not a chance. theyre made oof 440c which can be good just not for a knife of this size. anything over a 5" blade id want something like 1095 or 01 tool steel. id recommend a TOPS (most will do the job except for the shitty harpoon things) or a cold steel laredo bowie.
What suddenly happens with 440C knives with blades over 5"?
Based on what I see online, most the big quality knives I see broken are usually in Carbon steel: The few broken stainless ones are always extra low-cost stuff (typically Chinese)... Several broken Carbon Trailmasters and Recon Scout can be found, but I've never seen a broken stainless one (Stainless Trailmasters are not all San Mai III: Many older one are in Aus-8, a close 440B equivalent).
If DUK is known as shady, then I would agree their stainless is not to be trusted (that they don't give specs on their steel is highly dubious): Cheap stainless is often hard and displays a deceptive very good edge holding, but it is often poorly tempered, so it is prone to shock fractures.
The Youtuber whose 8 mm threaded tang broke off at the buttcap, with no batoning, just chopping, is indicative of poor tempering: Chopping on any kind of wood is by itself a very mild test, and should
never induce a failure, because the knife is free to vibrate: Batoning can induce failures because it "traps" the blade between two pieces and prevents the metal from vibrating freely...
Such a threaded tang should be annealed to be softer, yet much harder than brass, and a correctly made tang should have failed gradually by showing some mild loosening from the brass threading becoming loose inside the brass, NOT an abrupt fracture of the actual steel like that...
Both the design and the materials appear at fault for the buttcap failure on the outback. The only "abuse" that would excuse this failure in my opinion is throwing... Even batoning can cause
blade failures, because it is the blade that is trapped, but it should not cause handle failures, unless you hit the handle itself.
Gaston
