INFI, SR77, and SR101

[Last Visible Canary]

Renaming it is just silly IMO.

that depends a lot of what cobalt said. if they did actually change the formula to add more carbon and chromium, then its essentially a different steel. the same heat treat on standard 52100 or s7 wouldn't create the same performance as the heat treat performed on the modified steel. well.... probably.

the idea behind each of these companies to to make a knife that will not chip, will take a great deal of force to break upon lateral stressing, and is as hard as possible.

infi is good in all catagories of desirable knife steel qualities, wear resistance, shock resistence, lateral strength, corrosion resistance. it's number one quality (as far as I'm concerned) wich is very rare in a 58-60rc steel is that it will not chip. it will deform and tear before breaking. it holds it's temper even up to working temperatures of 900 degree's. it does exceptionally well on softer fibrous media, such as wood.

sr101 has chipped out before, but the heat treatment was suspect on that particular blade. it is my understanding that with proper heat treatment, and differential hardening (on larger blades), it's shock resistance and lateral strength is below that of infi, but close. it will deform before chipping, but can chip under high enough localized stresses (like if its on a pole arm and being used like an axe ). it is not as corrosion resistant as infi, but it does better with edge retention on harder grittier materials. 52100 is considerably cheaper then infi.

sr77 is closer to infi in its chip resistance, being more likely to deform at high hardness then sr101. i don't know how it does with edge holding, but I would imagine that it's not as good as 52100. I've never actually read much on its edge qualities . everything I've read has been on the base steel, s7, not on the in house heat treated version (or the modified formula if that is in fact the case). s7 is considerably cheaper then 52100. less corrosion resistant as well.



essentially, the sister companies of busse attempt to acheive the same set of requirements as that of infi on a budget. swamp rat having a medium to large budget, scrap yard having a very small budget. they choose their steels accordingly, accepting lower performance in those given criteria like corrosion resistance which do not affect edge or knife performance to greatly for it's lower price.

 

[Cobalt]

is this true?????????

I've always heard that sr101 and sr77 were the original steels with an in house heat treatment, rather then a technically different steel (or at least, different % then their originating steel mixtures. if it is true that each steel, as it is found in scrap yard and swamp rat, has more carbon and chromium added, then that makes both companies a little more desirable since their steels are not common.

and am I also incorrect in beleiving that each companies heat treatment would pass through jerry's hands before being finalized? I know that they are technically considered competition, but since at least swamp rat is in the same facility and a "sister" company within the busse family, it seems like technical help would not be out of the question.

basically, I had always thought that swamp rats heat treatment of sr101 was essentially how jerry would heat treat it if he was using it for his own companies knives.

They were steels that were tested but for one reason or another not used. Both SR101 (mod 52100) and SR77(mod S7) are better overall performance than their parent steels.

The heat treat is per Jerry's specs and I am sure only optimized to the different type of steel.

 

[Last Visible Canary]

They were steels that were tested but for one reason or another not used. Both SR101 (mod 52100) and SR77(mod S7) are better overall performance than their parent steels.

The heat treat is per Jerry's specs and I am sure only optimized to the different type of steel.

crazy. that definitely changes things.

jerry heat treating 52100 is different then jerry heat treating sr101 then... crazy :thumbup:

 

[Cobalt]

crazy. that definitely changes things.

jerry heat treating 52100 is different then jerry heat treating sr101 then... crazy :thumbup:

Think about this Jerry's heat treat of the small swamp rat D2 knife made D2 so tough that they beat it silly with a hammer and it took a lot before it broke.