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

tim777us said:
Well, tbh, for a woods gun, a .357 Magnum is more versatile. You can shoot .38's for practice (cheaper) and there are a lot of different .38 and .357 loads for all sorts of things including hunting small game. If you got at least a 5" barrel, you could take advantage of the best .357 ballistics. You can even hunt deer with a .357 that has a 5 or 6 inch barrel, in a lot of states. You can even custom tune hand loads. Can't do that with a 10mm. Hand loads may not cycle the recoil spring if they are a little below pressure.
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Regarding my bold..........says who? 😉🙂
 
Drop bear I was pretty disappointed with the Hultafors "heavy duty" knife. I use tools for work and although very cheap I used it as intended and had to back off as it was about to go (blade separate from handle). I don't think Joe X is particularly strong bless him! I might try the Bahco "wrecking" knife. For the cheap end of working knives my Moras have for a little more proved more durable than the Hultafors and they are fnished better and have superior blades and handles too.
 
Drop bear said:
Skrama.

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J. Doyle said:
I don't totally disagree, however.....a lot depends on how they are made. That goes for stick tang OR full tang.

Stick tangs can be INCREDIBLY tough. I had the unfortunate opportunity (sad/angry story) to take a wood handle off a stick tang bowie I built. I was.....how shall I put it....emotional. I did things to that blade out of anger trying to utterly destroy it to justify completely starting over. I finally took a four pound sledge to the whole thing.....and it still was barely damaged! It took my bandsaw and grinder to ultimately get the handle off. The blade/tang were pretty much undamaged. It was rehandled and finished out nicely.

Conversely, I've seen more than a couple full tangs break rather easily due to holes drilled in the tang or skeletonizing.

It all depends on HOW it's done.
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Do you know what type of steel that knife was? Just curious. Type of steel and heat treatment do matter some, but yes, I wish Becker would stop putting a hole in their full tangs to "lighten" it. I don't care about the extra ounce or so. It's a stress point, period.
 
Drop bear said:
There was a story where someone had to be cut out of a car using a knife.

I think these tests gear more towards a construction knife rather than a bushcraft knife. And they tend to fair a bit better.


The hultafors heavy duty is basically unkillable.

And so it depends what you want it to do.
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I do wish some of these knife companies would stop putting holes in their full tangs" to "lighten" it. It's a damn stress point. They ought to know better.
I was an EMT back in the day. We used heavy duty pry bars to extricate a patient from a car (FD had the halli tools and the jaws). Some of us kept pry bars in our cars (many of us we were volunteers, and we met the ambulance at calls) along with our own kits (b.p. cuff, stethoscope, pocket mask, bandages, first aid supplies, etc...)..
 
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J. Doyle said:
Regarding my bold..........says who? 😉🙂
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I just mean that low power loads may not cycle the spring. You may need low power springs. I didn't mean a 10mm can't do everything in the text. Just that you have to be careful with your loads (or use lighter springs. Or heavier, depending on the load).
 
tim777us said:
Do you know what type of steel that knife was? Just curious. Type of steel and heat treatment do matter some, but yes, I wish Becker would stop putting a hole in their full tangs to "lighten" it. I don't care about the extra ounce or so. It's a stress point, period.
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It was 1075 with tang and ricasso drawn back to a spring temper.
 
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Drop bear said:
Skrama.

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Most blades that the dude tested break at the blade, not even the tang. Many pocket knives tested don't break at the pivot neither. Bigger knives break more often, all over the place, not just at the tang, because of more leverage, less torque to to flex the blade to the breaking point in either direction. Also, shouldn't the Tavara Skama be considered rat tang? The tang is half width of the blade, the have the blade bare tang for sale.
Hashishiin said:
Good advice! The .38spl was the first pistol cartridge I fired, and I had a good time at it. Would like to try a .357 next! Love the variety of that revolver, though.

Wonder why the .44spl did not retain similar popularity, never fired it, would like to, though, and compare it to .38/.357
"I wonder why the BD1 lost popularity after BD1N, it's kind of what AUS10a was to AUS8a, but we see lots of new AUS8a!"
Starting to see how these breed so many crossfans, disregarding more obvious reasons, haha.
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.44Spl is more or less 9x19 in term of energy output. So you are not missing much. 9x19 is much more practical.
Some people like hot load .44Spl, but these are more safe to be fired from .44mag capable gun. Might as well shoot .44mag instead for such load.
 
