--"Special Forces Natural Outlaw"--

The SFNO prototype debuted at the Blade Show in 2003. It had a flat grind (pic below). The handle was designed for the Special Forces, thus the "Special Forces Natural Outlaw" name. In 2004, Busse released a production run of SFNOs. These were saber ground. The Busse Company Store offered an exclusive version of these that were extra thick (.27" instead of .22"). These are now known as "fatties" and very rare. In 2007, a small batch of Combat Grade SFNOs were released at the Knob Creek Show. These had flat grinds, and led to a production run of flat-ground SFNOs in 2007. In 2008, the NMSFNO was released, but because it has a longer blade I consider it to be a different knife. In Dec of 2008, Busse released a limited edition Hog-only SFNO, which was saber ground and satin-finished. Only 300 were made, and they sold for $427 for the first one and $367 for each one thereafter. They sold out in the first 3 minutes. 1WhoPorks, the original Hog, won #1 by sending a text message from his phone from a remote hill top in Alaska. He had no internet and did not know when the go was posted. We have seen some Saber SFNOs with new-school handle slabs that came out after the original run, in both satin and CG finishes. Some of these were released before the April '09 Knob Creek Show. At that show, however, Busse brought a handful of satin-finished saber-ground SFNOs with new-school slabs, in both in G-10 and micarta.

I have measured the flat grind SFNOs at .20" blade thickness, The old Sabers as well as the SFNOLE at .22" or .225", and the fatty at .26"