Any experience of breaking a knife ?

T

tigerladie

Joined
Oct 13, 2010
Messages
3
Hi,
I am new here. For toughness, most prefer carbon steel to stanless steel; especially in survival knife.
However, I read very little material on breaking a knife.
Can you share some of your experiences about breaking a knife by using it ?
 
I flipped a folder open once on USS White Plains and the blade broke in half. The blade went over the side. I threw the handle in after it and they now reside at the bottom of the South China Sea.
 
Welcome, tigerladie!

I had a Camillus Lockback like this when I was a kid:

CM-3F.jpg


Broke the tip off prying a window open when a buddy of mine locked us out of his house. The knife got us in, though!
 
Over 50 years of knife use I've probably broken the tip off a knife something like 5 times -always while either prying or gouging - hard plastic seems the best/worst way to do this.
I realize for my use - a relatively thick tip is important if I'm going to get long term use out of it. Any of the quality steels are up to the task IMO - the tip design is the "fault" more than what the blade is made out of.
I have had really crappy locks wear out - but I've never had a lock just "break".
 
I snapped my BK2 in half. It took tons of abuse and then one day I was standing over a stump and threw down to stick in and it snapped right at the handle.
 
I used to have a spyderco para military. I was opening a UPS box on my counter
and set the knife down by the edge, thats when my cat came up and swipped it off
and it hit tip first on my floor, no more tip. I gave it away as a gift to my GFs brother.
 
audiopile said:
Over 50 years of knife use I've probably broken the tip off a knife something like 5 times -always while either prying or gouging - hard plastic seems the best/worst way to do this.
I realize for my use - a relatively thick tip is important if I'm going to get long term use out of it. Any of the quality steels are up to the task IMO - the tip design is the "fault" more than what the blade is made out of.
I have had really crappy locks wear out - but I've never had a lock just "break".
Click to expand...

agreed
 
The first fixed blade I bought was a black handled serrated Kabar. I tried a bit of this fancy new 'batoning' thing with it then tried to do some chopping... Bent the blade all to hell right at the guard :eek:

In my defense, I'd say it was a lemon, since I took the knife in my hands and found I could bend it this way and that without a great deal of effort (and I'm not all that strong). Anyway, I wouldn't trust a blade that malleable, so I ground the edge and point flat and threw it out. It wasn't covered under warranty since I wasn't the original owner...
 
yea ive broken one throwing it into a tree when i was a kid, and i havent had much trouble with other ones unless they were really cheap construction.
 
I've broken two fixed blades by batoning wood, a Buck Field Mate and a Normark Hunter. Both times, the blade itself broke in half.

I've broken a couple of cheap folders by using them. Latest were a couple of Mossberg's from Meijer. Picked them up for a $1 each, reg. price was $9.99. Kind of resembled a CHEAP Gerber LST. I figured for a $1, why not? Both broke at the pivot pin. One actually broke while I was sharpening it on crock sticks, it split right apart at the hinge. I carried the other one for a week before it broke at the same place. Now I know why they were on clearance! :barf:
 
I busted the tip off a Buck 110 25 years ago.I was using it to pry up a bin board in the hole of a shrimp boat.It pried a few boards before the tip broke off:o.It taught me to use the right tool for the job.I've suffered no broken blades since,lesson learned.
 
audiopile said:
Over 50 years of knife use I've probably broken the tip off a knife something like 5 times -always while either prying or gouging - hard plastic seems the best/worst way to do this.
I realize for my use - a relatively thick tip is important if I'm going to get long term use out of it. Any of the quality steels are up to the task IMO - the tip design is the "fault" more than what the blade is made out of.
I have had really crappy locks wear out - but I've never had a lock just "break".
Click to expand...

Same basic experience here. I don't buy crappy knives either.;)
 
broke my buck bantam trying to baton with it when i went camping and it broke at the lock...
 
Broke a couple machetes...snapped the tip off the pen blade on my dad's Swiss Army Knife when i was about 7....had a few screws shear and locks fail, but those were on cheap junk knives which more or less broke themselves.
 
My hubby broke 2 Buck knife blades cutting plastic twine on hay bales. No more Bucks for him. He also had an axe head break because of an air pocket, carbon steel.
 
Broke the Becker Tac Tool (on the left) when I got it stuck in a stump and beat it with the back of a hatchet...

mgroup-2.jpg
 
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