Modding a busse

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91wm6

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Nov 25, 2012
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I'm planning to do some mods on this Busse Boss Street since it's extremely thick and heavy as is. I'd like to take 1mm of stock off each side if the blade, and possibly skeletonize the tang if needed of further lighten it. My plan is to use the factory bevels as a guide to remove steel symmetrically, then do a convex grind and satin finish before re handling. Would a palm sander be effective at material removal? Or should I stick to hand sanding? Any recommendations for grit/type of abrasive to use? I do realize the material removal will be a lot of[SUB][/SUB] work, but I bought the knife with this project in mind. Any advice would be great.
Eta- if I skeletonize the tang, I plan to enlarge the 3 existing holes, then drill new pin holes in between. Will 2 pins be secure enough to hold the scales on a knife this size if I also do a brass tube for a lanyard?or should I add one more pin near the bolster/plunge line?

 
A palm sander will round the bevels when used, and leaves a terrible looking finish. It would be best to use a VS grinder with a 120 grit Blue Zirc belt, but if you don't have one, start with 100 grit wet-or-Dry paper backed with a hardwood block. A good coarse stone would also be an excellent starting place. A DMT coarse or X-coarse would work well for the initial removal.
Take your time, avoid heat build up, and get all coarser scratches out before moving to the next grit. It will take some real effort and work to take 2mm off the blade thickness by hand.

You will need carbide tooling to skeletonize the tang. Everything must be locked down solid in a vise and the carbide tooling will need to be used properly. Done wrong it can ruin an expensive carbide bit or milling tool is seconds, as well as injure you badly. If you don't have a mill or similar abilities, you might want to take that task to a friends shop who does.
 
sounds like you have realy realy a lot of work ahead of you.
I wonder if the outcome will please you and think that you will get a much more pleasing result with less time/costs if you just make the knife you want from scratch.
I don't see what starting with this knife gives extra in the end
 
Hengelo_77 said:
sounds like you have realy realy a lot of work ahead of you.
I wonder if the outcome will please you and think that you will get a much more pleasing result with less time/costs if you just make the knife you want from scratch.
I don't see what starting with this knife gives extra in the end
Click to expand...
You make some good points. I do plan on designing and making my own knife eventually. As far as the Busse, I'm just trying to get a decent outdoors knife for delicate/lightweight tasks. The knife is so tang heavy that the point of balance is midway between the 1st and 2nd pin holes, it's pretty ridiculous. I have decided to use a bench top 2x48 belt grinder though, I just wasn't making any project sanding by hand.
 
Be VERY carefull to not overheat the knife as it will ruin the HT.
Again personaly I wouldn't
 
I gotta concur. You're biting off a huge chunk of work here... do you REALLY think you're going to finish it without ruining the knife? Something tells me it will end up in the trash.
 
Lots of doubters out there lol. I finished with the initial stock removal last night. I ended up tapering the tang and it came out great. I worked slowly and dunked the blade often, so the cutting end of the blade never got warmer than room temperature. The knife started out weighing a very tang heavy 8.6 oz. Post grind weight is 6.8 oz, so I ended up removing about 1.8 oz just from the tang. It really improved the balance and feel of the knife. Point of balance was moved from midway between the 1st and 2nd pin hole, and ended up just in front of the first pin hole near the ricasso. I still have to finish hand sanding a satin finish, and re handling, but so far it's turned out great. I'll post wip pics when I finish. Thanks again for all the help.
Tapered tang

 
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Looking good so far. You've got the right idea about keeping it cool. That's the key. But I have to wonder about drilling the handle. You're going to need carbide drill bits at a minimum. I worked in the Busse custom shop for 7 years and we always finish the knives out at 58-60 Rockwell. So the handle is as hard as the edge, and Infi isn't some simple carbon steel you can just draw the temper out of the tang with a torch.
I'm interested to see how it turns out.
 
Never been a big Busse fan(just not my particular taste), but I'm curious to see how this turns out.
 
That thick heavy tang of a Busse has always been a poor point . The balance should be near the first finger .If tapering the tang does it then don't skeletonize the tang .
I skeletonized a knife and the handling was far better. Well worth the effort.
 
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