A knife is NOT a pry bar

C

Clint Simpson

Joined
Nov 13, 2001
Messages
378
This morning as I was bored:) temptation got the better of common sense and I took a piece of wood in my office and started stabbing it with my 3" CS voyager:). After snapping it out sideways:) without damage, I then started hammering it into the block:). At 1/4” no damage, but on the next try I wasn’t paying attention to how hard I was hammering:) and pounded it in 1/2 INCH! I then wrenched it out, hearing a snap-crack:( After digging the tip out (is was a ways down there!) I found I had broken off 5/16” of the tip! It is now taped to the bladed in my office waiting for the JB cold weld to set. Hey , I not wanting perfect, just useable until I buy a new one. I was buying a new one anyway to re-handle, so now I’ll just buy two.

So besides my being stupid; how to you think the knife held up? Good, bad, indifferent? Anyone have similar stories of knives that faired better?
 
A Cold Steel Voyager...under those conditions? Ummm, I'd have to give it a five star rating considering the materials that went into that knife's construction :)
 
The most underrated knife on the market. I bought the XL Clip point voyager several years back and bought the 50/50 serrated tanto for a friend. I always "took care" of mine. To this day it still is the easist knife I own to put one wicked edge on.

My friends knife was abused to say the least. He used it to cut wire, (heavy gage fence wire) and to pry open all kinds of stuff. The best was whe he used it to cut concrete board before laying tile in the house. When he brought me the knife to sharpen, the serrations were just about gone the blade was dull and the back of the blade had hammer marks from hammering the knife through wood. Lock up was still good. I managed to get an edge on the blade and bring back some of the serrations. The only down fall was that the pocket clip broke off.

I still will say Cold Steel sold me, for the ca$h you can't beat a Voyager.
 
I read the title and thought, uh-oh the poor pass around sebbi! :eek:

But you where talking about a cold steel, honestly I'm surprised a little, just in that I thought it would bend first.
 
That is about what a person would expect from a knife blade of any manufacture, of the same thickness and similar shape. Hard, thin steel breaks, whether it is a cheapy 400 series stainless steel or a hand forged 52100 wonder blade.
 
I am sorry to hear of the demise of your voyager. May I humbly suggest that you call up CS customer svc department and ask for warranty repair, mentioning that you saw all this in their 'Proof' vid.

They'll refuse, but it's entertaining to hear them squirm.

I wish you the best with the repair.
 
I got the new 6" Voyager and beat it to death in a month. I used it in the woods hacking through small branches, and I rippled the edge, then knocked a huge chunk out of it. What do you expect from steel?

(I had done the same with my Vaquero Grande, and hardly even damaged the serrations. Flat grinds rock!)

As far as tip strength goes, get a Cold Steel SRK. That's a knife you can use for a prybar. It won't fit in your pocket too well, though :D
 
Sure a knife is a prybar. As long as you have low standards for expensive items. ;)

Where the heck's Cliff when you need him?
 
I'd say it held up pretty well for being buried half an inch. You could have been left holding just a handle.

You know what's even worse than prying with a knife?
Cutting with a prybar.
 
Originally posted by DaveH
I read the title and thought, uh-oh the poor pass around sebbi! :eek:
Click to expand...

OH NO! I had a nightmare the night before the sebbie came in. It was about how your knife would fall apart on me then my calling you saying "I just couldn't help myself, I've seen the "Proof" video TEN THOUSAND TIMES, AND IT KEEPS GETTING FUNNIER EVERY TIME I SEE IT!!":beetlejuice: :D

Seriously, I used it a little for everyday cutting and it loves to eat cardboard.:D I have to get off my butt and write an eval soon. And to put your mind at ease, the sebbie is in the box, taped up ready for the next guy, I just have to go to the post office. I packed it up too late yesterday or it would be in the mail already. (Thurs is barracks-clean-up-day for me).

BTW, the reason I had that wood block in my office was because the hardest test I put the sebbie through was stabbing it into the wood! I refrained from anything harder with a $345 knife, but with a $34.50 knife...well...TEN THOUSAND TIMES!!! I just had to try it once.

Now, if I had the money to spare I would have bought the sebbie outright and had fun making MY OWN "Proof" video! Sebbie vs Voyager vs all comers!

