf choil, but still I sometimes get hung up in stringy, meshy media if I momentarily forget to move my index finger fore-ward to block the choil and act as a bumper to the twine.
 
The handles of the 460 never fit me right. Really wanted to keep them but my hands said no.

I do love me an elmax steak knife though. The custom handles with bigger slabs.
 
I'd say INFI in a slicer is a waste of precious steel. INFI is made to be used hard. A slicer only has to slice and does not need a huge impact resistance / toughness.
There are way better steel options, Elmax being one of them. That is why many people prefer SR-101 in their smaller blades. It is much cheaper and has a better edge retention.
If you are cutting abrasive materials only then you might notice that INFI loses sharpness quick. It is very easy to sharpen so it is as easy to dull it with abrasive material.

INFI shines in big badass chopping knives like the mistresses.
 
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The MUK LE is the sharpest slicer I have ever owned. They are razor sharp. I don't think there is a Busse with better slicing geometry. As for the steel, in a slicer it is not so relevant, as toughness tends not to be needed. Elmax or cruwear would likely last longer than INFI or SR101 in edge holding.
 
jakob.k said:
I'd say INFI in a slicer is a waste of precious steel. INFI is made to be used hard. A slicer only has to slice and does not need a huge impact resistance / toughness.
There are way better steel options, Elmax being one of them. That is why many people prefer SR-101 in their smaller blades. It is much cheaper and has a better edge retention.
If you are cutting abrasive materials only then you might notice that INFI loses sharpness quick. It is very easy to sharpen so it is as to dull it with abrasive material.

INFI shines in big badass chopping knives like the mistresses.
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I agree. I've personally never used Elmax on anything but food stuffs but I have seen a definite difference between SR101 and INFI when cutting up large quanities of cardboard boxes. Enough so that I have actually started to lean towards SR101 when it is an option.
 
Cobalt said:
... As for the steel, in a slicer it is not so relevant, as toughness tends not to be needed. Elmax or cruwear would likely last longer than INFI or SR101 in edge holding.
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jakob.k said:
I'd say INFI in a slicer is a waste of precious steel. INFI is made to be used hard. A slicer only has to slice and does not need a huge impact resistance / toughness.
There are way better steel options, Elmax being one of them. That is why many people prefer SR-101 in their smaller blades. It is much cheaper and has a better edge retention.
If you are cutting abrasive materials only then you might notice that INFI loses sharpness quick. It is very easy to sharpen so it is as to dull it with abrasive material.

INFI shines in big badass chopping knives like the mistresses.
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Anecdotally, this is exactly what I've observed.

I guess I was just thinking out loud that perhaps Elmax is the optimal steel choice for a model in the Scrapmax configuration.

Kinda seems as if INFI's best "positive" qualities wouldn't be reflected in the actual usage of the model.

And since the Scrapmax is exceptionally thin stock and the model's likely usages, the "negatives" of Elmax's properties are mitigated.

Seems like I even remember something about Jerry posting up that Scrapmax's weren't designed for the rough and tumble usage Busse guys are accustomed to, but they were still warrantied unconditionally...IIRC.
 
Horses for courses. INFI is one of the better steels for hard use / toughness. ELMAX is one of the better steels for corrosion resistance and edge holding. Just depends on what you want to do with it. For a slicer, small edc knife I'd probably pick ELMAX, all other things being equal...which I guess they rarely are. For a six inch knife that going to hit a great deal of wood, bone, or metal, INFI is probably a better choice.
 
I prefer SR-101 over Elmax because SR-101 can be fixed in the field if anything happens and is still a lot tougher.
A friend once thought he needed to throw my thinly ground RMD. Well, it bounced off a tree and hit some steel (leg of a sitbench), the edge rolled a bit. I only used the back of another blade and then fine ceramic and leather strop to get it razor sharp again. If you chip an elmax blade (I doubt it will roll) then fixing will be more difficult.
 
jakob.k said:
I prefer SR-101 over Elmax because SR-101 can be fixed in the field if anything happens .
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Very good point. Being able to sharpen in the field is paramount and todays high alloy stainless steels can be a pita in that department. I remember when I got one of the early 440V spyderco knives and it took forever to go blunt, but when it did, man it took me just as long to try to sharpen it again. Elmax is pretty tough for a stainless though which is nice, but in a fixed blade I will always opt for a carbon tool steel type. I wish Busse would take INFI up two points in Rc for the smaller knives. It would still be tougher than anything else and hold a crazy edge.
 
The prevailing wisdom certainly seems to be that toughness isn't needed or is overrated in slicers and folders. In my experience though, most of the time I damaged a blade, it was accidental and in hindsight greater toughness (or in some cases strength) would have been nice to have: Hey y'all, watch this!! Gross damage then also brings ease of grinding/sharpening into play.

A big part of why I buy Busse blades is that the steels seem so well suited to the intended use, it's almost like Jerry looked into the actual metallurgy when they picked steels and did their testing! :confused:

I think if you're talking about a hypothetical field knife that you want to be slicy, but still also tough and easy to sharpen, with good edge holding and decent corrosion resistance, you could do a lot worse than INFI.

Some other steels I might prefer for a knife like that, especially if I wanted more hardness/edge holding and corrosion resistance without compromising too much on the other factors would be razor steels like AEB-L, BDZ1, or one of the similar Sandiks.

I always heard these steels were very tough for stainless, but toughness data can be hard to come by. Luckily, there's some cool work being done and shared here on BF to look at it:

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https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...b-l-niolox-cpm-154-19c27-40cp-and-d2.1546412/

Related:

"Of course, these steels offer sufficient toughness for many knives and applications, which is not what I am arguing about. However, if looking for a maximum toughness steel for whatever reason, I would look outside of the PM grades."

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/no-your-pm-stainless-steel-isnt-tough.1535555/
 
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I value toughness in small blades. Edge stability is an important part of edge retention. I was doing a touch of whittling with a S35vn fix blade and the blade lightly hit the ground a couple times. Must have glanced off a patch of small rocks. I was surprised to see slight rolling. Info or Sr101 would laugh that off.
 
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