Damn! Knife broke

I think you made the right decision. Telling him no would almost certainly offended him and likely led to no more sales to him. This may lead to new sales from him or his buddies. If you have a bushcraft line maybe put a note saying to try and use for batoning kindling only and point them to your thicker knives for serious batoning ;)

On a side note I have a really pretty Blindhorse scout knife that I batoned through a large staple the first day I used it. I knew nothing of knifemaking back then so I called blind horse and spoke to Dan, one of the owners, and asked if I ruined it. He told me to ship it back and he would fix it and ship it back to me for free!
 
Looks like a good knife for cutting and slicing, not a knife made to baton wood. It's to thin to beat on especially with that steel. Either make him a thicker blade or tell him not to beat on it.
 
I would bet a bottle of very good scotch that he either pried on a split to separate two pieces of wood, or batoned on the tip. He might be the most honest guy around, but human nature will keep most folks from admitting their screw up.

Whatever the cause, just re-grind the tip and give it back.
 
Just a nob myself, but would not be batoning with that thin of a knife in Elmax unless it was a survival situation were my life was on the line. Just to many other thicker knives out there that would handle batoning better. Looks like you did a great job on the knife. I can understand taking your time an regrinding the tip to reprofile, but how do you fix the bend?
 
This is why I specifically don't warranty my knives for batonning... there are just too many ways to do it wrong.

Frank Niro said:
No, I would not recommend Elmax for a general multi use around camp knife steel.
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I would. In my (and several friends') experience, Elmax is plenty tough enough for camp use, given the right geometry. So is CPM-154 for that matter... This doesn't look like a failure of the steel to me, just an oops on the user's part. Bad things happen when you get to hammering on thin blades, no matter what kind of steel they're made from.

Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I would bet a bottle of very good scotch that he either pried on a split to separate two pieces of wood, or batoned on the tip. He might be the most honest guy around, but human nature will keep most folks from admitting their screw up.

Whatever the cause, just re-grind the tip and give it back.
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Yup! Test it hard to satisfy your own curiosity, regrind it and move forward. There's a lot of cut still left in that blade :)
 
WTF was he doing Batoning a .10 thick steel knife thru a log? Try that with any factory blade and see what happens.
5/32 would be the absolute min for a camp blade IMO 3/16 even better. Using edge quenched 5160 if he breaks that it is on him...
Just because it is a Custom knife doesn't mean it can't be broken
Would make the next "Camp Knife" in 5160 or 1080 edge quench draw it back to 59-60 and call it good. If used as an axe or pry bar it should survive.
Keep your warranty common sense use
Stacy is right
 
I clearly state that battoning, beating or prying automatically voids the warranty. I do the repairs for a discounted price and do these with the customer present. Grinding a tip or chip doesn't take long, and send them on their way.
 
AVigil said:
Since you have the knife...do some of your own batoning with it and see how it performs.
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Sounds like a good idea. Thicker spine and a heavier grind seems like the way to go for his needs.
 
Thank you all very much for the comments. He wants it back so I'll regrind it and tell him it's for slicing, not batoning. If I make any camp knives in the future I'll keep the tips thicker. Now, to get to work.



Not done yet. Needs some clean up still. Not a shape I would have set out to do but I think it's okay.


Mark
 
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Just take a bastard file and pinch it in a vice, drag the blade down the file like your trying to cut it in half. It wont take the temper out of the blade because it isn't getting hot and you can reprofile it back to shape. Then sharpen. Isn't anything bad.
 
I know you already resolved this but here's my 0.02.

I'm not a metallurgist or a knife maker, I'm just a user. I think that for someone to baton a 0.10 thick blade is just crazy. Fixed blade or not, that knife is 20% thinner than the stock on my Sebenza and just too thin to take that kind of abuse. Add to that, the fact that the steel was treated to 61-62 Rockwell, and this just becomes blatant abuse of a blade.

Good for you for making it right though, I know if I was a maker I would have labeled this as the customer intentionally abusing the product.
 
From what can be seen, the grain in the broken tip is too big/coarse, my opinion is bad heat treat, again, from what can be seen. Said that, a broken tip is almost always a sign of improper use, you may need to use the knife like that in a hurry/emergency, but you should not ask warranty service...


Pablo
 
You can make a knife tough enough for light batoning. A decent rule of thumb is not to baton through any cross section of wood wider than the blade of the knife. Batoning for small kindling is safer than using a hatchet/axe.

It looks like this particular knife was taken past reasonable expectations. I would offer to regrind the tip but make sure to let the customer know that it will never be the same and the warranty is void from here on out. There could be other micro fractures and the hardness/temper has been effected by the regrind.
 
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