I agree with the reasons others have given, but this phenomena seems almost limited to Bussekin knives -- does the pock-marked "natural" finish, which takes so much effort to polish out, result from the special heat treat process?

Ban,

When somebody like you or Horn Dog do up a blade to make it nice and shiny
looking, do you have to grind much to get the dimples out then? Or do you
leave the dimples in and just polish it up?

DotD
(aka Nascar Dave to those with inside info <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> }

Thanks for the explanation. Do most production knife manufacturers (like Buck for instance) use steel that's produced by a different process or is precision ground?

I guess what I'm trying to understand is why more expensive knives have a rougher finish. I always assumed that the cryo heat treatment was expensive (and that it caused the dimples), and that the proprietary steel was somewhat more expensive, and of course being manufactured in the US costs more. However, other than just branding, I'm having trouble believing that, especially in the case of INFI, a mirror finish that's standard on most commodity/production knives should add hundreds of dollars to the price of a blade.

One thing we shouldn't overlook is the possibility that Jerry doesn't do his own blade finishing. I know through some conversations with Mike Stewart that Mike used to finish some of Jerry's blades. For all I know, he may still do that. If Jerry doesn't finish his own blades in-house, the cost for finishing could easily double or triple.