Broken blade tips

[DangerZone98]

Anyone here manage to break a knife tip? How did it happen?

I always found this type of breakage rather interesting. Under normal knife usage (no prying or screwing), I assume that this shouldn’t happen often. I suppose a combination of factors like a delicate tip and subpar heat treat may cause a broken tip while opening cardboard or other kinds of sturdy packaging.

 

[PMQ]

Dropped tip-first to tile floor. I also broke a ceramic sharping rod, also dropped to tile floor.

 

[braillediver]

Dropped a Spyderco Military and it landed on the tip. Knocked about 1/16" off the tip.

 

[3fifty7]

My wife knocked my Yojimbo 2 off of the washing machine and the tip(about1/4”) broke off when it hit the ceramic tile floor.
CharlieMike offered to do a reshaping into more of a sheepsfoot profile. No issues since.

 

[jstn]

I broke a tip off a stout 3V custom fixed blade. I was digging something out of a log, and although I guess that could be considered abuse, it still surprised me. The maker graciously reprofiled it for me though.

 

[GB940Rookie]

Accidentally dragged the tip across a piece of wood. The POLICE has a fairly dainty tip. Popped off pretty easily.
Sent it to the ApostleP. He did a superb job of both fixing the tip and sharpening the edge.

https://imgur.com/MwCDnVb

https://imgur.com/5cDlXvh

 

[ferider]

No idea how it exactly happened: working in the yard cutting bamboo for an afternoon.

My personal conclusion is that 4V is less tough than commonly given credit for At least with Spyderco's heat-treat which usually favors wear resistance. It was the day when I got more interested in CPM Cruwear, 3V and kin.

 

[EngrSorenson]

Personally I've never broken a tip, so I'd say it's pretty rare unless you say... drop one on a tile floor.

Dropped tip-first to tile floor. I also broke a ceramic sharping rod, also dropped to tile floor.

My wife knocked my Yojimbo 2 off of the washing machine and the tip(about1/4”) broke off when it hit the ceramic tile floor.
CharlieMike offered to do a reshaping into more of a sheepsfoot profile. No issues since.

Folks... maybe we can agree to remove the tile floors from our houses?
I'd feel better knowing you dropped your knife onto hardwood and it stuck tip down with a satisfying "thunk" and remained in one piece.

Jiki 's busted a tip or two off whittling wood, so maybe he can pop those pictures up.

 

[ferider]

For the record, I did drop a K390 Police on the kitchen tile floor once, maybe from 4-5 feet, tip first. Just the tiniest rolling, no breakage, was easy to sharpen out. Then again, the Police is pretty light.

Knife slipped when I was getting used to flipping it, so there is that

 

[jbmonkey]

so far mostly spyderco models being mentioned. I haven't broke any of my tips or spyderco ones either......yet.

 

[gazz98]

Me? Nope.

My friend broke a tip stabbing into a tree stump. Apparently he thought he was digging for fatwood and hit a knot or something and broke the tip off his Gerber LMF IIRC. It was an older Gerber fixed blade I know. I'll never forget the look on his face hehe.

I've dropped a few knives over the years but never had any blade damage thankfully.

 

[Roblues]

I ave done it twice by (you guessed it) prying.

 

[c7m2p3]

Oh ya I had a second hand PM2 pictured below that I broke the tip off pretty badly on doing something I shouldn't have been doing but it was second hand bought and was by beat up knife during a move. I wound up getting another PM2 because I missed it so much but I still get a ton of use out of the thing. Used a belt sander to trim it down some and now it has a kind of 'box cutter' style blade to it and that is its primary role now...cardboard to preserve my other blades.

https://imgur.com/a/5K7SNAt

 

[eveled]

Best thing about broken tips. Sometimes it releases the inner hidden Whatncliff. C c7m2p3 ’s spiderco above is a prime candidate.
I’ve bought broken knives cheap and have made them into Whatncliffs. Life hands you lemons make lemonade.

 

[DocJD]

Throwing knives that weren't made for that .

Eventually learned to layer thick cardboard over the wood target .

 

[RyanSean97]

I was at work one day and purposefully wanted to test the tip out on a custom a small maker had made for me years ago. He had very reasonable prices so I wasn't too hurt about it. I was breaking down a pallet and snapped the tip, expectedly so. I know that's not normal use but I went into it knowing it might happen lol

Luckily broken tips aren't hard to fix!

 

[Chronovore]

You are right that this shouldn't happen with "normal use". I think I've only broken one tip and that was from a knife falling tip-first onto a ceramic tile floor. I witnessed someone break a tip once but they were trying to use a delicate folder to turn an old rusty screw. It was yet another "not the right job for a folding knife" moment.

 

[Mossyhorn]

 

[DangerZone98]

Dropped tip-first to tile floor. I also broke a ceramic sharping rod, also dropped to tile floor.

Oh yeah, accidental drops didn’t occur to me. Yeah, it sucks if it’s a tile floor.

 

[DangerZone98]

Best thing about broken tips. Sometimes it releases the inner hidden Whatncliff. C c7m2p3 ’s spiderco above is a prime candidate.
I’ve bought broken knives cheap and have made them into Whatncliffs. Life hands you lemons make lemonade.

That’s true. It’s a fairly tame issue. With the right tools or craftsman, the knife can be brought back in service. Big chips or a blade broken in half would be more problematic.