Birthday Busse!!!

[sharpshooter996]

Well it was my birthday the other week and I decided to step up and treat myself to a Busse. I scored this Skinny ASH.

Desert Sage with Black Magnum handles. O its so sweet. :rockon:

[sharpshooter996]

Skinny ASH Pic's

[338 Stalker]

Very nice score, you gotta be happy with that :thumb:

[jackmcmanus21]

nice busse

[sharpshooter996]

Thanks men, I think its the perfect size knife to put some miles on with. Plenty strong, with some super steel and a convex edge!

And those magnum handles fit great.

[Noss]

Happy birthday a week late. :rockon: Awesome new Busse. :thumb: I want to get me one before they stop selling them on the Busse website. Who made the sheath for it. ?

[lafayette]

Great knife, I fight myself not to order this knife...

Don't you find the blade a bit short ?

[eatingmuchface]

I've heard great things about the skinny ASH.
:D
congrats.
and happy (belated) birthday.

[sharpshooter996]

Thanks again guys :thumb: I have no regrets on buying this one. Busse's are not cheap but you really get what you pay for. After thinking about it for a while, I realized I would rather have one awesome $300 knife than two good $150 ones. There is no compromise on quality or material's. These knives are the total package. Wish I new more about this company years ago.

Noss the sheath is made by Dwayne Puckett of http://www.armoralleather.com/

The sheath fits like a glove and is very well made. Inserting the knife in sheath you can hold upside down without buckle strapped and knife will not fall out.

After playing in the field with it and getting it a little muddy. I simply let the mud dry and just wiped it off. No need for water, and mud did not absorb into leather. :D

Ill get some higher quality pic's up this week.

[sharpshooter996]

lafayette The blade is very substantial in size for a 6.5in knife. measurements of knife are. 6.4" blade length, 5.65" cutting edge, 1.86" width. 3/16" thick. I bought this knife to carry with me, on several day or more hiking trips deep in the woods where I will be covering 30+/- miles. Weigh is the issue here not shear blade size. And to have a knife of this strength and cutting ability at 14.6 oz is a joy. A knife this size will handle 99% of the tasks you will need to accomplish while in the field. While obviously not as effective at chopping as a 10" blade. You simply will not want to carry a blade of such weight these distances. And for fire making a 6.5" knife is totally sufficient. You will not be able to cut and section large logs. while beneficial this is not required.

This knife will be carried mainly in place of my Ontario Rat-7 D2. This is a fine knife but where it has limitations the ASH excels. In lateral strength, edge toughness , resharpening. And handles.

As advertised-

THE SKINNY ASH

You asked for it, now here it is, YOUR SKINNY ASH ! In this version of the famous Steel Heart 1 you will get a lightweight (14.6 oz. vs. 20.7 oz.) super strong, cnc/hand applied convex ground, weapon of ASH destruction!!

It features incredible ergonomics with palm filling magnum handles. Go ahead, give it a try, you can bet your SKINNY ASH you won't be sorry!!

As advertised-

INFI Steel

INFI is a proprietary steel and heat-treat protocol developed by Busse Combat Knife Co. It is ONLY available through Busse Combat.

Some facts and info about INFI.

Hardness
Although hardened INFI knives are 58-60 Rc we have yet been able to chip an edge. The edge can be dented or misaligned but its high level of malleability at such high hardness has never been duplicated by any other steel that we are aware of or have tested.

Flexibility
In one of our performance tests, we bend a Battle Mistress 35 degrees in a vise and it springs back to true. Why would we do this? What does it prove? What is the benefit to the customer? Not only does this test demonstrate the enormous toughness and lateral strength of an INFI blade but, because our hardness is homogenous and not differential, it demonstrates the amount of lateral strength and "spring" of INFI all the way to the edge. That means that edge of the blade will possess this same toughness. INFI is the only knife steel ever tested that has achieved such high levels of lateral strength with a homogenous hardness of 58 - 60 Rc. No other steel has even neared this performance level.

Edge Retention
Many so-called knife experts have heralded the "wear resistance" of a steel as the key to edge retention. This may very well be true if a knife is designed and intended for the cutting of soft materials ONLY. However, we have never inspected a dull knife and found the edge to be perfectly smoothed away, like a ball bearing. Instead what we find are microscopic chips where the edge has broken or chipped away like glass after having impacted against bone, gravel, or other hard surfaces. This micro chipping dictates that the edge be reground during the resharpening process, which will ultimately lead to a thicker edge and a radical change in overall blade shape. Steels with high wear resistance normally score fairly low in shock resistance, lateral strength, and overall toughness. INFI scores very high in ALL of these categories.

