Ever had a knife fail on you?

Yojimbo

Yojimbo

Joined
Jul 14, 2002
Messages
147
Obviously this question isn't directed to Cliff!!!;)

Seriously though, I was wondering if anyone ever had knife fail on them when they needed it most. If so I'd like to know which knife, what you were doing and how it happened. I'm talking about heavy field use/abuse not destruction tests. :D

Personally, I've never had a knife fail on me in the field even when I was doing things I shouldn't do to them. I've had some lesser quality knives chip or get dull quickly but they still worked and did the job.
 
I had a folding knife that I bought at the Navy Exchange in Yokosuka, Japan. I snapped it open one day, and the pointed half of the blade went sailing over the side, and now resides at the bottom of the pacific, along with the rest of the knife.(surprised looks all around.)
 
I had the handle of an old Vic. Swiss Army knife fall off on me while cutting a box open.
 
My only knife failures have been cutting efficiency issues. The grinds were too thick to cut the substrate. Boy to I hate thick grinds.
 
Don't use cheap knives! Geez, all I was trying to do was cut up a little cheese! Cheapo Chinese junk.
 
Originally posted by Danbo
Don't use cheap knives! Geez, all I was trying to do was cut up a little cheese! Cheapo Chinese junk.
Click to expand...

My question to you, Dan, is why were you using cheap Chinese junk?? I thought you <i>knew better than that</i> ;)
 
The cheap, Chinese junk can be great while they last! A friend bought 10 sets of Ginsu kitchen utility/steak knives from Ebay two years ago to give as Christmas gifts. Each set had six or seven knives in it, and I received one set. It cost her $2.99.

They have been one of my most-used knives in the kitchen, and sometimes for general utility. They cut like nobody's business, and are super thin and easy to get in tight places. Three have broken in the same manner as Danbo's. But not in a way that could have injured me. They're just getting dull now after two years. Definitely some of the "best" knives I have had, "best" being most functional and useful!

Johnny
 
Danbo - To determine the reason for failure, we'll need to know the Rockwell hardness of the cheese you were cutting. ;)
 
Glad you just "cut the cheese", and not yourself!

BTW, great profile ya got there, Hugh. Lol. :D
 
I had chefs knife fail on me while chopping tomatoes at work a month ago. The blade fell off the handle after the 8th or so chop. I looked at it up close and realized it was just glued on...:barf: Friendly's gives us the cheapest equipment.
 
I'm with Johnny on the Ginsu set. Who can pass up a set of 12 knives for $.99 for testing purposes? For the most part, they do great, you just need to realize their limitations. Unfortunately, my housemate did not understand this when he used one of my favorites, the Ginsu Utility Knife, to try to push-cut through 450 BC cardboard. Near the tip of the blade. On the bright side, there was no point, and the blade was extremely light, when it snapped. :rolleyes:


edit: Please note from the above: the 'favorite' mentioned there is out of the 12 knives included in the Ginsu kit, NOT out of the knives I currently call my own.
 
I've always liked knives since I was a kid, but my interest in high quality knives was sparked when I broke my first knife in basic survival school in the Navy. The knife was a POS pilot survival knife. The tip broke off with no warning and very little stress; partial wrist pressue alone. The knife was still usable but, WTF, what if I really needed to abuse it? The Issue LPA and vest doesn't allow for a lot of options or extra equipment.

Then, in SERE school, while being particularly carefull, I F'd up another "survival" knife with almost no effort at all. I thought "what if the sh1t really hit the fan?. Isn't there a knife that could withstand a moderate amount of abuse without breaking?".

And so the quest began.

It ended with the BUsse Natural Outlaw.

I'd have to try and break it (which I won't) and even if I tried, I'm not sure I could (unless there was a lot of money involved).

Anyway, yes, I've broken knives that were supposed to last without even trying.

I bet I'm not alone.
 
Yes. I had the blade on a heavy duty folder snap after many years of use. It came as quite a shock as I wasn't prying with it - but I was doing light chopping.
 
