Broke my all time favorite knife (whimper)

T

Twindog

Gold Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2004
Messages
4,034
2v2ZsmJZgxAWtWs.jpg


Here it in in better days:
2v2Ehm62rxAWtWs.jpg


This was a Rukus with a reblade in Vanax SuperClean steel, professionally heat treated by Peters to 60 Rc. It's a homesteading knife that I have used hard for years -- day after day. The edge was ground to 15 thousandths by Josh, and the edge angle is 15 dps. Cuts like a laser. Holds a great edge, never chips, never rolls, even with heavy chopping of branches that has destroyed other blade steels. It's big -- 4.25 inches of blade -- and has a long handle, which gives a lot of leverage. Love this knife. Best knife I have ever had -- by far.

So, yes, I was using it to pry. But gently. I was taking my mower back from annual servicing, and the handle is a bear to reconnect, mostly because of a lot of sharp edges that grab the fingers. So I used the Rukus to gently pry out a handle piece, being very conscious of not putting on too much pressure on the blade. Snap. Hardly any pressure. I don't get it.

The heat treat had to be spot on because this blade has been used so hard for so long with excellent performance.

The photos below are of the break. There are what look like inclusions and ripples and a chip off the chip and the grain has different kinds of coloring. I'm thinking the blade steel had some flaws. But I don't really know. I'm grieving.

2v2ZsmJuKxAWtWs.jpg

2v2ZsmJ9bxAWtWs.jpg
 
SwissHeritageCo said:
Even for a brittle steel that seems a touch odd. That said, that's definitely the point of leverage.
Click to expand...
Vanax isn't really a brittle steel. Until MagnaCut came along, it was the toughest of all powder stainless steels. That's not an especially tough group of steels, but Vanax is at the top of the group. And I never had any chipping problems with the thin edge, even though I chopped with it.

The break doesn't look right to me. Too much discoloration and a couple obvious inclusions.
 
ShaiHulud said:
How lightly was "lightly"?
Maybe it was just time for it to go
You say you got years of service out of it.
Thats good if so, served you well.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's the way I'm looking at it now. I was lucky to have a knife this good for so long and that served me so well.

Hard to quantify how lightly the leverage force was. I was being careful not to use too much force. Seemed to break awfully easily, especially at the thick part of the blade. I've intentionally broken blades before just to see how much force it takes. Those blades took a whole lot more force to break. I remember an old video that Deadbox did of prying and abusing a Benchmade (Proper?), which was much smaller and and thinner and took far more force than I put on my Rukus.

I'm kind of fixed on the appearance of the grain at the break point. It doesn't look right. Maybe someone like Larrin Larrin or BluntCut MetalWorks BluntCut MetalWorks could say more.
 
Ohhhh fuuuuuuuuuudge. Only he didn’t say fudge.

All of the knives I’ve broken prying something (very few, but still) took much less force than I thought it should take. Total surprise every time.

Snap!😲😫

Knives are the dumbest, most expensive prybars in history.

Oh well. Time to put the OG blade on and keep on truckin.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top