Buck 119 baton failure

N

nmorris

Joined
May 26, 2015
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Had a little fire in the back yard the other night, and decided it would be a good chance to try batoning some dry fire wood with my Buck 119. This was possibly pretty foolish on my part, since the knife is clearly not designed for that. It broke about a half inch up from the hilt, not half way through the first log.

I believe this knife was at least 25 years old, as my father had had it since before I was born. Also might be worth noting that I was using a softwood branch as a baton. Not a good first batoning experience.

Anyway I just thought I would share for anyone interested, I have seen some threads in the past where people were wondering how the 119 would do for batoning. Below is the link to a pic I took of the broken knife, let me know if anyone has trouble seeing it!

http://s288.photobucket.com/user/nmorris/library/Buck 119?sort=3&page=1
 
The Buck 119 is a HUNTING KNIFE, not a prybar.
No wonder it failed, take care of your knives don't hit them :(

so sad ;_;
 
Sad way to ruin a perfectly good knife by using it for something it wasn't designed to do. A shame.
 
Batoning is an ancient ritual designed to isolate folly, thereby
opening the gates of wisdom....
 
It's sad that it was your dad's for all that time...
If you're going to abuse a knife, they not to make it an heirloom.
 
Out of curiosity, is this your first time batoning? Believe it or not, there is "some" technique to it. As well as general guidelines on types of wood you should and shouldn't really try to baton, and types of knives that are robust enough to handle it.

Also, what was the wood like, do you have any photos of it?

It is sad, as the knife had been around for a while, so of course it will be painful that it is broken. The upside, is that they are still in production, and are pretty cheap if you want to replace it for your father :).

And if you want to try to baton with something else, I'd suggest a Becker of some sort as a replacement knife. Pretty low cost, and very, very robust :).
 
It hurts my soul seeing a knife with so much history being broken...especially through misuse :(
 
That knife is intended for field dressing and skinning large game.

Its a rat tail tang knife with a super thin hollow ground edge. I wouldn't expect it to break from a little light batoning, but I am not too surprised by it either. That was clearly beyond its intended use.

I absolutely do not baton any of my knives. I carry a hatchet or a saw for processing wood.

I am sorry for you. I have lost, broken, or worn out a few family heirlooms over the years. Its not a great feeling. My grandfather's fly rod was made in the late 30's. It casts like no other rod on the planet and I absolutely love fishing with it, but I hung it on the wall years ago. I couldn't bear the thought of breaking it.
 
collim1 said:
That knife is intended for field dressing and skinning large game.

Its a rat tail tang knife with a super thin hollow ground edge. I wouldn't expect it to break from a little light batoning, but I am not too surprised by it either. That was clearly beyond its intended use.
Click to expand...

1+ This

And I would say Buck tangs are not rat tail, I would go as to define it as full tang.
this is the 102 tang, on the top

hqdefault.jpg


My Buck 102 :D
DSC01282.jpg
 
It's somewhere in between rat-tail and full tang, not quite either. Anyway, the point of failure had nothing to do with the tang? I wouldn't expect a Buck or any quality brand to just snap down the middle like that, especially if the poster is honest and was just doing light batoning. I would like to think it's an issue with that specific knife and not the design. I would think Buck would replace this for you under their lifetime warranty as this is most likely a lemon that was simply exposed through abuse. It's at least worth a call or email.
 
So you decided to take a knife that belonged to your Father, that is older than you, and baton it through a log just to see if it could do it?

Sometime down the road you'll look back on that moment & regret it.
 
That is a real shame and a waste of a family heirloom, just my opinion. Hunting knives are not axes.
 
ocnLogan said:
Out of curiosity, is this your first time batoning? Believe it or not, there is "some" technique to it. As well as general guidelines on types of wood you should and shouldn't really try to baton, and types of knives that are robust enough to handle it.
Click to expand...

Precisely.

And you don't "experiment" with a family heirloom.
 
Who said anything about an heirloom?

My dad has a shovel that's older than me. Certainly not an heirloom.
 
Shovels are shovels.. knives are something else, something more special. Unless that shovel was the one that dug Jimmy Hoffa's grave...

This is sad. I doubt it was a defective blade as 155440 suggests.. it has lasted decades of use as it was... and just now failed during batoning. We don't know that it was "light batoning" as the OP has not said as much. Could have been using that soft wood baton to whack his 119 into solid, dry-aged oak for all we know. I have oak floors in my house.. that stuff is like concrete.

I have a couple inherited knives from my now deceased father... I would NEVER do something like this with his Buck 121; he bought it new in '78 or so. So sad for the OP.
 
nmorris said:
Had a little fire in the back yard the other night, and decided it would be a good chance to try batoning some dry fire wood with my Buck 119. This was possibly pretty foolish on my part, since the knife is clearly not designed for that. It broke about a half inch up from the hilt, not half way through the first log.

I believe this knife was at least 25 years old

http://s288.photobucket.com/user/nmorris/library/Buck 119?sort=3&page=1
Click to expand...

Enough with the regret,
I need to know if that piece of fire wood was worth the loss?
I somehow suspect that you don't even consider
Preserving that piece of wood into some kind of a trophy for
Reckless juvenile behavior ;-)
 
To answer ocnLogan, this was indeed my first ever time attempting batoning.
Also, it was light batoning , I have no picture of the wood as I burnt it.
It was a very poor decision in hind sight, I'm new to this and tend to learn things the hard way. I immediately regretted what I had done, would have been nice to pass the knife on some day , but I will say this particular knife didn't have much sentimental value to either me or my father. I imagine he will be much less sad about this than I am . I have axes and hatchets that i usually use for this type of thing, but had just "learned" about batoning and figured I'd try it. Curiosity killed the cat this time.
 
I hope you went and bought a hand axe. I like a Gransfors Bruk Wildlife hatchet. Sharp enough to carve with and just big enough to handle fire prep and campsite construction. It's also small enough you won't leave it at home and end up using your knife.
 
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