I've had a number of SAKs fail on me: Twisted screwdriver blades, dulled awls, scissors out of line--to say nothing of the
blades getting dull after an unreasonably light amount of cutting. Luckily, the failures were in situations where back-ups were
available. I would hate to be in a situation where everything depended on one.
A "Lifetime Guarantee" is worthless if you fail due to the failure of the tool.
Needless to say, I don't carry an SAK anymore (they come out when I need a knife that doesn't scare the tender souls around).
I've shifted over to the Leatherman line for the tools, and carry a BM or MicroTech bali
for the edge. However, I've been led to believe that both SAK and Leatherman use 420. Is this correct?
 
Had a larger sized liner lock from a well known and reputable manufacturer fold over and cut me good one day while knocking marine growth off the propeller of an outboard. I was using the spine of the aforementioned liner locking folder to knock off the critters when the liner just let the blade closed on me. I wasn't using much foprce at all, just a repeated frquency of moderate taps. I examined the knife and all appeared to be in order yet when I even gently spine whacked it on wood, she closed just about every time. The manufacturer was very accomodating and replaced the knife immediately. Needless to say, I'm no big fan of liner locks though I own and use (carefully) a bunch of them.

Bottom line, full tang fixed blades are the way to go. Surprisingly, though the liner lock is my least preferred folder lock, its big cousin the frame lock is my first. I've never had even a hint of trouble with the frame locks I own which include the Sebenza, Mission MPF, BM 750 and even the little CRK&T KISS knives.
 
had SAK's close on the rebound while cutting green branches. Both my finger after the thumb have cut marks on the first joint. Thats what got me to buy the Bucklite Backlock. Never had that close on me yet. Now I thnk the best lock I have is the Axis, 710, 940, 943, 550 ,,,, get the picture??
 
I have had several prodo and custom liner locks fail on me for two typical reasons. First is that when the blade is stuck in between what it's cutting (heavy cardboard, a branch, a piece of 2x4, etc) and to end up having to twist on the blade to free it, that's often a lock release scenario. Second, for me anyway, is I have large muscular hands. When I wrap my forefinger around the handle, the middle finger pad is making contact with the side of the handle and the liner lock. With firm pressure, the finger will press the lock BACK towards the outside, away form the tang of the blade. Result: Possible failure of the lock! Only liner lock I carry is a Strider AR. The amount of spring that's made into the lock is WAY greater than the strength of my hand.
Other than the AR, the axis lock, framelocks (Sebenzas especially) and fixed blades are the only way to go for safety.

Barry H
 
I've broken the tip off of a Buck 110 folding hunter by prying on PVC pipe, then later stripped a little piece out of the edge of that same knife trying to transect a .308 caliber bullet to see if it was "partition" construction or not. Buck replaced the blade, no questions asked. I've chipped out sizeable pieces of edges on a couple of fixed blades by tapping them through pelvis bones of deer, to open the carcasses up after field dressing so they could cool out. I've cracked apart edges on cheap machetes, trying to wrestle them out of mesquite limbs I've whacked into.

Bottom line, to me, is to understand a blade's design and limitations before you decide to depend on it for a given task. A thin, narrow blade tip, built for maximum penetration, is not going to stand up to heavy prying. Most well-hardened steel blades, if thinned out enough to be highly efficient cutters, won't stand up to impact or torquing at the edge, as in the case of pounding them through a deer or elk pelvis. If you need a knife you can count on, hands down, for survival, you need something with a stronger, thicker edge and point. If you want to cut and penetrate efficiently, you need something thinner. So you have to compromise if you need a knife to perform both.

A few makers excel at putting great steels together with great heat treating and great blade and edge geometry to achieve wonderfully high-performance knives across a broad spectrum of use--but there are still compromises one must be aware of.

-Will
 
This is almost too embarassing to say. Years agoooo (15, 16 yrs?)I bought a rambo three knife thinking wow this is pretty cool!!!

I took it out to clear some brush and to say the least the peened on knut came loose after three whacks on a sapling. The blade was now loose and resembling a knife blade loosely attached to a handle, almost resembling a "flail"!!! :barf:
 
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