i buy plenty of busse's,swamprats and scrapyard knives every year.i was specifically speaking of micarta with SR77,not INFI.

well last year i bought 4 busse's and i cost me around $2,000.i think i also bought 4 scrapyard blades and it was under $500.

with the price difference i really dont compare busse to scrapyard and i do find performance differences between the 2 steels.

i was just wondering if there was a cheaper way to do micarta like without the grooving as one example again.like i said i really dont know the ins and outs of it all so i'm just pondering.

now it makes sense that if the tang protruded out that dirt could get up under there but that happens at the top of the handle too.you can pull down on the res-c where it meets the choil and theirs gunk up there on mine but i guess if you where using a pommel for pounding more dirt might get up there.

lastly,i'm telling ya.i think its in peoples head that res-c is so shock absorbent just because one would automatically think so with a rubber.for chopping its great but for heavy batoning its rough.

your not going to notice it if you go out into your back yard and baton a couple small logs.baton for a couple hours side by side with something with micarta slabs.

the tang on res-c handled knives is tiny and i think that mixed with a big blade has something to do with it because a micarta handled knife has a big hefty tang.

the SOD was around $100 and the chopweiler was around $200 so does that mean the micarta and everything to install it was $100.

you guys are right.this is what separates the 3 companies but now that swamprat went out of business <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> maybe scrapyard will pick up the micarta thing...lol.

i can get affordable micarta knives but i'm only interested in busse kin.there just better,not by much but better imo.