There comes a time....

I found the Busse companies the hard way. I had a couple of Kabars, and went camping with a friend of mine. We were batonning hard wood for a fire, and I broke both of my Kabars. He finished up with his Steel Heart and it didn't even look scratched.

Until that day I had always scoffed at $300+ knives, thinking they were a ripoff. Then I broke my Kabars, and handled his Steel Heart. Talk about a solid feeling knife! I loved it. I now own several Busses, several Scrapyards, and a few Swamp Rats; and I'll never buy another non-Busse fixed blade again. With the possible exception of certain novelty knives, like my railroad spike knife, for example. That spike is a decent knife. It won't take the abuse a Busse will, I'm sure, but it's really cool.
 
I've always bought knives. Some years ago I was looking for a new blade and started researching some different knives. When I read what people who seemed to know said about Busse that was it. NOw I cannot afford to stop.
Must Buy More Busses Must Buy More Busses Must Buy More Busses Must Buy More BussesMust Buy More BussesMust Buy More Busses
Sorry, I got carried away.
 
I joined BF because I was interested in buying a pocket knife and wanted to buy well the first time around. While i was over in General I ran across some posts refering to people in the Busse forum as part of the "Kool Aid Cult," so being th intrepid adventurer I am, I wandered in and was instantly assimilated. I didn't even have a desire for an FB knife. Since then I've owned many, and currently have what I consider to be a great stable of users. I don't think I'll ever buy another brand of fixed blade either.
 
It's all about the steel. INFI's high toughness was IMO designed for choppers and battle blades that withstand heavy abuse. Once pushed beyond its edge-holding abilities it will tend to dent instead of chipping! INFI is also easy to sharpen. Those two properties are IMO two of the most valuable attributes of a good knife.

I got started snorting lines of uncut INFI in the shape of an Assault Shaker I bought off the 'bay after reading killer stuff about INFI here on BF. Haven't looked back! I do like other kinds of knives but there will always be a special (and large) place in my heart for the INFI and the community of HOGdom.
 
Welcome Wintermute! :thumbup:

My advice as follows:

Buy the INFI... use the INFI...abuse the INFI... and then... and ONLY then will you understand. :cool:
 
Yes, Busse are very expensive, difficult to buy, hard to learn the names, crazy business model.

Better if you leave now, forget that you ever stumbled in here.

Heed our warnings, lest you touch the INFI dust, and suffer Wauseon Wasting Syndrome. Terrible thing, you don't want it, affects your mind and your wallet.

Just remember in six months that I tried to warn you!
 
I started by looking to put together a basic survival kit. I wanted a decent knife and started researching survival knives. Wasn't too long before I stumbled into Bussekin. My timing matched with a release date for the ratmandu...wow! A perfect knife...a little more research and buying (and selling) and I certainly have more steel than any 1 man needs. But, I'm hooked! I'm really all Rat...but it's all good!

Money-wise, I think you can cover a lot of ground with a used SOD, a Vex of the exchange and an S5...not for all that much and they will last a lifetime. Plus, if you hang out for 6 months and watch the websites, you will have great blades at factory prices...

My 2 cents..
 
I honestly can't remember how I stumbled onto Busse. I think I remember seeing their site a while ago, and there were no knives for sale..........I thought what the crap, a knife company that has nothing for sale.

Then I was browsing though blade forums and I saw a BattleMistress and I thought it was the coolest chopper I had ever seen. The rest is history.

I actually traded into my first INFI, a FBMLE, which I still have. I have bought or traded into 5 pieces, and I still have 4. The one traded was a BAD. I need another AD, but I had a GW and SS so I had the smaller range covered, and needed a mid sized user. Traded for an Ash1 CG

The all get used for sure. I never thought in a million years I would pay as much as the FBMLE cost and actually use one like that. But I bought one that was modded by a custom knife maker, and heck, It could never really be new again, since it had been modded. It is my favorite to use.

The funny thing, is when you start looking at custom knives, the prices are not too bad for Busse, but you can beat the hell of them and not feel the least bit bad.

I was eying one maker's knives that are actually meant to be used, and they are $2000, and that is up into MOAB prices. MMMMHHHHH MOAB, I need one of those.
 
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Would you believe I was searching the net for info on sharpening knives? That did not prove to be that much of a problem...
Next I wanted to know more about current military knives (since the knife i needed sharpened is a WWII user, which I wanted to be able to replace if stuff went belly-up with the sharpening). General opinion seemed to be that, for instance, current bayonets weren't that usefull at all. So I started looking for knives suited for the particular tasks I needed them to accomplish. That's how I stumbled upon Knifetests.com and the performance of the Bussekin blades. On searching for a distributor in the Netherlands (little did I know...), a Dutch site for outdoorsy people recommended two brands, among which was Swamprat. It took me a few months to figure out that the knives on the photo's were already gone, and that this was true for the rest of the Busse Knife Group brands. However, the NMSFNO actually was available directly from Busse. I Went for the basic knife after securing that I could use and therefore needed one (you notice a pattern arising :o?). All of this within the last quarter of 2008.
Since then: 4 Swamprats and 3 Busses (not mentioning the rest :D). Not exactly what I annually spend on the mortgage, but I'm still surprised by my spending power :eek: :confused: Luckily, I only have myself to answer to :D

NO REGRETS!!!

Thanks,

D-R
 
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