Ever broke a fiskars or seen one break?

Joezilla

Moderator- Wilderness and Survival Skills
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I hear alot of good things about fiskars, and have seen estela's too. Has anyone ever broke or seen one of these handles break?
 
I've seen a Gerber break. I have also heard of the heads chipping out a good bit, but I have not seen that first hand.
 
Yes, I have. I don't think there are many things in the world that someone hasn't seen break.

The Fiskars hatchets and axes are tough, especially the handles. Good stuff, fantastic for the price. You're very unlikely to ever break one, unless you get a bad specimen - and that's what the warranty is for. One thing, though: don't wait until it's -25 degrees Celcius and then chop one of those axes in a log and kick the handle from the side. That's not a good idea. Incidentally, that's pretty much how these things usually break around here.
 
Yes, I`ve seen one break. Almost got the axe head trough my brain.
I think this issue have been up here before.
Anyway that is why I don`t like the Fiskars/Gerbers or any plastic handled axe. When it is broken you cant fix it. With a old fasioned axe, just replace the handle and problem solved.

Tor
 
I have seen pictures of a broken one, but I have never broken one myself.

The factory edge can be kind of fragile until you wear the first little bit of steel away. After a few uses and sharpenings mine have not chipped.
 
I love my Fiskars they are tough as nails!
However nothing is indestructible and sometimes the odd dud escapes the factory.

I think (i could be mistaken) BF member Morablades had a thread on his broken Fiskars.
If i remember correctly the hollow handle split some up near the head?
Maybe someone can find that thread and post a link here?

Edit- and that thread DID have pics, unfortunately i didn't save them to my hard-drive.
 
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A fool can break anything if they try but the Fiskars/Gerbers are virtually unbreakable. As someone else said though, you can always get a defective product. I have never personally seen one break.
 
Adult took a swing at a piece of cordwood. The piece toppled towards the guy as he swung so the impact was the handle against the wood. Handle splintered badly. Temp in the 60's.

I note that a good many axes have damage in the same area - handle just below the blade.

"Virtually" = not really. :D
 
I saw someone post in a first hand account of a failure a few months back. The handle developed a crack, although the user admitted to giving it quite a bit of punishment to get that. I recall he then went on to drive it into the ground just to see how much more it could take. Catastrophic failure followed shortly after. They aren't my thing but I think those are the rare exceptions that support the rule - on balance they are good kit. I know there's a suddenly a few rumours floating about on forums, but that seems to go hand in hand with the sudden burst of disclosure on forums that they are made from stainless [I suspect Linder machetes will be subject to the same ill placed wrap in time too, for the same reason]. Genuine first hand accounts of failure, with photographic evidence [yeah, not another camera that mysteriously had the dog eat its homework], aren't as rare as eye witness sightings of god, but are rare enough for me to dismiss them as rogue.
 
I have not seen a fiskars break, especially under normal use. As to the problem with use iun extreme temps. I have broken a regular axe when the head was cold and brittle. every axe manufacturer tells the purchaser/user to warm an axe before use in extreme cold, Fiskars is no exception. While the Fiskars handle is tough it can be damaged by overstriking just as any other axehandle. I own and use one of their hatchets and find it to be a good piece of equipment when used with intelligence. The edge is improved if convexed that prevents the aforementioned chipping problem.
 
I saw someone post in a first hand account of a failure a few months back. The handle developed a crack, although the user admitted to giving it quite a bit of punishment to get that. I recall he then went on to drive it into the ground just to see how much more it could take. Catastrophic failure followed shortly after. They aren't my thing but I think those are the rare exceptions that support the rule - on balance they are good kit. I know there's a suddenly a few rumours floating about on forums, but that seems to go hand in hand with the sudden burst of disclosure on forums that they are made from stainless [I suspect Linder machetes will be subject to the same ill placed wrap in time too, for the same reason]. Genuine first hand accounts of failure, with photographic evidence [yeah, not another camera that mysteriously had the dog eat its homework], aren't as rare as eye witness sightings of god, but are rare enough for me to dismiss them as rogue.
As noted, anything can be broken, by ill-use or illchance. Even an axe with a tough, plastic handle. Even a Bridgeport axe, as I found out years ago.

Exceptions proof the rule (test - as in "proof mark"). Enough exceptions and you have no rule.

