Broken Knife! Have you ever? Overused scenario or Reality?

Is the term "The knife will break" over used and actually does not happen often at all?

  • Yes, I am sick of hearing about broken fixed blade knives, it rarely happens to good knives.

    Votes: 57 87.7%

  • No, I break knives all the time, I could tear up a ball bearing...

    Votes: 8 12.3%
  • Total voters
    65
K

Kb1ltg

Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Messages
37
Ladies & Gents,

I am so sick and tired of hearing about "Its not strong enough" , "It will break", "It needs to be thicker".

I have been using knives in field and farm for over 50 years and have broken exactly one knife, that was the very end of the tanto tip on an Emerson folder I was prying an oyster open with when it happened. I think it was not tempered correctly..Flame on...Just my opinion..

I feel if you use as knife as it was intended, some are built for and can take more punishment than others, that if used as designed and then some.. it should not "Break",

if I remember correctly one of the tests the ABS gives is the "Flex Test" , the damn thing should bend and not break when heeled over 90 deg. in a vise...

Please take time to answer the poll,

do you think that this is about the most misused verb in knife terminology?

How about, dang...I bent my knife? It seems a more apt description of what would happen to an abused fixed blade than dang...I broke my knife...

What is your take on this? Thanks much...

Bent but not broken in Arkansas

Jerry

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I've bent plenty of knives(and then threw them out), but so as to avoid breaking them, I use an axe or chain saw to take down (small and even large) trees. I learned how to use axes and chainsaws one Summer when I worked for a construction co clearing trees. NO, I was never a lumberjack, but you do not have to be one to know when not to use a knife.

Anyone batoning wood with a knife is a knucklehead unless they are in desperate times and stranded with no other tools.
 
I can’t vote on your poll, because the options are far too extreme.

Anyway, there are people that smack their knives with wooden batons to split other wood. This has been known to break knives, as the stresses are far more than you’d get just cutting something.

People who want to do this kind of thing with their knives had better pay attention to the design and materials of their knives so they won’t break one.

People who aren’t doing that sort of thing likely won’t break a knife.
 
Sometimes breaking a knife happens, in my experience it’s just kinda part of the deal. Same goes for hammers, screwdrivers, etc.
Most of the breakage is things like handle scales coming off, or locks failing, or springs wearing out. I think I’ve only snapped a few blades but they were on poor quality knives.

I don’t go out of my way though to abuse any of my folders or fixed blades, and try to match tasks to the appropriate knife.

Also, I split wood quite a bit with large fixed blades. I don’t see why this is considered a bad thing, but people are entitled to their opinions and preferences.
 
Jerry, it's the modern trend in steel in knives => give up toughness for ultra high wear resistance... this is why you see carbides going thru the roof in the last 30 years

in the old days, 12c27 (sandvik) was a top end stainless (around 0.67% carbon) or 420hc at only 0.5% ... or carbon steels were commonly around 0.75% or 0.8%

these days everyone jumps to the 1.5% carbon steels like D2 and ultra high chrome variants using PM, like in 20cv/204p/m390 where they can pump it upto 1.9% carbon
those 'flex' tests will not work on steels like that... just too many carbides

summary: old steel can take it, new steel cannot (but they take forever to dull and that seems to be what most people want)
 
dirc said:
ike in 20cv/204p/m390 where they can pump it upto 1.9% carbon
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Or S110v at 2.8% carbon...

I've had only one knife ever fail on me. It was a cheap Pakistani knock off of a Buck 110 that my father bought for me. I was in the woods and using it to cut something and the spring broke. I've never had a good knife break.
 
Have broken many issue knives, whether practice throwing or breaking pallet straps, or prying because it was all that was there....also bent quite a few, but generally bayonets which rarely broke and were straightened.

Also have had several broken by friends doing innocuous stuff such as trying to knock loose a golf ball they stabbed (Buck 110 broke in half), or new Gerber Guardian randomly plonking a beater coffee table and accidentally hitting a dime (snapped off tip)...never bought either brand again, also very careful whom I even let touch a knife of mine.

As for wood splitters, and them saying "big deal"....consider the force applied to a knife, its intensity, duration, direction, when using a knife as designed in carving, cutting, hacking and slashing...and then consider the shock loads of batoning, magnitude, what direction force applied to handle even while blade being repeatedly struck both in middle and at tip....it is a given that doing such work hardens, fatigues, and builds up internal stresses....it not a matter of if, but only when, it breaks....if nothing else, next generations will not see it, or it will fail, then, and them say such and such a knife is total crap...I feel sorry for them, as the future will hold a lot of ticking time bombs...a lot....
 
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Tommy-Chi said:
Anyone batoning wood with a knife is a knucklehead unless they are in desperate times and stranded with no other tools.
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In life there are no absolutes, and it's unwise to characterize an entire group of people as "knuckleheads" because they do things differently than you.
Sometimes I split wood with a hatchet, sometimes I baton with my knife. The fact is, Beckers, ESEEs, many OKC, etc... are designed to withstand that kind of use with no undue damage. In fact there are many very wise people, Ethan Becker included, who feel it's safer to baton so that you're not swinging around a thing with an edge.

When I go camping or I'm outside with my kids, I baton rather than use a hatchet for that exact reason. You can't ever count on a kid to be where he's supposed to be. So far, my knives are fine with it. I also have taught my 4 yr old how to split wood with a baton because he's actually very good at it. I would not, at that age, trust him to swing a hatchet. He'll learn about that when he's older, but for now, I'd rather the knife blade the steady in the wood, and have him swinging a built object. When I do teach him to use the hatchet, it'll be the Ray Mears technique where you put the edge of the hatchet to the side of the wood and bring them down together onto a hard object to split the wood.

