SR101 appreciation

nemesis

nemesis

Joined
Nov 5, 2005
Messages
2,022
Just thought I would take a moment to praise sr101. I used my HG55 for years as a my deer hunting knife and I will still take it out from time to time but it’s little bigger than what’s needed and it’s pretty heavy for mountain trips. Just before the 1020 came out I was in the market for a lighter knife for the mountains. Being a pretty loyal Busse fan this seemed like a good fit. This past week I used it to dress two deer, one I killed during the week and one over the weekend that my brother in law got.
Tuesday evening after work I got one, through the breast plate/ribs/cartilage and hide like butter, through the tail bone, not a roll or chip to be found. Washed it and put it away, Friday morning I got up early to put a brisket on the traeger before heading in the woods, I used to 1020 to trim it up just because it was on my belt already, wiped it down and headed for the woods. Did some man drives later that evening and my brother in law got one and had forgot his knife at the truck so I handed him the 1020, as he started he looked up at me and said wow this thing is sharp. He opened up the stomach and was struggling a bit to get the job done and I said why don’t you go ahead and open the ribs and chest up to which he replied I don’t want to mess your knife up…….. well let me do it, opened it right up and handed the knife back to him, he inspected the edge….. wow I would never do that with my Benchmade.
We were right next to the creek so I went down the edge and washed it off with some sand and water, dried it and stuck it back in the sheath. By the time we got back to the house it was time to wrap that brisket up in peach paper so I rolled out two sections and used the 1020 to slice it off without even a little snag.

I am thoroughly impressed with the 1020 after two deer seasons and some use in between and I will no longer turn my nose up at sr101 like I have in the past.
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I will share with you and everyone here something Dan Busse told me at Blade 2014 when I was at the Busse booth. I asked him about SR-101 and how he thought it compared to INFI, basically he told me they can hardly tell the two apart in testing aside from the obvious corrosion difference. I've been telling people here ever since that SR-101 is where it's at for the money if you don't mind the lack of corrosion resistance.

Some here including myself, actually prefer being able to force a patina and end up with something truly one of a kind and sometimes a thing of art. It's not a surprise that most of what I have left in my household are SR-101 with a few odd pieces of Infi and a Yard Keeper in SR-77 just because it's a really cool knife that I actually use for keeping up the yard along with my Basic 10 LE choilless. Those two are actually very similar in spec in many ways to almost be a matched set, to my thinking.
 
I am not sure that I can go so far as to say I prefer it over infi, that is a bit of a leap for me, but compared to other less corrosion resistant steels like d2, a2, 1095 (that’s really all I’ve ever tried, usually more of a stainless guy) it really does do well
 
nemesis said:
I am not sure that I can go so far as to say I prefer it over infi, that is a bit of a leap for me, but compared to other less corrosion resistant steels like d2, a2, 1095 (that’s really all I’ve ever tried, usually more of a stainless guy) it really does do well
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It’s no leap for me. It has higher edge retention than INFI. I need that in smaller blades more than I need exceptional toughness. For huge choppers I prefer INFI because I don’t like having to worry if they’ll hold up while I’m wailing on something. If I hit a rock it’ll just deflect a bit instead of blowing out or cracking.
 
AntDog said:
It’s no leap for me. It has higher edge retention than INFI. I need that in smaller blades more than I need exceptional toughness. For huge choppers I prefer INFI because I don’t like having to worry if they’ll hold up while I’m wailing on something. If I hit a rock it’ll just deflect a bit instead of blowing out or cracking.
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Lacking the corrosion resistance is my only knock on sr101 compared to infi.
 
I love SR-101.... Likely more than INFI. For me, the extra bomb proof strength of INFI over SR-101 is less useful to me than the extra edge holding ability of SR-101. Add to it the affordability of SR-101 over INFI, it just fuels my addiction further!

While of course I wouldn't turn down a good INFI blade, I'm also not hunting down INFI Active Duty now that I scored a couple of Battle Grade ones from the exchange here. Mean Street and Mini Mean Street, on the other hand, still illude me (or I'm not quick enough on the draw).

I'd love to have some BG Sus Scrof. or Culti.
 
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I love sr101 and I'm probably going to get screamed at for saying this but as a long time heavy user of both sr101 and infi I can honestly say I think sr101 is a little harder. Infi will ding and you'll get edge rolls but seems to hold a slightly tougher edge. And while I've never had sr101 rust on me. That said, I do love infi as well. My rule is if I can have the same knife in both steels than why not 😆 😂 😅

Coatings, on the other hand, I can't stand. On infi or sr101, I like just plain steel. Here's a few pics of my recent strip job. I love this knife:

https://imgur.com/a/4z00P9V
 
kniferMan said:
I love sr101 and I'm probably going to get screamed at for saying this but as a long time heavy user of both sr101 and infi I can honestly say I think sr101 is a little harder. Infi will ding and you'll get edge rolls but seems to hold a slightly tougher edge. And while I've never had sr101 rust on me. That said, I do love infi as well. My rule is if I can have the same knife in both steels than why not 😆 😂 😅

Coatings, on the other hand, I can't stand. On infi or sr101, I like just plain steel. Here's a few pics of my recent strip job. I love this knife:
Click to expand...
100% Agree, I only like plain old bright steel. Same with my firearms. The only other thing I’ll consider is a blued steel.
 
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