Personally,...... I LOVE SR-101 steel and I am quite sad to see the lack of Swamp production, use of SR-101 and lack of Swamp communication. I can only assume that if Eric CAN'T offer info and input (for whatever possible reason of quite a few possibilities), that he has chosen to not create potentially false hopes (????).

As Bodhi mentioned on the other Swamp Rat post, Eric (who seems like a nice guy when I have talked and dealt with him) has posted MANY more times on Busse forums in the last year than Swamp Rat. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

With the exception of SR-101 being more prone to corrosion, almost nobody would realistically notice any advantages in INFI over SR-101 in most smaller knives.

Both INFI and SR-101 have MORE than sufficient toughness for smaller to mid sized knives for 99.9999% of the people and uses.
And in my experience, SR-101 has close enough edge qualities to INFI for my uses. I am not even sure which I think is better.

And in regards to larger knives, I have been active on Rat Chat long before Scrap Yard existed and with the exception of a single "Skinny" pick and a S30V folder that doesn't really count in my book since it wasn't SR-101 and since it was likely made by Blade Tech or Spyderco.... (Blade-Tech might actually be made by Spyderco ?????), I have YET to see a Swamp Rat SR-101 blade break.

And considering MANY Battle Rats were made (AND often shown to be HEAVILY used and abused!) in both differentially heat treated and through hardened blades at 9.5" length and a good number of Rat Daddy's with 10.5" blades have never been seen or known to be broken, I would say SR-101 seems to be holding PLENTY tough.

The only SR-101 "Blade" that I have seen take any significant damage was an M6's edge that chipped during chopping. BUT, that knife "MAY" (????) have had it's edge temper damaged from "Possible" improper belt sharpening. So, even that is an example that is not known to be a fair mark against SR-101's toughness.

I have other satin SR-101 blades and can keep them maintained from corrosion. I would love to own many more.

Personally, I wish Res-C had not been taken away from Swamp Rat. I think SR-101 had/has a HUGE market for many different sizes and designs with Res-C, micarta and G10.

I personally prefer the edge qualities of SR-101 even with higher corrosion over the UBER-Toughness of SR-77.

Obviously, there is a market for SR-77 as many people feel they need such toughness at the cost of edge quality - even if SR-77 holds a decent edge.

I also feel there are many blade designs that could benifit from SR-77. I just feel (for my uses) that SR-77 is best suited for heavy beater knives and tools like Kukris and Crash Axes and other blades over 10.5" in length or tools needed to take EXTREME abuse WAY beyond normal knife or even heavy chopper use.... Since SR-101 obviously handles SERIOUS Chopping VERY well!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> , I think Busse is missing a significant market by not producing more SR-101.

On the other hand, since SR-101 can do about 98%-99.9% of what INFI can do and is mainly only hindered by being more prone to corrosion, I guess one could argue that Jerry might want to drop SR-101 to keep SR-101 from taking away sales from INFI at MUCH higher profit margins. (?????) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

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