There are two basic types of high load work for wood craft. The first is work which generally isn't that demanding but can be if you are over stressed or conditions otherwise poor or just inexperienced so that you end up using a lot more physical effort and a lot less ideal technique. So consider :
1) Chopping into seasoned and small diameter hardwood limbs which are close together, usually found on trees in very low light conditions. The knife is likely to twist and thus see all sort of lateral loads on the edge which are really very difficult for a blade to handle.
2) Prying in woods very aggressively. Use this to gather pitchwood, break apart deadfall or dig an arrowhead out of wood. You can really load the tip strongly here and thus the tip needs to be very robust to not leave a piece of it in the wood. Similar in very rocky soil, working around and prying out rocks with heavy force.
3) Batoning on cross knotted wood. Some woods are structured so that it is impossible to split them without cutting through a knot, plus in low light conditions you could align the knife improperly. The worst situation would be the knot right at a weakpoint in the knife because the internal torque is maximum there, for most knives this is close to the handle as it forces a maximum load on the tang/blade juncture. Lean on the handle hard and impact the tip with your baton as hard as you can. In an really extreme test use a rock/metal baton on the teeth and see how they are effected and how they can be repaired "in the field".
4) Cutting very thick bone. The worst way is to have it not well supported and cut right into it perpendicular.
5) Use the saw to break heavy wire by working it back and forth until it breaks.
The other kind of high load use is the accidents. Just a few days ago I was clearing some brush and chopped right into a bottle someone had disgarded. If you go far enough into the woods you can generally get away from the junk but you still have to consider that the brush might be hiding rocks, that the wood you are cutting might be spiked, or just that the wood may be rotted and that you chop through it unintentionally and hit the ground. I would be concerned about the secondary point in the middle of the tracker if that took a hard impact. How would it fare and how are you supposed to regrind it "in the field".
There are also other uses when tend to be argued to be abusive readily by most such as throwing as noted, or lashing the knife to make a spear or a billhook. This drastically increases the loads placed on the knife and can thus induce far more damage, plus in some cases easily cause the loss of the knife (throwing, spear) etc. . With the TOP's since it is 1095 you would also want to be concerned with corrosion, so consider how much it is damaged if you are "in the field" for extensive times without oils/waxes to protect it.
-Cliff
