Have you ever broken a knife?

Although I've never broken a knife while using it to perform a task, the knife below should have broke.

I've told this story before- I got trapped in my home bathroom when something inside the doorknobs latch-bolt broke. I was home alone, and the only tool I had on me was the knife below (Benchmade Darkstar). I tried prying the doors hinge pins out, but they were painted over and completely stuck. So I tried prying between the door and doorjamb at the latch. Fortunately the latch-bolt was only slightly protruding into the doorjamb strike-plate, and with a bit of hard prying with the knife I was able to clear the latch-bolt from the strike-plate and set myself free.

I was willing to sacrifice the knife for my freedom, but too my extreme surprise it didn't break, even with hard prying. I took this picture today.

I will also add that the liner lock didn't fail either. Whenever I see people say that liner locks are weak, unsafe, unreliable, and will disengage with the slightest lateral stress, I think of this knife, and how the lock held firm when prying my way out of that bathroom. The knife shows no sign of damage from the experience, and if you examined it you would never guess that it was used in such a manner.

As far as breaking knives, I broke a few small pocketknives as a kid throwing them. And I broke the tip off a Buck 112 stabbing the blade into a tree (also as a kid), but I was able to get the blade replaced.

3c60o8V.jpg
 
killgar said:
Although I've never broken a knife while using it to perform a task, the knife below should have broke.

I've told this story before- I got trapped in my home bathroom when something inside the doorknobs latch-bolt broke. I was home alone, and the only tool I had on me was the knife below (Benchmade Darkstar). I tried prying the doors hinge pins out, but they were painted over and completely stuck. So I tried prying between the door and doorjamb at the latch. Fortunately the latch-bolt was only slightly protruding into the doorjamb strike-plate, and with a bit of hard prying with the knife I was able to clear the latch-bolt from the strike-plate and set myself free.

I was willing to sacrifice the knife for my freedom, but too my extreme surprise it didn't break, even with hard prying. I took this picture today.

I will also add that the liner lock didn't fail either. Whenever I see people say that liner locks are weak, unsafe, unreliable, and will disengage with the slightest lateral stress, I think of this knife, and how the lock held firm when prying my way out of that bathroom. The knife shows no sign of damage from the experience, and if you examined it you would never guess that it was used in such a manner.

As far as breaking knives, I broke a few small pocketknives as a kid throwing them. And I broke the tip off a Buck 112 stabbing the blade into a tree (also as a kid), but I was able to get the blade replaced.

3c60o8V.jpg
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Liner locks are easily one of my favorite lock types
 
ShaiHulud said:
Liner locks are easily one of my favorite lock types
Click to expand...

My all-time favorite knife (Cold Steel Ti-Lite 6) is a liner lock, and I'm quite happy about it. The torture test videos I've seen of the Ti-Lite 6, and the amount of stress and abuse both the lock and the knife overall can withstand is, in my opinion, nothing less than amazing. Which is a major reason why it's my all-time favorite.

EDIT: Here are those videos I mentioned-

Cold Steel video



Another Cold Steel video



This is a JoeX video, and although he is a bit controversial, what I particularly like about this video is that he doesn't work for Cold Steel, and he's not a CS fanboy (he's not biased in favor of CS), so he really is trying his hardest to break the knife and make the lock fail (but without success). For those reasons, this is my favorite Ti-lite torture video.

 
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PNWhovian said:
May I ask how you managed this?
I haven’t put mine to any hard use as of yet.
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Man, it's been quite a while back. I have a few large fixies and am pretty hard on all of 'em. At this point, it's hard to remember what I've specifically done to one or the other.

Anyhow, I can't say for sure but am going to speculate that I was being stupid with it while splitting large logs from an established (*and "aged") woodpile.
 
Alone said:
Man, it's been quite a while back. I have a few large fixies and am pretty hard on all of 'em. At this point, it's hard to remember what I've specifically done to one or the other.

Anyhow, I can't say for sure but am going to speculate that I was being stupid with it while splitting large logs from an established (*and "aged") woodpile.
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I appreciate the feedback.
I may put mine to use this winter.
Last year I primarily used my WT Godfather to split thinner logs and make kindling. This year I plan to put the Mega Ratweiler to work.(seasoned Spruce)

On topic:
I broke my share of Wenger Swiss Army knives as a kid.(reckless and careless)
I’ve also broken a few kitchen knives but that was me stupidly trying to chip ice.
 
