How likely are Becker knives to break in a survival situation?

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tim777us

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Apr 8, 2018
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Hi everyone. I just saw a YouTube video where a guy took a big rock and hammered it into wood to break the Becker Bk-7. I guess his thing is to see how much abuse a knife will take before it breaks. Which is fine. He said at the end of the video something about the knife being likely to break on you.
His name is Joe X, if you want to see it. No offense meant to Mr. X, but I can't imagine any kind of survival situation where I would need to hit my knife with a giant heavy rock. Batoning, sure, but the Beckers have been known to take that all day.
A few people throw them, and I know that throwing is very hard on a knife and most knives will eventually break if they are hardened steel. No surprise there if it eventually breaks.
What do you guys think of the Becker knives? Personally, I think they are pretty good, and I hear they have excellent customer service at Ka-bar. Do you think a knife snapping after hammering it with a rock and doing things like bashing the edge against a metal pole (like he does in some videos) would make you less likely to buy that knife? I actually think that these tests are not a bad thing to give you an idea of what the knife can survive, but it doesn't seem like I'm ever going to have to worry about that kind of stuff realistically.
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I'd say they're not likely at all to break in your normal outdoors, bushcrafty, survival situation: Notching, sharpening sticks, making wedges, a little batoning, striking fire steels, all that. But in the grand scheme I'd say they are about as likely to break in the blade as any other fixed blade in a similar thickness, similar hardness, similar steel, and without any big 90 degree angles or other such shapes that can weeken a blade blank.

I've never broken a blade except for the tippy tip of a folder. I've only ever seen one fixed blade fracture, and that was when me and my friend were throwing our identical, inexpensive fixed blades, and I just happened to get lucky and he didn't. They were cheap huge bowies with sharp 90 degree angles at the top of the handle.
 
tim777us said:
Do you think a knife snapping after hammering it with a rock and doing things like bashing the edge against a metal pole (like he does in some videos) would make you less likely to buy that knife?
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No.

I think doing that sort of stuff is useful, or at least it was. I remember Cliff Stamp trying to do it in a controlled way, and have seen Busse do it with their fixed blades at shows, and Strider do it to their folders. That set of stuff informed better designs and drove some improvements in steels and even though I won't be taking advantage of those it doesn't hurt for them to be out there.
 
Citori said:
No.

I think doing that sort of stuff is useful, or at least it was. I remember Cliff Stamp trying to do it in a controlled way, and have seen Busse do it with their fixed blades at shows, and Strider do it to their folders. That set of stuff informed better designs and drove some improvements in steels and even though I won't be taking advantage of those it doesn't hurt for them to be out there.
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I agree that there is some benefit to doing it, and I said so in my original post. I just don't think it would necessarily turn me off of a certain brand, unless it failed doing something it should be able to do. I think the Becker Bk-7 stood up to a decent amount of abuse before breaking. The only issue I had was when the guy doing the test said they are likely to break on you. Well, maybe if you do a test designed to break the knife which includes bashing it with a rock, then sure. Who knows, the next Becker might have stood up to even more abuse. Or possibly a little less. Still a good knife. Thanks for your comment, and I agree.
 
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So tired of seeing Joe X's videos get brought up.. (nothing against OP)

I could break any knife if I was intentionally trying to. My BK9 and BK16 have processed miles of wood at this point, including lots of batoning.. never had any issues.
 
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Joe X is a mixed bag for me. Most of what he does is unscientific and clearly can't be taken as any form of measurement with validity, but if you read between the lines you can sometimes find appreciation for knives you thought would fail more quickly. I was legitimately surprised how the thin AUS8 Cold Steel Marauder performed stabbing through car steel.

That said, no, the Becker isn't going to break on you in a survival situation. Think about it logically: If you are on your own in the wilds, energy conservation is key. You won't be doing any more than you have to in order to maintain your energy levels on limited calories. Moving slowly and only going about business that is required to survive will be your goals.

If you are turned upside-down in a small airplane with your gear and need to get out of a twisted fuselage that is on fire, then yes you are going to bag and smack and chop to get the hell out of dodge. That is the only job of that tool at the time, the next 60 seconds. Even Joe took longer than that to destroy the knife.
 
Corton93 said:
So tired of seeing Joe X's videos get brought up.. (nothing against OP)

I could break any knife if I was intentionally trying to. My BK9 and BK16 have processed miles of wood at this point, including lots of batoning.. never had any issues.
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No offense taken at all. I mean...if you set out to destroy a knife, and you (gasp!) destroy it, why bad mouth it? Especially when it took a decent amount of abuse beforehand?
We all know that every single knife can't be tested. The occasional outlier gets through. But Becker has built up a good reputation as solid knives over years of good customer experiences.
I'm pretty thankful to have one. Just like you, I've put mine through some work. I don't baton (how did our forefathers survive without batoning? 😉) but this knife has been a great companion, even doing the work of a hatchet sometimes. Well, kind of... Pretty good for a 13 oz. knife.
 
