Would appreciate input from your group

Geode

Geode

Joined
May 12, 2001
Messages
2,947
Hi.

I have been recommended by B. Forum members to purchase a Busse. This will be my camping and general duty knife, along with a smaller, thinner knife for finer cutting jobs.

The 7" Combat looks like a winner, but I have a nerdly question for you all - how tough is the coating? I would be bummed if it got too scratched up and would consider sanding it off. Don't know what came over me a few weeks ago, but I took my son's CS SRK and ripped open the top of a can of peaches with it. Oh yeah. Now the tip of that poor sucker is chipped off.

The Busse knives look too good to use hard, but I know many of you do. Any feedback about the coating you can provide me will help me to make a decision about the knife. I am also aware that some people might think I baby the blades too much.

Thanks in advance.
 
There are show horses, and there are go horses. Busses, besides the two former are also work horses.

Here's how I feel about coatings: They are there to protect the blade from the elements, corrosion and such and minimize the area that I feel I have to coat with a protectant to a minimum, e.g. the grind (ground?) area of the blade only.

The black finishes I've seen, even the Kalguard of Chris Reeve which I have found to be very durable, take a beating and will hsow some "service stripes" with use. FWIW, The Busse finish that is in use now is first rate among black finishes.

If you would hate to get the finish marked up, then I would have to encourage you to buy two of whatever you like. One to use and one to look at. I do not mean this sarcastically, but only to share with you that I like to look at my knives and I like to show them; but they are all users. Some just are users in waiting.

To compliment a thinner, slicing knife, you would do well with the Basic #7, the Natural Outlaw or the Steel Heart. The aspect ratio of the Combat Grades (except for the new 6" Satin Jack) is much less than the Basic line resulting in a heftier and heavier knife. The Basic line has resciprene-C handles which some find more comfortable for impact producing chores.

Spending OPM (Other People's Money) is a favorite passtime of mine. In the light, I suggest you get a Basix #7 to beat the crap out of and render many service stripes to its shanks and then get a Combat Grade for show. Then beat that one and get another ... and on and on it goes.
smile.gif
 
Hi Geode,

The coating on the Busses will wear off, but somewhat slowly. I ran my Lean Mean Street (small discontinued model from the Combat line) through a bunch of old dirty carpet that was being disposed of, using the LMS like a utility knife. Carpet is nasty abrasive stuff on blades with dirt inclusions in the glue and backing that seems to dull edges, plus sand & other grime trapped in the fibers. To accomplish the cutting I typically made two passes on a given line; one to score the backing and the second to finish cutting through. I was in a hurry, so was leaning on the blade heavily. There was no mercy given to to the blade, because as Nimrod says, these are definitely using blades meant to be driven hard. Doing that carpet job wore about 1/4" of the coating off the tip of the knife and smoothed out the crinkly texture of the coating for 1" total from the tip. There was no chipping or flaking of the finish. Just a slow sanding down of it. The edge was considerably dulled by this abuse as well.

FWIW, the INFI steel that Busse knives are made of is designed to withstand impacts (and can opening) without stress fracturing as seen on your other blade. The Busse edge will deform or flatten off a bit rather than fracturing. Another factor that contributes to Busse blade strength is the asymetrical edge Jerry puts on the blades. See pictures of that edge geometry on Cliff Stamp's webpage at http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/knives/busse_bm.html. I used the LMS tip to pin down the hard wire in flexible dryer ducting while I bent the wire back-and-forth to break it (didn't have cutter or pliers handy). It put a very noticable dent in the edge at the point of contact, but there was no chipping of the edge.

I recommend that if you buy a Busse you remove the finish by cutting, chopping, slashing, slicing, levering, hacking, stabbing, dicing, poking, hammering, slapping, slitting, prying, and jabbing the blade through every medium available to you. That ought to just about do the job. Buy a Busse and use it hard. Odds are you'll come back for another. Most of us do.

Get the user blade first, then the looker, then some other sizes, then a Limited Edition version, then maybe a variant, and on and on. There is no end to it.

Enjoy your Busse blade ..... HARD!
Greg

(oops, had to fix that URL)

[This message has been edited by RokJok (edited 05-30-2001).]
 
The coating is gonna come off is you use it for it's designed for. That's ok. Jerry will recoat it for you later or bead blast it. Lets see CS offer that kinda service. I personaly don't like black coatings. I think steel should be silver. LOL. But the Busse coat (especially the new krinkle coat) is as tough as nails. Take from someone who tried to sand it off once. Buy It! Use It Hard! Love It! Trust me dude you can't go wrong with any Busse model.

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Check out my albums for cool knife pictures.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/albumList?u=879893&Auth=false
 
I was touching up the edge of my little assualt shaker and my fine diamond touched the coating -- it barely abraded the top of the surface. The coating is THICK...

Seth
 
You guys are great! Thanks for the advice. I would be buying the 7" today, were it not for the $750 that I am spending on brakes and tires for the car.

So, I am sitting in the shop thinking, this is enough money to buy 2-4 Busse knives! The thought crossed my mind to take the bus and buy the knives instead (what is happening to me?)

However, the car won that mental battle. Now to save up enough scratch for that first Busse.
 
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