Buck 119 ever failed

I was sure I had seen a video once but couldn't find it. Did find a bunch of videos of people with opinions about how Buck could have made it better. Watching them led me to the conclusion they bought the wrong knife. What they wanted already existed elsewhere, even by Buck.
 
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i'll admit i committed Buck abuse on numerous 119s. a few years back used 119s were going really cheap on the bay. bought four or five that were in the worst shape of various ages and steel. threw them into an old refrigerator i was using as a target for throwing knives. they punched holes and stuck into them with no apparent damage, even the handles. broke two throwing knives though. the 119s are still in use. you can break just about anything with enough force.
 
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seen a video years ago, where a kid broke one either chopping or batoning with it. cant remember which. havent seen any others, but haven't went lookin either.

I've never broke one.....
 
A quick search "broken Buck 119" had a few results but most were tip failures from prying and breaking due to batoning.
Pretty much the results of any search of any knife being abused.
I've been using the hell out of mine since 1980 and it hasn't missed a beat.
 
I’ve used my 120 heavily, cut thick rope and de-limbing and chopping. I was never worried about it breaking. It was my camp knife along with my Buck 650 for a VERY long until I started collecting knives about 6 years ago. Never Batoned or chopped up cinder blocks or anything. Knife is still rock solid with no looseness anywhere.
 
Like some of the other posters I’ve seen some pictures and reports of a broken 119 blade that were being used for batoning or prying.

I’ve never broken a blade like that but I have broken the tiny tip on a few slip joints when I was young doing stupid stuff but not on a 119 or any fixed blade.

In an extreme situation of life or death survival I would do what I have to do but I’d still use caution to preserve my knife for the duration. As for the other harsh usage in ordinary situations I can’t understand why a person would risk their knife and limbs when a better tool or method would do just as well if not better.
 
I'm actually impressed there is not a big chip out of that blade.
Back in the day when this was a thing the knives were ground from old files.
I wonder what kind of steel was used in the 40's-50's. I know Nicholsons are no longer USA.

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Vaporstang said:
Ouch! I am surprised there is not more damage to the edge. This video is from today - did you make this video?
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Nah, I subscribe to Mr. Barlow and his new video popped up today. If I had done that, I would have probably used a dead blow or soft-faced hammer. I hated to see the spine of that 119 take the damage. The heat treat on the 425M must have been quite good though.
 
Never really heard of one failing, but I remember a YouTube video with somebody talking about the loose guard on their old 119.
They weren't so much of an idiot though, it was their camp knife for years and they admitted it had gotten loose from repeated strikes with a stick over the years.
They knew they had used it out of it's wheelhouse, and they weren't trash talking it in any way.
Just talking about a faithful old knife of theirs and explaining an issue they had caused.

I can't tell you how many videos I've seen of young people trash talking various Buck knives including the 119 because they didn't meet today's overly picky / demanding standards for a humble cutting tool.
 
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