I don't have any particular beef with the sharpness of Busse family knives I've received. The three Busses and three Swamp Rats I've purchased have all come very sharp. This is the least I would expect when purchasing a knife at any price let alone a Busse family price. Knives are supposed to be sharp. Even junky knives should be sharp when you get them. My SS4 was only so-so, but I was able to sharpen it up. None of these knives, however, are very good cutters or slicers. I guess because they're so thick. (By the way, I recently purchased a custom that had not been sharpened at all. Had to send it back to get it finished.)

Regarding marketing ploys, I have to agree with Bruce. If I could cut my costs as a manufacturer by continuing to produce roughly finished blades, not buy spooge to paint the roughly finished knive, give the knive a catchy name and then charge the same or similar price, well, that sounds like more profit and, well, color me happy.