This doesn't shake my trust in any busse(kin) at all. Most failures I can remember all had pretty good reasons for breaking when they did, and I'm sure that the same will be the case if this knife ends up getting inspected. I would be happy to send it to Ohio for inspection, even if it means sacrificing the custom SR101 camp cleaver idea
Let me be totally clear in that my heat theory shouldn't even be called a theory as I am not nearly educated enough in steel science for this to have idea to have any weight to it. I asked your opinions about the idea because it was initially the only abnormal factor I could think of, outside of factory defect...I personally feel it would be silly to let an idea based in such ignorance shake my trust in knives that have repeatedly proven themselves to be so super tough over the years. I'll let the experts decide why it failed if they decide to research it.
Where on the blade was the coconut when it got wedged?
Was it on the handle side of the break?
Jerry
If I recall correctly the coconut was wedged pretty close to the center of the blade. I say this because I remember thinking that it was a crappy swing and noting that I was way off the 1311's sweet spot but not past the mid point of the edge - honestly, I was pretty tired at this point after hours of working in the hot sun and not paying much attention to what seemed like a not too serious task.
the break is so close to being right in the middle of the blade (right around where I remember the coconut being) that I can't be too sure if the coconut was on the handle side or not. I'm not home right now but I will check out the knife to see if there are any clues on the edge or coating that could help me give you a more informative answer...
One thing to note Jerry is that upon inspecting the broken tip yesterday, I noticed some worse-than-normal (for my use at least) edge damage just below the belly that I hadn't noticed before the break. Ever since I got into maintaining my own edges I've been pretty obsessive about at least lightly inspecting for edge edge damage after almost every task I put any of my knifes through - I did it lots that day after almost every piece of bamboo and every limb I broke down and I know I would have noticed that damage if it had happened earlier in the day. It has me thinking that I may have hit the ground with that last swing.
If there really was a poorly heat treated batch or if mine just happened to be a factory dud, it seems reasonable to me that a decent impact to the ground could cause such a break after months of regular use...
I just picked up a high quality camera from a friend and will get back to you with some clear close-up pics of the knife
That really sucks. My 1311 is going strong after eating several young (8-inch or so) oaks. Curious, but what did you use it for before the day it broke?
I've used the knife for mostly normal stuff I'd say - harvesting coconut water, one session of some trail clearing, chopping down larger pieces of tree for many all night beach fires, haven't needed to do too much batoning but some, some (IMHO) reasonable prying in the process of taking apart a large pilapa (sp?) that was the source of fuel for many of those previously mentioned beach fires, cleared out a couple overgrown bamboo patches, feather sticks, basic fire preparation. There are a couple local hardwoods here that are ridiculously hard (make me wish I had a MOAB!) but I've never thrown this knife or tried to chop a car in half with it...any impacts with metal were accidental, like striking nails or staples I didn't see in the first place. I've always made sure to keep the knife far away from any of my camp fires and it has never been used to poke and arrange charcoals or been exposed to high heat like that.
Garth! sorry, I had flown through the first few pages of posts and got things a bit jumbled - whatever the case I'm glad beef is doing good now and clearly I should have just replied to that thread
I'll get back to the other posts and post better pics soon!
