BK2 Broke

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BlindRage1810

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Hey Beckerheads!!

I m long time lurker first time poster. I and my friend were on a day hike and started to prepare fire. We cut down a tree and started to process it. We didn’t have a baton. (We were too tired to make one) so we used a hammer side of ax head. After processing couple of small logs I felt a small movement in the handles I thought that scales were coming loose, but the blade snapped from the handle. I cant believe that I got BK 2 broken. The blade that killed a lawnmover in the testing. My question is do you think we were too rough on the blade or could it be a manufacturing error? Actually ax head looks more beaten up than BK2 spine :-) I m glad that I carried a light my fire firemora in my daypack as a back up.

pics from that trip --> http://s46.photobucket.com/user/ArabianIntiaani/slideshow/
 
Welcome,

You should never baton with a metal object, rock or anything else like that.

And as a side note you shouldn't use an axe pommel as a hammer on anything other than wooden wedges or wooden tent pegs. It oblongs out the eye and will make it difficult to keep a handle tight.

I baton the snot out of my Beckers and other knives with wood batons. Sooner or later I expaect one to break. It is tje risk you take. But to answer your question, yes beating a knife with an axe is abuse. To both the knife and the axe.
 
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Yeah man, banging on it with the blunt side of your axe probably did the trick. From what I know about axes, it's probably not doing well either. Not what you want to use it for...unless you want to replace your tools on a regular basis.
 
Ouch! Yeah never ever beat hardened steel on hardened steel.
 
Maybe I am missing something here, or maybe I just like using axes too much, but if I had an axe and needed to baton something, but didn't have a baton, I would split the wood with the axe. Sorry to hear about your BK2. I wouldn't have expected that to happen either to be honest.
 
You were too tired to make a baton and you had 2 knives and an axe with you? Forgive me if this comes across as being rude but why did you not use the axe? You can find a baton on the ground.

I want to write a longer answer but I am on my phone.

I just don't understand.

Jeremy
 
dresnor said:
You were too tired to make a baton and you had 2 knives and an axe with you? Forgive me if this comes across as being rude but why did you not use the axe? You can find a baton on the ground.

I want to write a longer answer but I am on my phone.

I just don't understand.

Jeremy
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They were too tired to make one?
 
I'd say that your use of the BK-2 would rate as abuse. But I still think it shouldn't have broke. Where did it break? At the roll-mark? Ahh, just looked at your pictures.
 
"I beat my knife through a log with an axe and it broke... is this abuse? Or manufacturing error?"........ Sorry but this made me laugh a bit. Sorry you broke your knife.
 
Psyop said:
Ouch! Yeah never ever beat hardened steel on hardened steel.
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Yup. That's a major no-no.
That's the reason folks use wooden batons.

Here's a quick analogy:
If I were to take two wrenches and start beating one against the other, well, one's going to break eventually, right?
But if I were to take a piece of wood and beat it against the same wrench, I'd feel a lot better about my chances.
See what I mean?

Sorry about losing the BK2. That was an expensive lesson.
 
I'm no metallurgist, but if it was steel on steel contact that was responsible for the break then why did the crack occur in a location that wasn't struck with the axe head? i would imagine the knife would crack or deform in some way where the two steel objects impacted? looks like the knife broke due to the force not because the object applying the force was steel... i guess what I'm trying to say is if you strike the front portion of the knife and it breaks in the middle its force that caused the knifes failure. It shouldn't matter what the striking objects composition is its the amount of force applied by the object that broke it. perhaps wood batons apply enough force to easily power through wood but does not approach the force a dense steel object creates on impact. i think he applied more force than the steels limit would take. Every steel has a breaking point 1095cv is no exception. my hypothesis isn't meant to start an argument or bash anything i'm the proud owner of a bk2 for the last 2 years. please someone of more steel knowledge than myself please correct me if i'm wrong.
 
I do not think you are wrong,

Another factor could have been temperture. Steel gets more brittle as the temps drop.

Judging by to pictures of his axe it was given quite a pounding.


 
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Good point i forgot to factor temperature in,yea it does look like he put a beating on it.
LostViking said:
I do not think you are wrong,

Another factor could have been temperture. Steel gets more brittle as the temps drop.

Judging by to pictures of his axe it was given quite a pounding.
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Hardened steel on hardened steel is a no-no. Things could have gone more south than a broken blade. You're lucky you still have your eyesight.
 
It looks like you built your fire on Cladonia Rangiferina. Most refer to it as Reindeer Lichen. It should grow back in twenty or thirty years. Grows a few millimeters per year.

People have been blinded before when beating hardened steel against hardened steel. Please be careful. Just takes a small chip.
 
Its not about where the blade is being struck, its about where the force of the impact is putting the most stress on the blade. Metal on metal causes a different kind of vibration in the material as well. If it was just about the blunt force and where it was applied, then wood would break a knife as easily as metal can. Thats one of the reasons why throwing a knife, that isnt made to be thrown will eventually break it. The vibrations, torsion, and force applied to an area that the knife wasnt built to withstand, all come together to cause a break.

In this case (I think, and I could be wrong, someone wiser is welcome to correct me) if you were using a baton most of the impact is actually absorbed by the baton, but you were using hardened steel which caused more vibration and direct impact than a baton would have, and didnt absorb or reduce any of that force or vibration. This caused the most vulnerable place, where the force applied the most stress to crack and then fail. Think blackjack, vs steel pipe. You pop someone in the head with a blackjack you bounce their brain in their skull and they get knocked out, but you pop them in the head with a steel pipe, and their head cracks open like an egg. You could use the exact same force, but achieve completely different results.
 
Guyon said:
Hardened steel on hardened steel is a no-no. Things could have gone more south than a broken blade. You're lucky you still have your eyesight.
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This. I remember when I went to coal mining school, we were in welding class, and a guy struck a piece of steel with a hammer. Big chunk hit him right above the eye. He was very lucky.
 
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