I need to win the lotto, man....

Honestly, I appreciate all the good comments. I figured all the Cold Steel bashers would be having a field day on this thread. Or at least a "stupid newbie" remark. Instead, I got "Bummer, man" and "not bad for a knife." Thanks! Your maturity and camaraderie are what makes posting here so much fun.
 
I beg to differ :)

Strider-4-Robert.jpg



RL
 
Although I tend to baby my knives sometimes, I'm of the opinion that it is good to test a "user" knife so you know exactly what you could expect from a similar knife under stressful conditions, such as wilderness survival or self defense.

I took my Benchmade Ascent 825 and abused it one day. I pretty much tried to break it. I threw it into a wood fence post about 25 times. I'm not a knife-thrower and the Ascent is not well-balanced for throwing so it took me a while to find the right distance. I was throwing it at about 3/4 full strength. Every time the handle would smack into the wood I'd cringe, but it never broke. When I was done there was some wobble in the blade. I went inside and tightened the pivot screw, re-sharpened the edge, cleaned it up and now the knife is just like new. No blade wobble, and still holds a truly wicked edge. Not bad for a $35 knife. I still carry it a couple times a week as one of my 2-3 usual EDC's!

I like hearing about how much abuse knives can take, Thanks for the post!
 
Hm... that's a nice insight of the toughness of my SRK ;)
So far it standed pretty well against cutting a livewire.:p
 
I don't know if they ever got the vise apart or not ;):D

Swamp Rat Battle Rat:eek:
 

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Steve made a solid point about geometry. I have several knives that would not be able to break themselves out of even shallow stabs into a soft wood like pine. The blades are light utility knives and are designed to simply cut, and are very weak under lateral loading as they have a very small cross section. They are also made out of some very brittle steels and thus won't bend significantly before they snap, and would do so rather violently.

However geometry isn't everything. I have two MPKs from Mission. One in Ti and one in A2. The tips are identical, however the A2 one blade broke very quickly in an attempt to dig through a 2x4 (first stab), while the Ti blade made holes in several without breaking. However it did take a light bend throughout the clip point. This is evidence of the huge difference in ductility between the two materials. This is also the case obviously in the picture Eric has posted. That isn't common for cutlery steels.

As for your blade, 1/2" is a decent distance, especially for a low end production, assuming the wood is of decent strength. If you wanted to know more you would have to repeat it with different tip geometries and blade materials. As for knives are not prybars in general, there are lots of knives that are designed to withstand very high lateral loading, no hype, just performance. If you want to pry, just like any other aspect of use, buy the right knife.

-Cliff
 
Hey, with 1/2" of point missing your knife isn't dead at all!
Just grind it to a new point and sharpen the newly ground portion, and you'll have again a perfectly functional knife!
If you are really determined to throw it away, I'll give you my address in Italy, so you can send it to me :D :D :D :D
Postage is on me obviously! ;)
 
I am in the same quandry. I try to limit the amount of junk I carry, but you never know what life is going to present.

I agree that knives intended for just slicing are thin, hard and never to be used for prying. I have been carrying a scary sharp Opinel in my jacket pocket for just such slicing. I also carry a Chinese POJ for the slimey stuff. On top of that, I carry a nice EDC. All of this hardware is getting to me.

I just ordered a knife to replace all of this. I just might have to dig deep into wood. Right now, I cannot envision why; my wife works in our yard a lot, and she does cut some of our trees with massive thorns, so the condition exists.

My point is that if I carried any and all items for ANY contingency I would have to carry an A.L.I.C.E. pack just to drive to work. So, how do we properly select tools, get good service from them, and yet not destroy them on routine tasks?
 
Ichabod Poser :

So, how do we properly select tools, get good service from them, and yet not destroy them on routine tasks?
Click to expand...

By knowing when and how they break, and thus being able to avoid it. I break knives fairly frequently on purpose, accidental breaks are rare, and I run my edges very thin and acute, because I can judge the limits from experience. The makers that design for performance will be able to tell you this so just ask. Otherwise you have to break a number of them yourself. Once you know this, you jsut carry a couple of knives. One blade well suited to the light stuff, and the other the rough work.

-Cliff
 
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