Have you ever broken bone covers ?

D

Dixierust

Joined
May 3, 2016
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So has anyone ever broken bone covers under normal use ?
Im not talking about dropping it on the shop floor ... specificaly i have a case #65 large stockman i would like to be a user but the bone scales appear to be very thin for a large "work " knife . lets hear your experience. thanks
 
I had a GEC beer scout that cracked at the center pin but I have no idea when it happened. It was never dropped and it was carried in a slip case. The pin was right on the edge at the chamfer so it was likely the reason (combined with the stress of the pin under load).

In my experience that hasn't happened often. It's usually from dropping them.


 
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They do seem to chip more readily than wood upon dropping...

Come to think of it, I "torture tested" (more like destruction tested) a bone-covered slip joint, with which I was passionately disgruntled, from GEC last year. In the end, I had to use pliers and wrench on the thing to get any real destruction. Blade flexed a lot but didn't crack. The bone covers finally started to separate from the liners and crack, but by the forces required and the leverage I had to apply, I'm pretty confident that any normal-for-a-knife use wouldn't put it at risk for such failure.
 
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I've had a center pin crack, but that's about it. I was able to superglue the crack when it first appeared. Now I can't even find the crack.
 
I had a rough rider peanut in bone. I wanted to see how "fragile" bone actually is, so i dropped it onto a concrete floor off a lift from about 20ft. Only had one tiny crack after multiple drops.

Unless your knife sees some serious abuse, i doubt bone would crack on you as long as you clean and oil it once in awhile
 
From regular use- no. However shock will crack bone in a hurry as will the stress of a pin too close to the edge as mentioned above. Keeping the bone from drying out will make it stand up better, and bone on older knives tends to be more brittle because of its age.
 
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ive always seen them as fragile, but no have not broken any yet personally. although i do want to rescale a bunch of knives in aluminum
 
You'd have to drop it or something. You might occasionally wipe a little mineral oil on it.... which is what I put on the joints/blades anyways as it is food safe. You can get it at a pharmacy as it's also used as a laxative.
 
I've seen old knives with blades sharpened down to toothpicks and jigged bone covers that were worn smooth but no cracks. So they can survive a lot of use.

Buzzbait said:
I've had a center pin crack, but that's about it. I was able to superglue the crack when it first appeared. Now I can't even find the crack.
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Iirc, it was also right at the chamfer.

fishcakes said:
I had a rough rider peanut in bone. I wanted to see how "fragile" bone actually is, so i dropped it onto a concrete floor off a lift from about 20ft. Only had one tiny crack after multiple drops.

Unless your knife sees some serious abuse, i doubt bone would crack on you as long as you clean and oil it once in awhile
Click to expand...

Imported from Krypton. ;)
 
I've got a Schrade stockman that is about 70 years old and beat to hell. The bone is real smooth, but there isn't one crack.
 
The only time I have had cracked bone or a portion that fell off is after dropping on concrete. That is not a good idea. Happened only once.
 
supratentorial said:
I've seen old knives with blades sharpened down to toothpicks and jigged bone covers that were worn smooth but no cracks. So they can survive a lot of use.



Iirc, it was also right at the chamfer.



Imported from Krypton. ;)
Click to expand...

Now that you mention it, that knife did see quite a bit of sunlight. Hmm...:rolleyes:
 
I see stag cracks quite often, can't remember too many bone cracks though.
 
i wonder about it myself from time to time. I have never cracked a scale, even dropping it onto concrete. However, I do know it happens. Bone and horn seem to benefit from an routine drink of mineral oil. So while I have never busted one, I see old knives missing half a scale all the time. Makes me wonder what happened to them to get into such a state.
 
Tougher than some perceive, but it can crack if dropped. I find plenty of old bone-handled knives with cracks, or worse, but have one which looks like it was run over by a truck, and still has most of the bone :thumbup:
 
My edc on the ranch is a case trapper with bone scales and I've beat the tar out of that thing and not a single crack.

Daniel.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'd bet ya a lot of cracks that show up mysteriously in bone are just one peen too many during construction. Doesn't show right away but that stress is still there.
 
I'm pretty clumsy, and drop my pocket knife fairly often. :witless: I've broken stone covers and scratched up wood ones but have never had bone scales break. They're tough!

Jeff
 
Bolsters should help keep any cover from breaking when dropped. Is this true?
 
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