Don't call my son a knucklehead. I assume apologies will be tendered...




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19-3ben said:
In life there are no absolutes, and it's unwise to characterize an entire group of people as "knuckleheads" because they do things differently than you. ....

When I go camping or I'm outside with my kids, I baton rather than use a hatchet for that exact reason. You can't ever count on a kid to be where he's supposed to be....
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Folks do things differently. I recall my Dad's barber when I was a kid was digging with an pick.... put the thing right into his son's head behind him.... you have to be careful with knives, hatchets, and so forth. I would never give a young kid a machete to use. I suspect that is a reciepe for disaster unless they are pretty experienced.

The survey questions are too extreme for me.

I have broken one knife in my life that I can recall and that was when I was a kid using a Case Barlow. Case replaced it for me and I was forever thankful.

I have tried to break a knife batoning a knife with a sledge hammer and was unsuccessful.... The knife came back for more. Hit me!!
 
Warning for insults.
19-3ben said:
In life there are no absolutes, and it's unwise to characterize an entire group of people as "knuckleheads" because they do things differently than you.
Sometimes I split wood with a hatchet, sometimes I baton with my knife. The fact is, Beckers, ESEEs, many OKC, etc... are designed to withstand that kind of use with no undue damage. In fact there are many very wise people, Ethan Becker included, who feel it's safer to baton so that you're not swinging around a thing with an edge.

When I go camping or I'm outside with my kids, I baton rather than use a hatchet for that exact reason. You can't ever count on a kid to be where he's supposed to be. So far, my knives are fine with it. I also have taught my 4 yr old how to split wood with a baton because he's actually very good at it. I would not, at that age, trust him to swing a hatchet. He'll learn about that when he's older, but for now, I'd rather the knife blade the steady in the wood, and have him swinging a built object. When I do teach him to use the hatchet, it'll be the Ray Mears technique where you put the edge of the hatchet to the side of the wood and bring them down together onto a hard object to split the wood.

Don't call my son a knucklehead. I assume apologies will be tendered...
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"Anyone batoning wood with a knife is a knucklehead unless they are in desperate times and stranded with no other tools."

By the looks of your lawn and home, I assume that your child is batoning as an indicator of being in desperate times and being stranded with no other tools. :D
 
Tommy-Chi said:
"Anyone batoning wood with a knife is a knucklehead unless they are in desperate times and stranded with no other tools."

By the looks of your lawn and home, I assume that your child is batoning as an indicator of being in desperate times and being stranded with no other tools. :D
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Just... wow. And with that, I'm going to bow out of the conversation and let your words speak to your character. Thank you.
 
Tommy-Chi said:
"Anyone batoning wood with a knife is a knucklehead unless they are in desperate times and stranded with no other tools."

By the looks of your lawn and home, I assume that your child is batoning as an indicator of being in desperate times and being stranded with no other tools. :D
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Not even remotely funny. Low class and shabby of you. Ben on the other hand is of impeccable character. Judging a man off his lawn and home is something a shallow, low intellect individual does. Making jokes about it are no better.

Thanks for clarifying your character for those of us reading your posts :thumbsup:
 
Tommy-Chi said:
"Anyone batoning wood with a knife is a knucklehead unless they are in desperate times and stranded with no other tools."

By the looks of your lawn and home, I assume that your child is batoning as an indicator of being in desperate times and being stranded with no other tools. :D
Click to expand...
Totally uncool, dude. From here out, I think I'll call you Richard Cranium.
 
shinyedges said:
Not even remotely funny. Low class and shabby of you. Ben on the other hand is of impeccable character. Judging a man off his lawn and home is something a shallow, low intellect individual does. Making jokes about it are no better.

Thanks for clarifying your character for those of us reading your posts :thumbsup:
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I'd like to think you're joking ? :confused:
 
Tommy-Chi said:
I've bent plenty of knives(and then threw them out), but so as to avoid breaking them, I use an axe or chain saw to take down (small and even large) trees. I learned how to use axes and chainsaws one Summer when I worked for a construction co clearing trees. NO, I was never a lumberjack, but you do not have to be one to know when not to use a knife.

Anyone batoning wood with a knife is a knucklehead unless they are in desperate times and stranded with no other tools.
Click to expand...

Never owned a Becker, Ontario Ranger, or Busse(kin)? These knives were designed with batoning in mind—unless Tooj, Uncle Ethan, Dan Maragni and The bossman are “knuckleheads?”—I sincerely doubt it, unless what you mean by knife is a folder or an opinel.
 
I have never personally broken a blade ... I have seen a few other break tips of prying or trying to break a pelvic bone on a deer ...

I generally use a saw and axe to split wood but depending on the situation I see nothing wrong at all with batoning wood ... it is much safer and controled if you use your head ... and it often allows lighter loads if you aren't car camping ...

the right tool for the job and proper technique and you're good to go ...

and the young man batoning looks supervised and like he has been taught well ... up until recent years we were all taught to use far more dangerous things just in daily life taking care of animals gardens and any work on the farm ...

and joke or not I have to say very poor taste in the statement about the young man batoning ... it beats him sitting inside playing xbox ...

Since I doubt he will ... I will apologize to you ben and more so say I think it's great you have your son outside teaching him useful skills ... you should be proud of that ... it's far to rare these days.

JJ
 
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