Sharpening
INFI's high level of chip resistance also makes it the easiest steel to resharpen by hand that we have ever encountered. I personally fall into the category of "hand sharpening challenged". I've heard tales of those who can sharpen ball peen hammers to a razor's edge on an Arkansas stone in less than 5 seconds flat. My experiences have always been to the contrary. The spine of the knife is usually sharper than the edge when I'm finished applying my magic stone sharpening technique. One of the great features of INFI is that simply stropping away from the edge (the way a barber strops a straight edged razor) on a ceramic stick is basically all that is required to resharpen INFI. Since you're not chipping steel off the edge there is no need to grind any steel away. This feature of INFI will, likewise, allow you to keep the same overall profile of the knife for a much greater period of time.

How does INFI compare to other steels?
Simple question, complex answer. INFI represents what I have always dreamed of in a knife steel. Tougher, by an enormous margin, than any other steel I've ever tested. Unparalleled edge holding under high impact and in cutting tests. Shock resistance that begs you to "bring it on". An ease of re-sharpening that you have to see to believe and higher levels of lateral strength at high hardness than have ever been achieved by any other steel. We have published our test results and our testing methodology. We have video taped all of these tests and play the video at the knife shows we attend. More importantly, we have duplicated these performance tests in "LIVE" demonstrations at many trade shows throughout the United States. We encourage all manufacturers to put their products through our tests and to publish their results. If you want to know how another maker's knife will compare to a Busse Combat knife, ask the other maker to duplicate our tests in a "live" demo.

Is INFI stainless?
Not supposed to be. However, INFI has demonstrated very high levels of stain resistance in many different climates. Uncoated blades have been tested for years in Alaska and have made their way into the wilds of British Columbia, the High Sierras and tropical rain forests. No rust in Alaska or British Columbia! No rust in the High Sierras, even when exposed to great quantities of blood and left in the wet grass overnight. The tropical rain forest, which has been known to rust plastic (just kidding), did offer the toughest of the environmental exposures and a light speckling of surface oxidation did occur but was easily removed in the field with a hand rubbing of sand and water. No deep pitting was reported. When compared to other cutlery steels in salt spray tests, INFI faired better than ATS-34 and D-2. Although all three grades exhibited surface oxidation, the INFI was not deeply pitted as was common in these other two grades. So, although INFI is not technically a stainless steel, it is certainly not a rust aggressive steel. Couple this with a minimal amount of care and you've got a fairly maintenance free knife.

With a steel like INFI it's easy to understand why we offer the toughest guarantee in the business. We guarantee against any and all unintentional MAJOR damage forever.


Jerry Busse

[sharpshooter996]

Comparison shot

[Thecarotidpulse]

Nice present Sharp =D

Can we get a spine/edge comparison photo? (just the 2 other angles).

Your Rat doesnt look too bad either mate... maybe lend it to someone else in your hiking party for the trip?

[sharpshooter996]

Ask and you shall receive :D

[Thecarotidpulse]

Ask and you shall receive :D


Can I have 1 million dollars then?



*********

I dunno man.... Seeing your pictures puts me a bit uneasy....
Like I know it's a Busse and all... but the Rat seems to have a nicer blade design, about the same thickness and well proportions in general, and is a lot cheaper.

Based on these photos I'm not sure I would spend the money on a Skinny Asn vs another sturdier Busse knife...

I then ask this of you: You mentionned earlier that where the Rat had limitations the Busse excells. Would you be able to share a couple of examples? for instance, i'm sure you've played with them a bit. How do you you feel the blade on lateral flexion, cutting edge, chopping, sharpening etc?

I guess what would set these two apart would be more composition and treatment of the actual steel rather than design.

If you're talking about quasi FBM strength at Rat sizes... then kudos.. but from just the pictures I dunno...

[sharpshooter996]

a cool million let me check my bank acct. :D ok ill wire it over to you. Lol

any ways, the blades are almost exactly the same thickness .195 ASH, .190 RAT-7

the blade on the ASH holds this a lot longer till 1.75" from tip where the RAT-7 begins

to narrow from the handle. where at 1.75 from tip it is .162. the look of the blade is

deceiving. The ASH looks like the tip is much pointer where actually it is wider.

measured .25" from tip the ASH is .290 wide where the RAT is only .260.

