S7=good for gig tough knives
SR101= good for little knives with great edge retention but can be tough when diff tempered
INFI= good at both.
For most types of knives you only need either a lot of toughness like for a survival knife or excellent edge holding for a hunting or wood carving knife.
If you want your survival knife to hold an edge like a D2 hunter and cost is no object then INFI is a good choice. Or if you want a hunting knife you can pry a car trunk open with INFI is also good. But if all you need is a really good hunting knife (and you are not worried about rust)SR101/52100 is a great one.
If you want the worlds toughest production survival knife then you want a S7 Scrapper.
Unsub,
I think you did a good job putting it all into real world perspective.
But, I would like to say something about SR-101 that might be being missed.
SR-77 may be the toughest steel any of us know of. And INFI might be the next toughest and real close. But, SR-101 is NO SLOUCH in the toughness arena and it doesn't need to be differentially heat treated to be SUPER tough. It just needs to have the "proper" heat treatment and Busse knows how!
Busse made a few runs of Through Hardened Battle Rats and I have never heard any issues with them and I have seen them being put to tough chopping use.
So, while SR-77 may be the toughest and will take the most and worst extreme abuse, there is a VERY SLIM chance anyone here would really find SR-101 not tough enough in real world use.
As SUPER tough as SR-77 is and arguably - (To our best guess-timates) SR-77 may be the toughest, INFI is arguably the best steel because of the best over-all package of abilities.
Similarly, SR-101 is the middle of the line for Busse and I would argue that it has a better package of abilities over-all than SR-77. SR-101 is PLENTY tough enough and holds an edge better and is pretty close in ease of sharpening to SR-77. So, to me, the advantage of SR-101's edge holding over SR-77 puts SR-101 a notch higher in over-all performance. SR-101's ability to rust faster than SR-77 is another story. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />
In the end, SR-77 is arguably the best bang for the buck still! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> But, part of that is also the use of Res-C helping to make the net price less than Swamp Rats with micarta.
To compare "Issued" Res-C to Res-C prices:
Battle Rat CG.... $148.95
Dogfather CG......$139.95
Satin Battle Rat....$198.95
Dogfather LE........$179.95
*** Battle Rat (thru hardened, black blade, tan res-c) $118.95 !!!!!
Obviously, differentially heat treating costs more to produce, but the thru hardened Battle Rats were hyped as a VERY special buy price.
For my part (even though I LOVE my Chopweiler), I just prefer Res-C on Choppers. Although, I tend to believe the Battle Rat would likely hold it's own VERY well (thru hardened OR differentially heat treated) and likely be an even draw against the comparably weighted DFLE. The DFCG is a few ounces heavier and changes some of the chopping dynamics - more power and not as fast and nimble. But, I think (assuming chopping material the knives are intended to chop) the DFLE and either Battle Rat would duke it out till the cows come home.
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Not necessarily relevant to any debate over which is better and not to imply that SR-101 and SR-77 can't do this, but check out this video of INFI sharpened to split hairs! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> :
Busse / INFI splitting hairs I wish all my Busse knives came this sharp! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> (*But, I will say again that I was happy with the edge on my DFLE and recent Chopweiler - both largely improved over knives from the past. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />)
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