| ODDS & ENDS GALLERY |
| This page is where all the odd ball stuff goes.
There is no criteria or rhyme or reason why something might be stuck
in here. |
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OE2 - The Game Warden model was initially made for Blade 2000
but never reach production. There were two prototypes made.
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OE3 - Paul's Hatchet
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OE4 - Smokey knife by Busse apprentice.
Smokey Trivia:
"1/8" D-2. The Smokies were never officially classified as
Busse knives as they were never actually produced under our
company name. They were made by up and coming apprentices who
were taught how to grind and shape handles on them. They were
originally used as shop knives. . . . glue scrapers, string
cutters, that sort of thing. Some of them made their way to
shows and were sold as apprentice knives at very low prices.
. . $55.00 - 75.00. They offer great bang for the buck.
If Mabel doesn't fail me I believe that they were made in the
late 1980's and started to leak out of our shop a few years
later in the early to mid 1990's.
Nice find,
Jerry |
OE5 - One variation of the Hood knife.
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OE6 - Knight Light
The Knight Light had spalted maple handles, brass
bolts, ATS-34 steel, a vented handle to reduce weight, 11-12 oz.
overall weight, fileworked spine, Busse Combat logo. Possibly
only one or two were made. Not only is the Knight Light gorgeous,
it is lightning fast and quick due to its light weight. Rumor
had it that Jerry removed the nitrogen from the steel mixture
and added helium . What else could explain that light weight?
This knife is the ultimate Fighter! |
OE7 - 1whobuys' apprentice knives. Apprentice knives are identified
by the missing coil holes.
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OE8 - D-Guard Busse Fighter -- Circa 1982
Check this bad boy out. This also belongs to
my brother who bought it along with many other blades when I
was just getting started. He paid me $400.00 for 4 knives to
help me out when I was trying to buy a grinder. Oh, and I already
checked, he's not willing to trade these back to me for the
grinder. . . .hmmmmmm. . . . some guys are just too savy!
I started making knives in the late 1970's. Very
crude but functional. By 1982 I decided to go into it full-time.
Some of my very first blades had "B" stamped in the ricasso.
A knife like this, really brings back the memories. I probably
spent 40-60 hours making this piece. I had to cut out the "D"
section with a jeweler's saw and then use round files to finish
the inside of the guard by draw filing it. . .. Now you know
why I wanted to buy a grinder so bad.
It is D-2 steel by the way, and has a very cool
leather sheath with it.
Jerry
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OE9 - Badger Attack & Battle Mistress
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OE10 - WTF Over's Busse Field Grade ('83-'86)
Field Grade Trivia:
The designation "G.P.Busse Field Grade" was used
to delineate between the regular knives and the lower finished
user grades. The "Field Grade" knives were the precursors to the
Basics line. They were produced in large batches and attention
to detail was not up to par with the "Busse in Scroll" blades.
They were sold at extremely low prices at the time $85.00 - $145.00
while the regular customs ranged from $375.00 - $900.00 during
this same period |
OE11
"I looked through the shop and found an older
blade Circa 1984 that had this same feature. I never sold it
because I screwed up the etch on the front of the blade. 3/16th
thick D-2 tool steel with a black and red pakkawood handle.
Two brass screws and the stamped "B" in the ricasso as well
as the "Busse logo in scroll" near the tip of the blade. I was
probably inspired by something at the time, but I just remember
doing it because it looked pretty cool. I made a ton of Desert
Storm fighters with this same feature. On some of them, I serrated
the top edge."
Jerry
06/09/02
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OE12
"I also found this picture of a knife I made
in 1986. It was the precursor to the Steel Heart design. A while
back "Doctor" Ron Hood argued that I had gotten the idea for
putting a drop in the Ergo Handles from him and TOPS. . . .
I made this knife more than 10 years before before I became
acquainted with Hood and more than 12 years before TOPS came
into existence. Wish I could've found this picture then. . .
It kinda shoots holes in that theory too!"
Jerry
06/09/02
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OE13 - Idahoskunk's Desert Storm Fighter
Field Grade Desert Storm Fighter (circa 1988), 8"
A2 blade, 13 3/4" OAL, 3/16" thick, & jet black parkerizing.
This is a very rare piece. In fact, it is one of
less than 10 that were flat ground. The remainder of the Desert
Storm fighters were hollow ground. It is also great to see how
well that parkerized finish has held up under no use.
Here's a little history on these knives.
In 1986, I purchased, what to me at the time, was
a huge batch of A-2 tool steel barstock (over 600 Pieces), that
I believe measured 1 3/8" wide by 16" long and a little
over 3/16" thick. I designed specific models that would fit
this size bar. It is important to note that I didn't design on
paper, back then. These knives were definitely the precursors
to the Custom Variants. I would simply sit down at the grinder
with the handles cut out and start grinding out the profiles of
the blades. Once I had the blade profiled, I would put in the
primary grinds and Bam! a blade was born!!! You'll note that the
guards are not nearly as healthy on the Desert Warfare models
as on all other models from the same period. That is due to the
narrow barstock that these were cut from. I began making these
models in 1986 and continued up through 1989. I would normally
only sell these at gun shows near military bases and primarily
only to military personnel. They sold for $225.00 unless you were
military, police, or rescue personnel in which case the price
was $135.00 . Hmmmmm. . . . looks like we were giving them away
back then too.
We were at a gun show in Fayetteville, NC (Ft.
Bragg) in August of 1990. Iraq had just invaded Kuwait on August
5th and the 82nd Airborne was being deployed on the following
Tuesday for Operation Desert Shield. I have had bigger shows,
money wise, but I have never sold that many knives at a single
show. The fella at the table next to ours actually brought his
wife to the show on Sunday so that she could see the frenzy. He
told me it looked like we had hung a "Free Beer" sign
over our table. Sunday was busier than Saturday as most of our
Saturday customers brought their buddies back on Sunday. There
was rarely less than 15-20 guys in front of our table. My good
friend and main helper in the shop, Jerry Snyder, packed a boat-load
of these blades along with some special small D-2 blades that
had micarta as well as para-cord wrapped handles. It turned out
that a "boat-load" wasn't enough. We called the shop
on Saturday afternoon and told one of our guys to bring every
finished knife we had. We sold 262 knives at this show!!!!! Subsequent
shows were also very healthy and we blew through every knife we
could make. With so many different models and variations of the
same size, we just started referring to them as "Desert Warfare"
fighters. They soon became known as Desert Storm fighters. I am
always amazed at how few of these knives have re-surfaced. I have,
likewise, only seen 1 of the 500+ small D-2 blades since we sold
them in 1990.
Nice find!!!!
Thanks for sharing the pics!
Jerry
06/22/02 |
OE14 - Idahoskunk's Dessert Storm Fighter
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OE15 - Thatmguy's Bird & Trout Busse
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OE16 - Idahoskunk's (?) Busse.
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OE17 - Idahoskunk's (?) Busse.
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OE18 - Dagger
Here's an early (Circa 1983) Busse Dagger. This
is from my brother's collection, and in fact was his design.
I made them from 1983-1986. They sold very well, but were a
pain in the catookas to grind. . . as are all daggers. He called
it the "Pull Dagger". . . D-2. . . linen Micarta. . . . Cool
design!
Jerry
08/03/02
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OE19 - The Birch Knob Polar Drop!!! Yowza!!!!
Very Cool. This is the blade that was made in
the early-mid '80s and buried in Minnesota in 1989!
RVO3VOM found it on his third trip to the hills
of northern MN. So, 3 trips, over 1,500 miles traveled, 600
holes dug, and a ton of bad directions later, he was able to
lay claim to this very cool blade. There was absolutely "NO"
rust on the blade. It was simply stained from the lithium grease
that it was packed in.
A double-cut blast later and WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!!!
This great little "Nuclear Payload" blade looked like it had
just been finished.
Nice find Drew!!!!!!
Congrats again!
Jerry Busse
08/07/02
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OE20 - Idahoskunk's Defiance Hill
Wow!!! That is an old blade, probably 1980-1981.
Check the bottom of the stand. . . it is probably marked. The
knife was called "Defiance Hill". It was named after Defiance
Hill where Fort Defiance was built in 1794. Here's a bit o'
history about the name:
On August 9, 1794 work was started on a Fort
at Defiance Hill. The fort was completed in 8 days. When "Mad"
Anthony Wayne surveyed the land he stated "I defy the English,
Indians, and all the devils of hell to take it." Defiance, Ohio
is right up the road from here and the Indians who lived on
our property were involved in the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
. . Mad Anthony Wayne routed the indians and drove the British
out of the area all in one fell swoop. Chief Wauseon (Wauseon,
Ohio) was too young to have fought at the time. . . but he had
many stories about the battle that he passed on to following
generations.
The blade is D-2 and highly polished. It has
an 18% nickel silver guard. It was definitely a show piece.
Sadly, that Picassoesque attempt at scrimshaw was done by me.
I only tried it a few times and could quickly see the writing
on the wall. I refer to that as "distance scrim". . . because
you have to be a fairly good distance away, for it to look good!
The antler handle was cut from a deer that I shot in our woods
about 100 yards behind the shop. It was a nice sized 28 point
buck (alright it was 8 points. . .but it seemed a lot larger
at the time) .
When I made the knife, I didn't have an etching
machine, and in fact oftened stamped the initials of the knife's
name in the blade. After I had purchased an etcher, the original
owner sent this blade back to me (around '84 - '86) to be etched.
He requested the G.P. Busse Field Grade mark instead of the
Busse in logo format. I'm not sure why. I also then etched D-2
on the same side of the blade. There were less than 5 "Defiance
Hill" models ever made. I had a hard time finding deer with
large enough antlers! I could have made quite a few Doe handled
knives though.
Nice find!!!!
Jerry
08/17/02
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OE21 - Busse Axe & Badger Attack.
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OE22 - Idahoskunk's Flinted Indian Blade.
Yowza! Oh Yeah! I made that. That is very old.
The blade is made out of 0-1 tool steel and has been hardened
and tempered. . . I don't know why. . . but I hardened it. It
was hot gun-blued by a guy who really knew how to get 'em black.
The handle is from a whitetail antler drop and if I remember
right, that is horse hair wrapped around the handle with turquoise
and silver beads for affect. I sold these through a store in
Gatlinburg called the ACORN Shop. They used to be the biggest
knife store in the world! Very cool! I don't recall a name for
these other than my Flinted Indian Blade. Where are you finding
these things?
Funny story about those blades. I started off
making and selling knives through the rendezvous circuit with
the historic re-enactors of the mountain man era. I used to
actually knap flint blades for years but couldn't find enough
flint to make large blades. I used a lot of glass and obsidian
as well. I must've gotten frustrated at not being able to find
enough flint for a knife sized blade, because I started making
those out of steel and doing what I could to make them look
like real obsidian. That has to be from the late '70's or very
early '80's. They raised a lot of eyebrows when I took some
old ones to the BLADE Show in 1983 and 1984. Bob Loveless refused
to believe that it was made out of steel until he tapped on
it with one of his blades.
Very Cool. . . Thanks for sharing the pics!!!!
Wow! I can't get over that you found one of these. And BTW.
. . GREAT PICS!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the real obsidian pieces that
you included as well. Shazaam!!!
Jerry
08/25/02
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OE23 - Ruger Bowie Proto.
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OE24 - Treasure chest found at the Busse shop!
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OE25 - Treasures from the treasure chest.
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OE26 - 1984 Vasco Wear Fighter.
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OE27 - Idahoskunk's Busse Field Grade.
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OE28 - Idahoskunk's Busse Field Grade.
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