Recon,

I have just been to the P/O this morning and picked up my BRKT Golok....for $200 or so it is THE sharpest factory knife I have ever had....bar none! It is convex so it is not easy to measure the angle to the edge because this is a flowing curve like an inverted "tear" shape or an "appleseed" shape but you can get a good approximation and I will do a post on this with pictures later.

I also got last week my Ash LE....I went for one mainly because of what HD said...the time taken to clean up my Skinny Ash and re-profile it was TOO much. This version of an LE is very close to the Skinny Ash...hence my choice...but for a knife costing close to $500 the edge comparison will suprise you. This is a stright edge grind and much more easily checked off....again I will do some pictures. Saying it simple....it is not properly sharpened. From the tip before it gets to the belly it is sharp and will shave hairs off my arm...this is always the steepest grind on a blade and the higher angle may explain the edge reaching a pinnacle to make it sharp. The belly curve has not joined up on the grind properly and has a dull edge and this persists back to the choil.

The angles appear steep....I suspect more than 25 degrees but will know later...hence if this is so the edge needs to be taken back to 20 degrees either side and at the tip going down to the belly...I go for 25 degrees because this retains well when using the knife for prying or twist/gouging techniques. 20 degrees here and you can prize the edge over easier resulting in "rolling" the edge which translates to blunting it albeit you can often strop it back easily.

The point however is for $200 you get an edge which if you never let it blunt out you just have to strop it for it's life to maintain it....and you get the pleasure of opening your out of the box knife and marvelling at how sharp it is and ready to go....AND on the other hand you get a knife which you know needs a good couple of hours work on it to make it what it should be....which is one of the best combat/ultra performance knives in the world! The Busse guys really need to address this in my view! If you are not a really confident/long time user and sharpener of knives and you feared making your $500 knife perhaps duller.....you would be SO dissapointed...either that or your ignorance might prevent this...but if you opened both side by side...you would certainly think the $200 knife was the better of the two because it is sharpened properly!

However....the good news on the Ash LE is that the finish is second to none and compared to the Skinny is only slightly heavier...no difference really and feels just as good...so once the edge is done you are ready to go. The grind is also a great flat grind which I like very much as there is a lot less resistance than a Saber grind when cutting and reaching the saber "flats". Don't get me wrong....once the Ash LE is sharpened properly it will be a hell of a performer...one of the best for it's design. Maybe THE best....because it is what Busse do best.

BUT....if you were to put the smaller blades up against a BRKT Bravo or whatever...out of the box...then my money would go on the "sharp knife with the useful convex grind". If others can give this level of finish....those at the top of the price group ought to be able to match it.