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Steely_Gunz said:
Joe X is a mixed bag for me. Most of what he does is unscientific and clearly can't be taken as any form of measurement with validity, but if you read between the lines you can sometimes find appreciation for knives you thought would fail more quickly. I was legitimately surprised how the thin AUS8 Cold Steel Marauder performed stabbing through car steel.

That said, no, the Becker isn't going to break on you in a survival situation. Think about it logically: If you are on your own in the wilds, energy conservation is key. You won't be doing any more than you have to in order to maintain your energy levels on limited calories. Moving slowly and only going about business that is required to survive will be your goals.

If you are turned upside-down in a small airplane with your gear and need to get out of a twisted fuselage that is on fire, then yes you are going to bag and smack and chop to get the hell out of dodge. That is the only job of that tool at the time, the next 60 seconds. Even Joe took longer than that to destroy the knife.
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Excellent points! 👍
 
His goal is to break knives. No surprise when that happens. What's interesting, however, is seeing just how much (or little) some knives can take, which far exceeds normal usage. If someone needs to use a Becker in the manner shown in the video, something has gone disastrously wrong. That said, yes, I occasionally enjoy his videos.
 
Weiss said:
His goal is to break knives. No surprise when that happens. What's interesting, however, is seeing just how much (or little) some knives can take, which far exceeds normal usage. If someone needs to use a Becker in the manner shown in the video, something has gone disastrously wrong. That said, yes, I occasionally enjoy his videos.
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Yeah, I agree that the videos aren't a bad thing, and mean no offense to Mr. X, but I do disagree that, after bashing it with a really big rock and it (surprise!) breaks, that equals a knife that is going to break on you in the field. I think I'll try not to bash my knife with a huge rock, and just keep it maybe. Hopefully, though, as someone suggested, it may lead to new processes and breakthroughs in the knife industry.
 
dogstar said:
Not likely to break a knife during survival, because it would be my most valuable tool, and my survival depended on it.
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That's exactly right. Who in their right mind would? These are knives that have a reputation for being solid performers in that kind of situation. Any survivalist or outdoorsman worth his salt knows that you must take care of your tool(s), especially in a situation where this tool(s) can determine your well-being. Well said!
 
tim777us said:
Hi everyone. I just saw a YouTube video where the guy took a big rock and hammered it into wood to break the Becker Bk-7. I guess his thing is to see how much abuse a knife will take before it breaks. Which is fine. He said at the end of the video something about the knife being likely to break on you.
His name is Joe X if you want to see it. No offense meant to Mr. X, but I can't imagine any kind of survival situation where I would need to hit my knife with a giant heavy rock. Batoning, sure, but the Beckers have been known to take that all day.
A few people throw them, and I know that throwing is very hard on a knife and most knives will eventually break if they are hardened steel. No surprise there if it eventually breaks.
What do you guys think of the Becker knives? Personally, I think they are pretty good, and I hear they have excellent customer service at Ka-bar. Do you think a knife snapping after hammering it with a rock and doing things like bashing the edge against a metal pole (like he does in some videos) would make you less likely to buy that knife? I actually think that these tests are not a bad thing to give you an idea of what the knife can survive, but it doesn't seem like I'm ever going to have to worry about that kind of stuff realistically.
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In a survival situation, you should not be hammering on your edged tool. It's a marginal benefit with inherent risks of breakage or degradation of your cutting tool. You won't need to plane out boards, it would be more helpful to still have a blade to make poles or do whatever other tasks you need than to have a broken blade because you were trying to make a cabin during a survival situation.
 
YouTube tests are strange things & nothing to do with real life.

Some years ago I was interested in buying a Cold Steel Pocket Bushman, now I'm not necessarily a Cold Steel fanboy but I appreciated this knife's ram lock, it appealed to my techy engineering side as a rock solid idea.

So looking on YouTube I came across what I can only describe as an idiot hell bent on breaking it like he had something against it, this person is famous & I didn't know at the time, I commented in the replies that I thought he was misusing the knife & it really was unfair, my comment was deleted & I then found any comment that didn't praise this person went the same way...

I bought the knife 😄.........to me it actually demonstrated how well made & tough the knife was.
 
TheEdge01 said:
Any fixed blade from a reputable manufacturer will last a lifetime if properly used. Some knives can handle abuse better than others, but most manufacturers and knife makers don’t recommend it.
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Absolutely! I just couldn't come up with a scenario where a knife would be put through that kind of abuse in any realistic survival situation. I've never needed to baton while camping, and my Becker Bk-7 has been used to do the work of a hatchet, which it breezed through. If anything, I'd say it's overbuilt.
 
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