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PNWhovian said:
I appreciate the feedback.
I may put mine to use this winter.
Last year I primarily used my WT Godfather to split thinner logs and make kindling. This year I plan to put the Mega Ratweiler to work.(seasoned Spruce)
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That Godfather is a really nice piece. I always wanted one of his "Megalodons". Alas, I hesitated, and he no longer makes 'em.

I think you'll like the MR. It's a solid knife and should handle about 99% of the worst you can throw at. I know that sounds funny coming from a guy who posted that he broke the tip on one. However, when I go stupid with some of my fixies, I'm talkin' like "full ret--d" stupid.
 
Alone said:
That Godfather is a really nice piece. I always wanted one of his "Megalodons". Alas, I hesitated, and he no longer makes 'em.

I think you'll like the MR. It's a solid knife and should handle about 99% of the worst you can throw at. I know that sounds funny coming from a guy who posted that he broke the tip on one. However, when I go stupid with some of my fixies, I'm talkin' like "full ret--d" stupid.
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I do appreciate the feedback. It’s nice to hear from people who have used/abused it.
I really like the Godfather. It’s extremely well balanced and chops like a champ. It’s my go to for making kindling.
I liked the looks of the Meg and almost got that instead.
 
ShaiHulud said:
Out of mild curiosity, have you ever broken a knife during use, and if so, what were you doing?
Helpful post details include:
Type of knife/steel
What you were doing
And how did it break?
This is a discussion and picture thread, anything on topic is welcome.
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Decades ago, I was matriculating through The Basic School (TBS) in Quantico, VA. For the non-military folks among us, that is the six month long, basic infantry training course attended by all newly minted Marine 2LTs.

As fate (and/or, my luck) would have it, my particular class started at the height of the summer (when the most intense physical fitness portion of the syllabus was encountered) and ended in the winter (when the longest multi-day field exercises were scheduled).

And so it was that we found ourselves wargaming for a week out in the woods of Virginia in the dead of winter, eating MREs and sleeping in frozen foxholes. A front had rolled through as this exercise commenced and the mercury was dropping into the teens at night.

We were actively engaged in demonstrating what we had learned in our ‘squad in the defense’ classes, so the shelter halves and sleeping bags were largely staying rolled up in our packs. But after a few days, and a couple guys medevac’d out due to hypothermia, the staff relented a bit and allowed us one night of what was referred to as an “admin bivouac”. Basically this meant the wargame was temporarily halted and you were allowed some creature comforts like sleeping for a few hours in your sleeping bag inside your tent, having a campfire and heating up your MREs.

As the announcement percolated its way through the company, I wasted no time going out to gather some wood for a fire. Being boot lieutenants, the only cutlery we had at this stage of our careers was our issued M7 bayonets. Millions were made by a dozen different manufacturers with production starting in 1964 and continuing through to the present day. The parkerized blade is just shy of 7” long and constructed of 1095 steel.

After gathering dry twigs for kindling, I set my sights on harvesting some small dead branches still attached to the trees. They were many in the immediate area about the diameter of a baseball bat handle. Now the profile of the M7 would never be confused with that of a chopper, but the plan was only to give the branch a few light whacks to weaken it just enough so that the rest could be broken off by hand.

It was quite dark out, but about four whacks into the first branch, I heard the most unusual pinging sound. I also noticed the balance of the blade seemed to have change appreciably. As you might have guessed, it soon became apparent that about four inches of that seven inch blade decided to deposit itself somewhere out on the forest floor.

An invaluable lesson was learned that evening regarding government contracts awarded to the lowest bidder, as well as the fine line that can sometimes emerge between trying to be resourceful by using the available materials on hand, versus using the proper tool for the job.
 
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killgar said:
My all-time favorite knife (Cold Steel Ti-Lite 6) is a liner lock, and I'm quite happy about it. The torture test videos I've seen of the Ti-Lite 6, and the amount of stress and abuse both the lock and the knife overall can withstand is, in my opinion, nothing less than amazing. Which is a major reason why it's my all-time favorite.
Click to expand...
What was your favorite knife before the Ti-Lite?
 
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