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- Jan 21, 2000
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Mike Bustamante is one of those “off the beaten track” makers whose production is snapped up before he ever has a chance to “market” his knives. Although he’ll tell you he’s “just a retired NASA nerd with too many tools”, I’d have to classify him a dedicated maker. When asked recently what his production times were running, he mentioned he had 17 knives on his bench in various stages of completion. He’s led an adventurous life, serving as a Marine in Viet Nam and working on the Alaska pipeline before getting his engineering degree and winding up as a department head at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, NM. He's been a member here since 2011, though I only recently discovered he's a very talented knifemaker.
Among the many things that give me confidence in Mike as a maker are his engineering knowledge and how he applies it to every knife he designs and makes. He enjoys working in a variety of knife steels including tool and spring steels such as W2, 1075, 1084, 1095 and 5160; “conventional” stainless like 154CM, N690 and AEB-L; as well as powder steels like CPM154, S35VN and Elmax, and is well-schooled in heat treat protocols for every one of them. Fixed blades, lock-back and liner-lock folders—he enjoys building them all. He also makes scrumptious tooled-leather sheaths.
Below are some informal images of a few of his knives, some “in progress” on the bench and some finished. His maker’s mark, “Busto”, is a nickname given him by a high school coach who had fits pronouncing “Bustamante”.
Busto is also his handle here on BFC, though if you check the Knifemakers section you’ll not find any of his knives. As I said, so far they’ve all sold before he’s had a chance to serve them up on BFC. After looking at his work, you may agree that’s easy to understand.First one (above) is a 5” blade takedown hunter he built for me--Elmax and ironwood with brass bolster and file-worked spacer. The two fluted collars are high-polished G10 (I thought they were blued steel when I first saw a photo of them—they’re that clean).
More fixed blades...
Liner lock in Elmax...
Couple more folders...
Top one from above photo with blade deployed (lockback in CPM154
)...
Sheathwork he's done for some of his Busse collection...
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