is there really such a thing as a "sterile" combat knife? I would think a little testing with an electron microscope could pretty well prove a knife was in fact a SY.

Having said that I'm glad the military gets first dips. My best friends brother is about to head to Iraq on his second tour. Going to get in touch with Justin over at ranger knives to see about doing a custom for him.

Well, I don’t think you’d have to go to that extreme to ID it. The general shape/style of a knife will generally tell you who made it if you’re familiar with it.

There is a big difference between can tell with an electron microscope to "made in the USA". It is a big deal some places that the weapons do not come from the US.
Israel and the US sent a whole bunch of AK's and ammo to Fatah(the former PLO) in the west bank
and being able to deny that they came from the US and Israel is very very important often life or death.

Ok that makes scence when you are talking about MASS amounts of firearms and munitions. But what about one knife on one guy? I understand it varies much by unit and where they plan to go.
Examples:
The Busse Tali-Wacker said the name right on the blade, as have other military Busses (that we know of).
Also the Gerber Silver Trident and the BlackHawk MOD CQD Mark I are avaible with no-markings.

So I ask again is it REALY that important for a tool like a knife to have no makings? or is there a bit of sales pich included in the idea?

Also keep in mind our enmies, given some time, do have acess to the great all-knowing Google. or they could just set up a free acount on bladeforums (or any gun/knife fourm for that matter) and have the answer to any thing in just a few of hours.

it's not an issue of being able to tell where the knife came from. It's more a matter of being able to predict where the knife will go.

Let's say that unit XYZ's area of operations is The middle east and Dan or Jerry announce that that just shipped X amount of knive to unit XYZ, then one could determine that unit XYZ is in predeployment phase.

Special operations units biggest assest is stealth. The ability to surprise one advisary is central to a lot of military doctrine. This is especially so with special operations forces.

What models the military gets and whether or not SYKCo takes individual or unit orders doesn't compromise that at all.

The US can send them Chinese,Russian,Egytian,Chek, AK's and ammo and so on...all day long. We don't have to send them weapons labeled US. Everyone knows who's fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan or basically anywhere else in the world and how supplying them. Whether a knife is marked or not is a sales pitch theses days. You can buy anything you want, wherever you are, even in communists China. So if a secret team has Buck, Busse or whatever, doesn't tell you where there going or who exactly they are. If they have to be that careful, black ops would be picking up their spent casings.
Busse,SwampRat,ScrapYard sells knives to small units and individuals in the military. I'm sure it would make Jerry's day to have his knives as standard military issue. Whether the contracts are big or small is not the issue. The issue is these are great knives, no matter how you cut the pie. They even offer them for everyones price range. Busse "high end" SwampRat "middle" and Scrapyard captures the "low end price range" of the consumer, so no one is left out. In the past I would never have thought I would spend more that a 100 for a knife. Now I own all three price ranges. Jerry is a marketing genius, and I'm glad he's doing it. He took the risk and now he's living the American Dream, doing what he loves (making knives), getting rich and passing it around. He makes everyone feel special and I applaud him for his work and generosity. Thanks for making great knives and spreading the joy and love. Take Care Busse family.
Just my 2cents.

Well put <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> and I do hope that the Busse knife family gets biiiig military contracts in the future.

the military would be very lucky to be issued a busse family knife. It would be a HUGE upgrade in quality.

What would a scrapyard bayonet look like? Maybe that will be the next release.

From what little I've heard, I think the Busse family military contracts are a little more specialized.

Which could also be very interesting...I have been told that the Ruck which was a slightly shorter AK type, was actually a military overrun... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> I could have misunderstood though... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />