Is INFI Losing Ground ?

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goldie

goldie

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With Delta 3v and Magnacut now, id hate to think my Hellrazor and Alpha Regulator may not be at the top of the heap .Im still keeping em i think theyre great just never thought anything could compete with them untill recently....
 
INFI is still top of the heap for toughness. No doubt about that. Magnacut isn't even close. D3V is closer but even Nathan says INFI is tougher if I remember correctly. They're all good, just different. It's always give and take with any steel, each will excel in different ways. INFI just happens to be good at most things. Very well rounded, more than one might expect given typical steels.

You're right though, your HR2 and Alpha Regulator aren't very good anymore. You should let me take them off your hands for you. 😉
 
Why is INFI not listed on the knifesteelnerds.com knife steel ratings? Is it a proprietary steel that only Busse can use and he cant test it?
 
goldie said:
With Delta 3v and Magnacut now, id hate to think my Hellrazor and Alpha Regulator may not be at the top of the heap .Im still keeping em i think theyre great just never thought anything could compete with them untill recently....
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I use my knives and don't care about steels anymore... funny how things change when you just don't care. More to life.... worrying about which steel is best is really stupid.
 
adluginb said:
Why is INFI not listed on the knifesteelnerds.com knife steel ratings? Is it a proprietary steel that only Busse can use and he cant test it?
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Big argument years ago between Larrin and Jerry if INFI is A8mod or not. Since then, Larrin stayed away from it, I understand.

Note that A8mod is a large range of steels, see below (large lighter grey intervals at the top of the bars). I have one knife in a variant (K329), it's very good.

i-XsFKs6J-XL.png
 
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We fortunately live in a time where there’s a lot of good makers and good steels around. But, for me, Busse knives made in Infi steel will always be regarded as some of the toughest knives ever made. I will never forget the beating a Battle Mistress took under Noss hammer. That triggered my interest for tough knives, back in 2010, if I remember correctly.
 
ferider said:
Big argument years ago between Larrin and Jerry if INFI is A8mod or not. Since then, Larrin stayed away from it, I understand.

Note that A8mod is a large range of steels, see below (large lighter grey intervals at the top of the bars). I have one knife in a variant (K329), it's very good.

i-XsFKs6J-XL.png
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Sounds like it just might be A8mod in that case.

These days my concerns revolve more around a specific makers heat treat vs the steel being used. Labels don't mean anything if the protocol isn't in the sweet spot.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
I'm probably wrong, but I thought I read here that Larrin said it's A8 Mod?
Others say, No.

Busse has it heat treated to their specs.
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My understanding is similar. People got in a big uproar about the info being reported as A8mod, or something pretty darn close, so it may have been removed. I think Cedric and Ada had comments about getting a lot of flak from reporting something similar and now they use a disclaimer, or just don't test Busse knives with infi anymore.

Personally, the steel isn't anything magical. Busse's heat treat is, just like what Nathan can do with 3V. They can push the performance for a "non-special" steel and make it perform very well. IMO, you're not paying more for the steel when buying their knives, you're paying for their expertise on heat trear for that steel. They also happen to design nice knives that are made pretty darn well.

52100 is one of my fave carbon steels and what Busse did with it for SR101 was fantastic, and I actually liked it over infi. Better edge retention, still plenty tough for everything I could hit the knives with. And, I've grown to like a bit of staining on my knives.

I'm still waiting to see if Busse and kin come out with a 3V knife I could picture myself using. A release of a chopweiler in 3V would be pretty great, or a rat mastiff.
 
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