A lot of us end up here because they were let down by their "hard use" blades in the past and wanted something guaranteed to stand up to whatever they intend to dish out to their steel. I'd been let down by OKT and BRKT on performance and had heard too much about blade failure of other brands to want to sink anything else into something I might not be able to trust. I've had good luck with Justin Gingrich's blades and ESEE, but have never been personally let down by a Bussekin. I've personally seen a bussekin with some serious issues, but I've also seen Dan step in and ask to make it right. I've had issues with edge holding, but that went away after a good reprofiling.
Like Skunk noted, every company--no matter how good their quality control--will have an occasional issue. If it's a pattern, that's cause for concern. If it's the rare exception, that's ok in my book. Scrap Yard blades are comparable in price to a lot of other production blades but I feel much more confident with them than others. I haven't found a lot of negative stuff about bussekins, aside from the occasional comments on pricing (especially of Busses)--not a lot of "my knife failed while batoning" or "the heat treat sucks" or anything like that. To me, that says something. Not scientific, but a lack of negative comments compared to the numbers of negative comments on other producers seems like a meta-measurement of quality <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
