I have had varying degrees of sharpness from "within" many different knife companies including within Busse and kin.

As much as I like and do promote Busse, Swamp Rat and Scrap Yard and the incredible toughness of their steel, I can't give them highest kudos in regards to factory sharpness. I honestly can't even really even give them kudos for "factory" edges.
That said, my DFLE, Chopweiler, SarSquatch and Skinny ASH-1 were all "moderately" ( ... somewhat reasonably) sharp and all sharper than my recent ( and only) Busse Hell Razor CE. My Hell Razor with "Competition Edge" could barely slice cut paper. It tears more than it cuts in spite of the Busse Sharpness test sheet (??????). *** However, I do LOVE the edge profile on the CE blades!!! This is how I reshape my blades anyway, so it saves me the time and effort if done from the factory. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />
By "Busse" sharp, a handful have been able to slice cut paper, but not silky smooth cuts through paper and never push cut. Edge geometry is part of the issue, but edge sharpness isn't there either.
While a good handful of recent Busse and kin acquisitions have been moderately/reasonably sharp, historically, most have been quite dull and can't even slice cut paper - or just barely at best.

BRKT, Spyderco and Kershaw have consistently been the most impressive to me. But, I have also seen a few good ones from Al Mar, Benchmade, Lone Wolf and even CRKT. The older Al Mars and Benchmades were not nearly as impressive as recent years.

As much as I love Fallknivens knives, I have received some very good edges and some very so-so edges from them, but at least they have excellent full convex grinds. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Cold Steel, Gerber, SOG and some others - random.



.... Honestly, most every company I named above has consistently provided sharper edges than the average Busse edge. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> ----- *** However, as MUCH as I really like seeing a RAZOR sharp edge from the factory and as much as I honestly consider a "Quality" edge a "Quality Feature" from a maker (vs. the alternative <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif" alt="" />), I can't rank the factory edge as important in a knife as the quality of the steel. It is more important that a blade "Can be Made" sharp consistantly, reasonably easy and with exceptable toughness to suit the knives given design. Considering the ability to sharpen and keep sharp AND Incredible toughness, I would rank INFI and SR-101 both VERY high. SR-77 sharpens easily, but doesn't hold the edge as well as many others.

Many of the knives I have with good or great factory edges can be hard to RE-sharpen... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> ..... worth noting IMO.



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