Have you ever had a clip point blade tip break?

[sunandsteel]

Also, the nice pointed tips of those knives are a big temptation when someone needs to pry up an old nail or perhaps the lid off a paint can etc..

Maybe it's just me but when I see that something needs to be pried up, I never think to pull out a knife. I'm thinking wonder bar, flathead screwdriver, or some other tool. Common sense seems to be fading these days.

 

[Modoc ED]

That's pretty cool. And now I'm kicking myself that I wasn't even aware of Buck's close proximity to San Diego, when I was stationed at the naval base there in the '80s.


David

Yeah, it was cool David. After I broke the tip on that knife, my buddy and I left the ship to go to the exchange there at North Island but thought about Buck Knives and went out there. The woman gave us the knives I'm sure because of the broken tip of my knife but also because we were service connected. I can't remember her name but on more than one occasion she had given something Buck related free of charge to guys/gals taking the time to drive out to Buck Knives in uniform.

 

[midnight flyer]

In my business I have seen a lot of Buck 110s with broken tips, as well as a lot of other job site working knives. The owners over stress the knives because they get lazy about going to get the right tool and take a chance they won't break the tip. Many times when the tips break off of a work knife clip blade it is because they have been sharpened enough times that the tips are very thin so sometimes it only takes a little stress on the blade.

Which is what happened to me. I had a great old Boker stockman that I dropped from some height and it landed tip down onto the tile floor of a restaurant I was working on. The Boker steel was soft enough that it broke the very tip off, but bent back another 1/8" or so into a little hook I had to grind/sharpen out.

Never broke one by twisting or prying, though.

Robert

 

[knarfeng]

Is this a somewhat common thing to happen to the clip point tip? Does the tip tend to snap easily?

Breakage is no more common on a clip blade than it is on any other when the same stress is applied. There is nothing about the design of a clip blade that makes it especially prone to breaking.

 

[knarfeng]

Maybe it's just me but when I see that something needs to be pried up, I never think to pull out a knife. I'm thinking wonder bar, flathead screwdriver, or some other tool. Common sense seems to be fading these days.

You have it wrong. Prying with a knife blade is old school. VERY old school. Back in the day a man's pocket knife was his universal tool and he used it for everything. We didn't carry screwdrivers or mini-pry bars. We carried a pocket knife and we used it for everything. And when they broke or wore out, we bought another, because they did not cost a whole lot.

 

[AreBeeBee]

I was reading someplace (Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast perhaps) that at the start of a voyage in sailing ship days, the hands were mustered and the bosun would check everyone's knife. If it had a point, the point was snapped off.

Sounds like it was a good precaution to me, given the circumstances. I wonder if this practice continues at sea today.

 

[sunandsteel]

You have it wrong. Prying with a knife blade is old school. VERY old school. Back in the day a man's pocket knife was his universal tool and he used it for everything. We didn't carry screwdrivers or mini-pry bars. We carried a pocket knife and we used it for everything. And when they broke or wore out, we bought another, because they did not cost a whole lot.

I can see it back then but if you've spent you're hard earned money on a decent knife today, I don't think it's wise to use a knife to pry things up unless it's a life or death situation. I remember last week someone posted that they loaned their uncle a knife out of his pocket because they were working at a junk yard and trying to remove a radio or something. The uncle handed back the PM2 with the tip broken off after he was done using the knife. So yes if you're using a knife that's inexpensive like a Mora, and you don't mind beating the heck out of it, than it's not a big loss financially.

 

[Macchina]

My Grandpa gave me his Buck 112 when I was about 14. The knife had seen at least 30 years in the woods. When he gave it to me, he told me everyone had the 110 back then but he bought the 112 because "it was as much knife as you'd ever need"...

My brother got a Seiko watch worth probably 4 times the knife but he was quite jealous of the knife. Fast forward 4 or 5 years later and my brother asked to borrow that knife for some impromptu squirrel hunting. He brought it back to me with the last 1/8" missing. I was so upset and really let him know it but he could care less. It sucks to lose borrowing privileges so early in life...