This isn't the first tie I've faced this guys. It is one of the reasons that I have begun chamfering my spines. The other is that quality knife connoisseurs demand it. But if that knife had a chamfered, rather than rounded spine, the divot that caused the break would not have hit a sharp edge, and possibly would not have caused the stress riser in the first place. Still stupid to hit a knife with a rock.
What kind of survival situation would make you want to hit your knife with a rock? Dozens of dumb decisions all piled up in a row is the only way it makes any sense. End the day with a broken knife, and your outlook, and your spirits, and your chances of making it are where? In a hurry to pound your knife through ice? Whoa. Dead guy soon.
If you want to do this, buy a Busse and have a field day. I make cutters. Please don't hit them with rocks.
LOL, I never said anything about being in any hurry to strike any knife with a rock man. Striking any hardened piece of steel with a hard object is a always risky venture, and striking a beautifully made and expensive one is a depressing thought. I never said the circumstances were common place, and never said it that it would have been intelligent decision making that led to such circumstances...just that from my own experiences and subsequent studies, that I could see them as possibly happening. Many unexpected events can impact our lives along the way. We are never the masters of our own fates, anyone who honestly believes otherwise is simply living a delusion. For me this lesson was extremely poignant, and came at a very early age when I went to sleep one night in my usual reality after a very typical day as a high school freshman, only to be awakened later by loud pops, muzzle flashes, debris flying at me from my nightstand, bloodstained walls, and the sudden unwanted need to first evade, and then to kill my own stepfather. The same man I had sat across the dinner table from and talked to every evening for the last several years, and whom I had gone hunting, fishing, and camping with on many occasions. Then shortly after found myself all alone in a very big and very confusing world. The next four years till adulthood was a long series of strange events and bad circumstances, admittedly mostly due to poor and uninformed decision making. Yes the bumper sticker tells the truth, shit does indeed happen.
You definitely make beautiful, high-quality knives, that are excellent cutters and gorgeous pieces of highly functional art Andy. I would consider striking any one of them with anything other than the side of my palm or a small stick to the spine a crime all its own. There are multiple reasons that to this day, regardless of the primary blade I carry, I never head out without one knife, even if it is just a small one... a TOPS, a RAT, a Becker... whatever, that didn't cost a lot and that I am perfectly comfortable with doing anything at all with. Isn't that what beaters are for? At this point in my life, for a list of reasons I won't bother to type, if I ever find myself in a situation that includes striking one of your beautiful pieces of cutlery with a rock or other hard object, I will make every effort to minimize the damage done and neither you nor anyone else will ever know about it, I give you my word
