Broken blade tips

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DangerZone98

Joined
Dec 7, 2019
Messages
3,521
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.
 
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.
 
No idea how it exactly happened: working in the yard cutting bamboo for an afternoon.

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

PMQ said:
Dropped tip-first to tile floor. I also broke a ceramic sharping rod, also dropped to tile floor.
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3fifty7 said:
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.
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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 Jiki 's busted a tip or two off whittling wood, so maybe he can pop those pictures up.
 
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 :)
 
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.
 
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
 
Throwing knives that weren't made for that . :eek:

Eventually learned to layer thick cardboard over the wood target .
 
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!
 
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.
 
eveled said:
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.
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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.
 
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