Deino said:
.44Spl is more or less 9x19 in term of energy output. So you are not missing much. 9x19 is much more practical.
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This is misleading, as a larger slower round can transfer more of its energy TO the target, rather than wasting a sizable portion BEHIND the target due to overpenetration. This is accomplished by spending more TIME inside the target, with the larger surface area creating more drag, for a more intimate interface. In addition, all things being equal, what a 9x19 might miss by a millimeter, the .44Spl would still nick.

Ballistic performance and terminal performance are related, but there is no universal correlation. I'd rather have a .44Spl than a 9mm if my target was a 325lb black bear. Leakage is good, but leakage isn't everything. A bear doesn't KNOW he's just been shot with a 9mm, and is supposed to fall down dead. You hit him with an ice pick, and he barely felt it. There is a REASON why hunting guides carry a .45-70 instead of a .308, or even a 10mm Auto with even more rounds. Energy transfer is the key to stopping power. And larger rounds, in general, transfer more energy per round. None of which matters if you miss.....
 
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justjed said:
This is misleading, as a larger slower round can transfer more of its energy TO the target, rather than wasting a sizable portion BEHIND the target due to overpenetration. This is accomplished by spending more TIME inside the target, with the larger surface area creating more drag, for a more intimate interface. In addition, all things being equal, what a 9x19 might miss by a millimeter, the .44Spl would still nick.

Ballistic performance and terminal performance are related, but there is no universal correlation. I'd rather have a .44Spl than a 9mm if my target was a 325lb black bear. Leakage is good, but leakage isn't everything. A bear doesn't KNOW he's just been shot with a 9mm, and is supposed to fall down dead. You hit him with an ice pick, and he barely felt it. There is a REASON why hunting guides carry a .45-70 instead of a .308, or even a 10mm Auto with even more rounds. Energy transfer is the key to stopping power. And larger rounds, in general, transfer more energy per round. None of which matters if you miss.....
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Hmm, the energy output here has more to do with the recoil than stopping power, which has more to do with the feel of shooting than what you are hitting on. There are 9mm revolvers, they are not some rarity.

You instantaneously think of stopping power when seeing the word 'energy'... There are hollow point, hollow capped tip, flat head round, soft point, lead shot (no jacket), etc. there are so many options for handgun cartridges to transfer more energy and create bigger wound that their initial diameter, spear point FMJ is not the only thing you can get for about any handgun cartridge, let alone something widely used like 9x19.
 
Recoil is on my end, and is meaningless. The only thing that counts is effective hits, and bigger projectiles have a greater opportunity to cause damage.
I know 9mm is effective. Pretty much any caliber above .25ACP can be effective, assuming good hits. Bigger calibers increase the odds. Simple as that.
But, if I wanted the equivalent of a 9mm in a revolver, I'd prefer a seven round .327Mag.
 
Deino said:
Most blades that the dude tested break at the blade, not even the tang. Many pocket knives tested don't break at the pivot neither. Bigger knives break more often, all over the place, not just at the tang, because of more leverage, less torque to to flex the blade to the breaking point in either direction. Also, shouldn't the Tavara Skama be considered rat tang? The tang is half width of the blade, the have the blade bare tang for sale.
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Would you want an exposed tang chopper? I assume the reverberation from the bare steel to your hand would be pretty severe.
 
Dav1 said:
Drop bear I was pretty disappointed with the Hultafors "heavy duty" knife. I use tools for work and although very cheap I used it as intended and had to back off as it was about to go (blade separate from handle). I don't think Joe X is particularly strong bless him! I might try the Bahco "wrecking" knife. For the cheap end of working knives my Moras have for a little more proved more durable than the Hultafors and they are fnished better and have superior blades and handles too.
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I have both. My issue is they are rust machines. But for the sort of knife jobs that you don’t want to use a knife for. I find them perfect.

Like lending to people.
 
Drop bear said:
Would you want an exposed tang chopper? I assume the reverberation from the bare steel to your hand would be pretty severe.
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No, that's not what I meant. The bare tang example is to show the anecdote of tang size and type.
 
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