INFI, tough as nails and still managable...

[Dark Nemesis]

Just wanted to see if others have noticed that not only does INFI hold a killer edge but lends itself to being extremely easy to resharpen and fixup?

I recently put a medium sized ding in the edge of my BM-E towards the back. Was going to send it in, but decided to give it a try myself with my limited sharpening supplies. All I've currently got in my sharpening arsenal is a sharpmaker 204 and an old old leather strop I got off eBay.

Used the medium grit rods for about fifteen (maybe a few less) strokes, and the the fine rods just to smoothout and sharpen the entire edge. After that it was a normal five pulls on the strop.

I think it turned out extremely well, the ding is gone, took a good sharp edge again, and didn't have to send it back to Busse. I'm sure it's not back to factory specs, but then again I'm not the factory

I've sharpened INFI several times since I switched to Busse knives last year, but this is the first actual "repair". I'm not a professional sharpening master by any stretch, hell I can't even get some of my folders sharp if I'm having a bad day

Anyone else have experiences repairing dings in INFI?

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Dark Nemesis :

Anyone else have experiences repairing dings in INFI?

I think that until you have done this, you don't feel truely comfortable with the blade. I know I don't. INFI has a high wear resistance, toughness and strength and the blade geometry is high so the cutting ability is good. All of this adds up to limiting the edge damage and improving the speed of repair. Generally my SHBM has some edge irregularities, from rock contacts usually (grit in bark), and they go in and out with sharpening and use. There were only two times that I needed to do serious work on the blade. The first was where I spent some time digging in rock soil, and the second was after chopping up a bunch of nails. Both were done just to see what would happen, nothing critical and the edge was easily restored to a high level of sharpness quickly.

The basic that I loaned my brother was also very easy to sharpen. In fact it is the only knife that I ever noticed him keep sharp, which is about the highest praise I could give a knife in that regard. Every other knife I loaned him would always come back dull. But the Basic would always be floating around shaving. His techinique? Once a week he would sharpen the edge on a belt sander (worn 80 grit usually), and then cut off the burr with a butchers steel, which he would use to keep the blade sharp from day to day. I don't recommend this however because it does tend to put a lot of wear on the blade.

-Cliff

 

[contender]

I used to only buy knives that were made with ATS-34, thinking it was the best possible steel. Then I purchased my first Busse with INFI. It was love at first sharpening...first, it held an edge unbelieveably well, and then, much like Dark Nemesis, with my limited sharpening ability and supplies, I brought it back to "hair popping" sharpness with little effort.

Frankly, I have rarely needed to sharpen my INFI blades, but when I do it is relatively easy compared to other steels. Needless to say, I no longer buy ATS-34 (or BG42 for that matter)!

 

[Lenny]

Yeah, I've noticed it too.
I reprofiled my edge to a Std V grind.
All it takes is a few passes on the fine white rods of my Sharpmaker to raise a burr on the other side. It's so easy that I touch it up every time after using it.
It stays hair popping sharp that way.
How do they do it?