Have you ever broken a knife?

It was 1985-ish, and we (a couple of 15-year-old hooligans) were locked out of my friend's house where I was staying for the weekend.
But we knew there was an unlocked second story window. So we climbed up... The only tool we had was my trusty Buck 110...
In the process of prying open the window (which hadn't been opened for years), I snapped the tip off my 110. But we got in.
I ended up getting another Buck 110 for my birthday that year. But, for some reason, I continued to carry the tipless one.
 
Wild Willie said:
It was easier to say carbon... 😆

Either way, that thing breaking was all on me. I still have a couple of those 511s stashed in my treasure chest for a rainy day.
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Hopefully you got some silica gel packs in there, I had a stack of carbon moras rust after some minor neglect in my backpack after a couple rainy days
 
I bent a busse SOB prying my chainsaw bar free. I shot a knife I bought from Jake hoback.

I've destroyed many edges, deformed many spines, chipped handle material, broken tips off but I don't count them as "broken" because they could all be repaired.
 
DocJD said:
Al Mar Pathfinder , long time ago . Blade snapped off at the hilt and went flying off into the woods .

Just normal heavy machete use , chopping some small branches and saplings . Brand new blade , lasted about 5min .

Never bought another Al Mar product .

They did send a replacement , but it is also a POS . Pretty though ! :rolleyes:
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Double-ground makes for bad machetes, Doc.
 
Broke several carbon Mora 511's opening paint cans and prying.

Bent Mora Robust at the part where tang/handle starts.

Bent Ka-Bar 1213 at the tang (don't even know how). I straightened it out and sold.

Cold Steel Peace Maker 3 in 4116 - nasty rolls from trying to chop frozen twigs.

Ontario SP-53 - broke at the tang during

JP Peltonen in 80CrV2 - got one despite being warned they are brittle... and broke the tip easily.

SRK-C - broke the tip.

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Tafkaag said:
Double-ground makes for bad machetes, Doc.
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:pNo foolin' ! This was an early purchase for me , when first the "love of blades" struck me . Early 80's maybe ?

The Al Mar Pathfinder was really hyped hard , as a "do all" adventure machete / sword ; that you could hack and fight your way thru the Amazon Jungle , Temple of Doom , etc . Utterly reliable and effective . 😒

We had no internet at that time . Only magazines and catalogs . Al Mar was great at some prior time and had a good rep ; but was dead , gone and his name used in vain, by the time I got sucked in . :mad::thumbsdown::thumbsdown:

Live and hopefully learn ! :cool:
 
ShaiHulud said:
have you ever broken a knife during use, and if so, what were you doing?
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Yes. I was throwing my R&D 15N20 prevail into a stump. I ground it thin, and ground the serrations just about right to the tip, instead of leaving the customary fraction of an inch of plainedge that is common on serrated knives. I bent the tip. I bent it back. I threw some more. Bent it again. Bent it back again, or tried to but it snapped off. I ground maybe an 1/8" inch off, made the tip pointy again, and put it back in the sheath on my hip. Used it a while longer, and then sold it at a discount when I was ready to. I actually do miss it. But I miss every knife I've ever made, at least a little. 🤣
 
Wow @LostCause that looks like some rather robust geometry to have a tip failure like that. Did you say somewhere else how it happened??
 
David Mary said:
Wow @LostCause that looks like some rather robust geometry to have a tip failure like that. Did you say somewhere else how it happened??
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I cut down some weeds or old plants from my garden, stabbed this into a log until I carry stuff I cut to a pile, and when I returned, I pulled the knife out (not perfectly straight) and heard a snap. I had to dig the tip out (to not risk damaging the saw as that log will be cut and used as firewood).

The grain looks very coarse to me BTW.
 
Yes but only when using it very improperly during construction work 😅

Otherwise I never had a knife breaking in my normal use
 
LostCause said:
The grain looks very coarse to me BTW.
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Didn't want to comment on the grain since I can't see it in person, but despite the semi fuzzy pic, I was leaning toward that suspicion. I don't imagine GSM did anything for you?
 
The only knife that I've had break to where it was beyond repair was a Spyderco Manix 2 in maxamet. We were making stencils from cardboard. I don't think there was a huge amount of stress on the blade, but as I was making a big looping cut the blade just snapped.
 
Only snapped a steak knife when trying to cut baked potatoes into smaller sections to throw in a soup. Broke right where blade meets the plastic handle. Another one cutting vegetables on a cutting board when the handle split open, I had a feeling many dishwasher cleanings didn’t help the plastic. On a lighter note, the only other thing that broke is my actual knife budget. 😁
 
I broke the tip off a Wenger SAK years ago trying to pry with it. I had an old Western L66 that I was using stupidly as a throwing knife and broke the tip off it also ( probably after throwing it into barn doors 300 times). The only other one I can think of is a newer Boker stockman that I was prying on trying to make an adjustment. I can't specifically remember if the blade was really stiff or if it had bad blade rub, either way I put the blade in a padded vice and was trying to put some sideways pressure on it to tweak it and the blade snapped off at the tang.
I can honestly say all the failures I have experienced were as a direct result of my own stupidity. I have learned the hard way that knives are designed to take pressure against the edge, and not sideways on the blade. I cringe every time I see a "tip test" because most any knife will fail at some point
 
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