Using the knife with finger in choil, you notice that the ASH is deeper and your finger

sits nice where on the RAT it is touching the beginning of the blade and with some

force you could easily puncture you self. Doing fine work in this position the ASH turns

a little easier in the hand. using the knife with thumb on back of blade the texturing

on the RAT is deep and uncomfortable.

As far as blade flex goes, here is a huge difference. The RAT flexes pretty easy while

applying leverage in wood, where the ASH is much stiffer and requires great effort to

flex the blade.

The handles are also much nicer on the ASH. They allow a more secure and

comfortable grip and do not get slick when wet or muddy as does the RAT. While

using both of these knifes in the field i carried my sharpmaker and a ceramic rod 4"

for sharpening purposes. Both knives held a great edge but under different conditions.

The RAT held a fine edge, equal to the ASH while doing delicate wood work and cutting

rope but when chopping it dulled much faster. The ASH seemed to hold a great edge

on all materials and after a long days use it sharpened back to original with only 2

passed on the ceramic, dragging blade toward me. (ASH has convex edge)

After dulling the RAT on some chopping i used the sharpmaker and this is where I

dread its D-2. It takes a long time to bring its edge back to original condition.

this same task takes about 1/4 the time with my carbon steel knives.

The one task at which the RAT is better is creating fuzzies. The wide Convex edge

on the ASH takes more delicate work where the thin edge on the RAT works better.

The RAT is a good knife, but in my use i find the ASH to be superior. After use you

really see these differences. Pictures just dont tell the story. Hope this was helpful

Paul

[sharpshooter996]

And regarding spending the $ on a thicker Busse. I choose the Skinny as it weighs about 6 oz lighter. granted this does not seem like much but taken on a long trek the 6 oz can feel like 6 pounds. it can be the difference between your knife being a joy or it pissing you off. guess it just boils down to the user and how the knife will be used. and i do like to use my knifes. no sitting around for show with me :D

[Noss]

Since your wiring out a million dollars. Wire me a few bucks also. :D

[Tac45]

I know its a bit late. I've been off for a while (some reckon I'm always off). Happy Birthday Shooter. Most excellent present indeed. Very beautiful knife. No doubts it will do everything you ask of it.

[sharpshooter996]

Thanks TAC

[Shaolin]

Awesome blade, thinking very hard on getting one myself, especially that color combo.

[sharpshooter996]

I love the color combo. Fit and finish on this knife is grand. The more i use it the more I love it. The Infi steel is some awesome stuff. I brought it in the woods with me the other day along with my SRK and used them both heavily. I would do one task with the ASH and follow the same task with the SRK. I did some chopping, shaved wood, cut vines, opened a couple of tin cans, scraped a magnesium fire stick, cut some rope and i am probably forgetting something, but when i was done I looked at both blades under magnification and the edge on the ASH looked unused at least to my eye. Then I looked at the SRK and I could see obvious signs of use. The tip are on SRK was a little blunted and had some very minor scuffing, and the rest of the blade was noticeable duller. It sharpened up pretty quick on a fine diamond wet stone. But I just stromped the ASH and it was like a rebirth. Cutting paper with a slight touch, and shaving clean and smooth. One other thing i've noticed with the Infi is it does not stain or discolor like my standard carbon knives do. If i get the blade sappy or cut food and don't clean for a couple of days I notice almost no effect on the edge, where the same event on my SRK and old Camillus folder shows noticeable discoloration. pretty interesting. From what i've observed it shows similar characteristics to my D-2 RAT. And that sucker stays dirty for quite some time without rusting or staining.

[Noss]

Those Busse blade are terrible. :mad: I don't know where you heard about them ? but you better let me take that ASH-1 off your hands and save you some embarrassment. :D

[sharpshooter996]

Im sorry I can not let you do that my friend :p

[Noss]

Well I tried. :D

[sharpshooter996]

I just noticed i need to get some more and better quality pictures of the ASH up. :eek:

[Noss]

It's all good. :rockon:

[Shaolin]

Happy Birthday, very nice blade.

[sharpshooter996]

Happy Birthday, very nice blade.

Thanks, cant wait for the destruction test on this one. I cant sit still