Wraps are very yuppie for lunch- sorta a fancy taco, but I'm not rapping em'. :D

I do not require a photograph to prove that a member's report is genuine unless the report or the reporter are inherently unlikely. But that's me. And if you're a doubter, there's still PhotoShop.
 
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I own one Fiskars axe - the biggest spliting axe.It's an excellent piece of gear!I mainly use it in the winter.I haven't warm it before using,nothing to complain about.The handle is extreamly though-i've hiten it several times with a pretty big force when splitting wood and only one time there was a tiny scratch-nothing more.So I think,that the little Fiskars axes would be pretty durable too :thumbup:
 
As said, anything can be broken, including probably the universe. :D But it is a fact that the Fiskars handles are a hell of a lot more durable than wooden handles. For defective products, there's the warranty, so I don't see many problems with this whole thing.

I know there's a suddenly a few rumours floating about on forums, but that seems to go hand in hand with the sudden burst of disclosure on forums that they are made from stainless

I do so wonder, though, where anyone got the idea Fiskars hatchets are stainless. As far as I know, they are carbon steel.
 
When I take a good swing with my big one, almost every time right on impact I get a feeling of the head being loose in the handle. Not sure if it's all in my mind or it actually does move a bit, but when I check it seems rock solid still.
The plastic handle is not only light, it's great at absorbing shock. Maybe thats the odd sensation I get, the shock dissipating in the handle.
 
Man check out the condition of my old Fiskars and it's still going strong. You can see that even on the plastic handle below the head I have beat on it with battons to get it through tough stuff !!! The head has been beaten through using a hammer !!!!
As someone else mentioned when I first used mine the edge chipped slightly, once I sharpened the chips out there have been no more issues and I could not be any rougher with mine if I tried !!!!!
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Thomas Linton, hola

“Exceptions proof the rule (test - as in "proof mark"). Enough exceptions and you have no rule.”

Indeed. Thus the need to make a reasonable assessment as to where to set the P value. I believe modern track housing dwellers are notoriously bad at placing a decent probability threshold when it comes to bladed tools. A quick peek at the ridiculous over compensation with many of their knives frequently offers up a plethora of examples. By the time the interweb rumour mill has done with them they're so darn paranoid only one or two makes can be trusted to stand the gaff. I think the same uselessness at having a feel for probability that sees the fat burger guzzler on the way to his second aneurysm but building a bunker in his basement in case the The Mekon attacks is behind many an ax or knife evaluation. Shame.

“I do not require a photograph to prove that a member's report is genuine unless the report or the reporter are inherently unlikely. But that's me. And if you're a doubter, there's still PhotoShop.”

Yeah, I can see how what I wrote could also be described as casting ugly aspersions. However, from my perspective there's no getting away from it. Not so long ago, just for fun, I decided to get a bit further into digital forensics. This isn't the place to get into that, but I'll briefly say that I'm interested more in photography that just identifying cameras from information I can take from headers and on to attempt to identify cameras for unique identifiers in camera sensors. I'm also quite interested in identifying which bits of images have been manipulated with copty / paste techniques such as the clone tool in Photoshop blah blah. Anyway, the thing is, from what I've looked at here, although cameras range from modest to particularly good, it isn't all that often one comes across a genuinely bad one. In direct contrast to this we could run a look up of reports of how often a camera has apparently failed. Not wanting to point a finger at anyone in particular but there does not seem to be a fit between these things. I wonder; where are all these dying cameras coming from. What's with the massive over representation here. I wonder that all the more when the claim that goes with the declaration of the suddenly dead camera is of something particularly unique or fantastic. Forgive my skepticism. I know it's an ugly trait but I'm stuck with it. It's how I arrive a true confidence.
 
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Elen, hey

“I do so wonder, though, where anyone got the idea Fiskars hatchets are stainless. As far as I know, they are carbon steel.”

This one needs more research. That was news to me too, but when I had a sniff around after hearing it I found a few vendors describing them as stainless. At the moment I'm thinking that could either be a] True as of... b] vendor ignorance, or c] a woolliness at a clear definition of stainless when applied to axes, and a hovering around the % of chrome. Mmm
 
ZombaiO, wassup

I'm not in a position to hold an absolute either way amigo. See what I just said to Elen, especially option c].
 
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