What is INFI?

[Kneecleaver]

What is "INFI"; what are its performance characteristics, and is it significantly different from similar steels?
What special care does it need over other metals in its class?

 

[Mike Hull]

It's Busse's name for their proprietary blend of steel. What are the characteristics of it? It's a secret.
You might get more info on this subject by posting it in the blade discussion forum. They know all about such secret stuff there.
There is also a Busse forum in the makers and Manufacturers forum, link at the top of the page. I doubt they will tell you anything about this steel though, except that it's better than anybody else's.

 

[Andrew Lynch]

Actually, INFI's composition is not so secret; if you do some searching on the forums it has been mentioned a few times. Basically, it has about 14% chromium, half a percent carbon, and a its special ingredient, a little Nitrogen (there are some other parts of course).

INFI's characteristics are far from secret. It exhibits high toughness at high hardness (+/- 60 RC) as well as high wear resistance and, suprisingly, easy sharpening. It also resists corrosion about like ATS-34 does. It is truly a fantastic steel.

The secret part of INFI is its manufacturing, heat-treat, and cryo processes. It undergoes something like 40 hours (I forget exactly) of cryo treating alone. This is probably as important as its composition to its performance.

BTW, if you have any more questions, the Busse forum here is great

 

[RicBrannon]

I believe this is the composition of INFI. If not exact, it's pretty close.

Vanadium .36%
Chrome 8.25%
Iron 87.79%
Cobalt .95%
Nickel .74%
Molybdenum 1.3%
carbon .5%
Nitrogen .11%

Ric