Have "you" experienced a knife failure?

shortwinger

shortwinger

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Please read this question carefully:

Have "you" personally experienced a knife failure while out doing what that particular knife was designed to do or should reasonably be expected to do?
(please note, this is not a destruction test thread, only actual field use)

This question is especially aimed at professional or other hardcore outdoorsman but looking for everyones input...

Please indicate:
The knife
The activity
Your experience level
Your Comments

Thanks,
Bill
Virginia
 
Nope, not even with my 10$ chinese bowie knife, unless you count the butt falling off (ka-bar style handle assembly) But it still works without it.
I've beat the snot out of Fällkniven F,S,A 1 in the woods, still works like new.
 
I had a Ka-Bar snap at the tang and sent the handle out onto the pavement. It was hooked to my web gear and I dropped the rig from the back of a helicopter as we were unloading, about 4 feet to the ground. It must have hit just right and broken. I am a very experienced with knives and I believe that this was just a freak accident.
 
I have used knives my whole life. I had the liner lock on a Gerber (paraframe?) Fail while cutting up large cardboard boxes,two fingers were cut pretty bad.
 
The knife - Cheaper than Dirt "Rough Use Knife" as tested by Noss.

The activity - Batoning 4" piece of wood.

Your experience level - Good enough

Your Comments - Blade separated from the tang on the third strike of the baton leaving me holding the handle only. Luckily, it was only $10.
 
Never had a failure using a knife as intended. Only failures have been when trying use one as a pry-bar. Like opening a can of paint with an Opinel #6 :D
 
I have had two different knives, folders, where the blade "broke" backwards, so the back of the blade was resting on the backs of my fingers. One was a Frost Whittler POS (I know, I KNOW), the other was a Schrade Cliphanger (over ten yrs ago). Both times it was cardboard that caused the failure. The Schrade it was a cardboard pallet corner, the frost it was just heavy-duty triple-wall.
 
i had the liner slip on my Kershaw scallion...
Knife=Kershaw Scallion
Activity= pushing/drilling the tip into a 1/8" piece of plywood
Experience= Enough. EDCd a Scallion for over a year.
Comments= The liner slipped causing and the blade partially closed on my finger. The choil saved my fingers, but its really scary to have a liner fail on you when your using the knife hard. I think the liner was good enough, i was just using a small light duty knife for a heavy duty job.
 
ElectrikHellfire said:
The knife - Cheaper than Dirt "Rough Use Knife" as tested by Noss.

The activity - Batoning 4" piece of wood.

Your experience level - Good enough

Your Comments - Blade separated from the tang on the third strike of the baton leaving me holding the handle only. Luckily, it was only $10.
Click to expand...

Same thing here too! That ba**ard NOSS cost me $15 and a sore hand when the thing snapped it transferred a load of shock into the handle. :thumbdn:
 
In my 45 years of carrying and using knives, I have never had a failure...period. Growing up, 'old growth' forest was literally my playground. Whether it was making spoons out of holly or whistles out of maple, a knife was my constant companion. Never lost a tip either.
 
The only incident I consider a knife failure rather than a user failure was when the slipjoint secondary blade on a Benchmade 921 Switchback snapped off while I was cutting caulking off the edge of a ceramic tile. I finished that job with a Case Mini Copperhead with a nearly identical blade, except for lacking the holes that BM put in theirs.

My experience level? 45 years of daily carry and extensive work, largely with non-locking folders.

My comments? Yes, I've folded knives shut on my fingers a few times. Yes, I've gotten cut when I did. No, they were not knife failures, they were operator failures. Yes, good locks would have prevented those injuries. No, I would not have learned what I was doing wrong and corrected my techniques without those incidents.
 
I had a Schrade Multi tool that the blade lock failed on me but for using knifes for 35yrs, that wasn't so bad.
 
I've had a knife that acted like a slip-joint right out of the box, and induced several others to fail (spine whacking, throwing into a log, batoning), but never had one fail during normal use.
 
The knife: Kabar Bull Dozier
The activity: Prying bark off of a dead tree for kindling (not pry bar stuff, just light use)
My experience: Umm, I am a man.
My comments: Kabar fixed it for free, but I sold it as I just didnt trust it anymore. My Gen 1 Kabar USMC knife was beat to hell for 5 years before I traded it to a British Royal Marine. Thats was a knife.
 
I've never had a knife fail in it's intended use. I've had plenty fail thanks to my stupidity.
 
I snapped about 1/2 of the tip off a cheap Buck fixed blade (Voyager???Venture???) when I was using it to dig holes for transplanting tomato plants in some hard and rocky ground. It was truly gross abuse of a knife but I just ground a new tip profile and still use that knife for gardening purposes.
 
I've had two knife failures.

An el cheapo olympia folder had the tip snap off and took a big chip out of the blade (two separate problems) The tip I broke trying to pick a rubber plug out of a rubber piece of trim.

The second was a jeep branded folder that the liner lock slipped. I don't remember what I was cutting but it was fairly light duty and luckily I didn't cut myself. The liner on this knife was poor from the start and I don't use it anymore.

I believe that both of these problems was due to the very poor quality of the knives. I have since come to recognise the value of a well made knife.

I'm not a knife expert but I'm 29 years old and I've been using knives for most of those years ;)
 
In 31 years of knife use I have broken at least three cheap folders through rough use. We're talking giveaway knives put through rough abuse (I broke them doing things I would not do with a good knife, cause who cares, right?). I usually carry a cheapie in my pack for prying, cutting/punching metal, etc. Things I would rather not risk a good knife on given the option.

The only good knife I had fail (not sure this meets the criteria) was a vintage Gerber mk. 1. Dropped onto tile and broke an inch off the tip. :(
 
Not on a knife but I have had my lm wave multitool fail on me. I was cutting through the sternum of a very big whitetail buck and the saw blade snapped near the hinge. It was on the pull stroke and I couldn't stop myself and on the push stroke I jammed my knuckle down on the piece jammed in the rib cage. The broken jagged end of the saw jammed into my knuckle to the bone. It took a long time to heal. Leatherman fixed it no questions asked. I must have twisted it a bit or something.

I've shed more blood from that dam wave than all my other knives combined but I still carry it everyday.
 
I had the stop pin break on a cheap no name China made knife when cutting straps off of pallets. This was before I was into higher quality knives. The blade just rotated till the spine hit my fingers.
 
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