Broke my BK2

[tg4360]

When we cut the Omni up it was a lot of fun and when Clich did those terrible things to that poor innocent lawn mower it was hilarious but, I strongly suggest, save the Omni bashing, lawnmower molesting and knotty beech for the back yard and take a low mileage blade into the wilderness........

All best....

Ethan

So there it is from the man himself.

I was thinking about saying that had the knife been actually designed to baton as it's "normal" function, it would come out looking very much like .... well.... a hatchet or small ax.

Will this particular blade be studied? If it is, I'd not be surprised to that there will be nothing found wrong with the steel or heat treat etc.

I mean no disrespect to the OP at all, and was just pointing out that I doubt very much that it was a failure of design or materials.

TG

 

[Chameleonbear]

I just don't understand why manufactures try to cut corners. Make a solid full tang blade and up the price by a few dollars. It's seems to me at least that manufacturers are trying to save a little steel and it isn't worth the rep of a failed design. I have a old boy scout knife that has a full tang that I prefer to carry out in the woods than my Ka-bars and Ontario's knifes. Thanks warrior for posting the pic.

It would actually save money and time to leave the full tang. Making the cut out takes time and money however it affects the balance and the weight of the knife. It isn't cutting corners putting those cut outs in. They are there for a reason.

 

[grinter]

I don't really care what the BK2 was designed for. I don't care what proper use is.
I doubt there is any piece of equipment that I use regularly that was designed for the tasks for which I use it.
What I try to do is to find the best existing option for what I need to do.

The BK2 is too think and too heavy most ways you look at it, but when I needed a blade that I could rely on, or more importantly, a blade that I had the confidence to use as I wanted, I chose the $65, 1/4" chunk of 1095 with a strong tip, and a reputation for dependability.

Reports like this break might make me loose a little of that confidence, but the way that Ethan and Kabar tend to respond to issues pretty much washes that away. I don't think it would be any company's duty to warranty breakage from batoning, but as far as offering a competitive product goes, Ethan and Kabar are doing it right.

 

[Ethan Becker]

Hey Smokey.....

CBear is correct...... I changed the design and added the cut outs to improve balance, not cut costs...... The laser guys charge by the inch and that much scrap steel is virtually worthless, certainly worth less than the laser time......There is no theoretical dimunition of strength...... If the heat treat was the problem then the break would most likely have happened anyway.......

All best.....

Ethan

 

[upnorth]

Bladite. Thankyou for the direction. The BK3 looks like an interesting experiment. I just ordered it so I'll have it for the season. Fielder, the esee looks like a good 2nd choice. I'll probably order one later. Probably a good rooter. I usually hunt around older homesteads. Overgrown and such and it's tough on equipment and you can forget shovels.

We sell many thousands of Twos every year and we get maybe one or two back......

Why I put micarta on mine with Loctite. :thumbup:

As for you metal detectorists out there I run a Garrett AT Pro and a Tesoro Tejon......... My current and best shovel is a ''Raven'' by Predator tools. And my hand digger is a Lesche, both made in the U.S.A.


Two from last week

 

[fruitbat]

Hey Fritz......

First off....You get a new knife.......

What follows, as I do not have the knife in hand, is speculation not science........ It appears to me that the break occurred at the transition zone between the hardened area of the blade and the softer handle area.....Sooooooo, I speculate that there was a problem with the heat treat........ We sell many thousands of Twos every year and we get maybe one or two back......

The only way to find flaws in metal other than visually checking for surface flaws that might be crack propagators is XRay and or magnafluxing..........This is prohibitively expensive.......

When I manufactured mountain climbing equipment finding potentially life threatening flaws was a bit of an obsession with me as I climbed on the equipment I sold......... I came up with a rule of thumb for perfection in manufacturing......90% of perfection costs very little more than 50% of perfection......past the 90% mark the cost curve starts an exponential climb until the last percent and even Uncle Sugar can not afford the last half percent ........Assuming a low 5,000 number per year and a bad showing of two per year not perfect gives us a .004 error rate....... Not as good as I would like but..........

Fritz.......

May I prevail upon you to give me a call at 423 295 2500....... I will be in this evening and tomorrow evening.....I want to make sure that all goes smoothly........ Thanks........

Ethan

Stuff like this just feeds my addiction. I just discovered Beckers a few months ago and I plan to order my 3rd soon.

 

[tanglediver]

...(btw, any student engineers looking for a masters thesis idea??)......

Ha ha, I like that!

I think if the heat affected transition zone coincides with the lightening cuts, the result may be a latent weakness made evident in cyclically loaded structures.
Not sure, but it sounds cool.