I discovered Busse knives because I was tired if not trusting my folders and as a result I was turning to fixed blades, which I wasn't very familiar with. Folders had gotten me started on the downward slope to knifeaholic status. I was PUMPED when I discovered the world of Busse knives, this was the no-holds-barred, overbuilt, Abrahms M1A1 tank kinda stuff I was on a quest to find. So this is still what I want when it comes to a Busse folder.
That having been said, the number one issues to me in a folder is security: grip security and lock security. I want an aggressive grip that allows aggressive stabbing and thrusting WITHOUT your hand sliding foward.
Lock security is a much bigger ball of wax. I only want to point out 2 observations in this regard. There are two things that result in lock failure: a force that exceeds the inherent structural/mechanical strength of the lock design and UNINTENTIONALLY RELEASING THE LOCK DURING AGGRESSIVE USE. This has been my problem with frame lock designs. If you are right handed and you torque many frame locked knives hard to the right, while gripping tightly, it can release the lock. This is not a strength issue, it's what Joe Talmadge, I believe refers to as, a reliability issue, for the lock. Either way, it is still a failure and can cause serious injury. There seems to me to be lots of discussion of lock failure due to strength but not nearly enough talk about failures due to reliability i.e. inadvertent release.
Regardless of lock strength or lock reliability, if the knife includes a substantial finger choil at the hilt of the blade (as most of the busse fixed blades have) if the folders lock fails for any reason, the blade folds over onto your index finger,BUT AT THE FINGER CHOIL, so instead of sending you to the hospital to try and save your finger, it's "only" like closing your index finger in a pair of pliers. Painful but not cripling.
I certainly expect a bulletproof, overbuilt, rock of a folder from Busse, but I would still like the added insurance that a sizeable finger choil at the hilt of the blade would provide. Plus as with the fixed blades, it aids so nicely in choking up for more precise blade work.
