But if you do enough dumb stuff with a knife, it WILL happen at some point.
Yep, I broke an RC-3 yesterday.
I'm the same guy who sent Jeff and Mike the note about the RC3 which I bent about 120 degrees (total flex to the right and then the left) with no damage or deformation. I love that knife. Even with the newly broken blade I love that knife.
I'm the guy who's carrying, even with a few other flirtations along the way, only two versions of a fixed blade. Either a Mad Dog Bear Cat/ Baby Mako (I just retired the Pack Rat and sold it) which run into the $700-800 range, or a RAT RC-3. Other than some specific uses for small knife, the daily carry rig is still one of these two choices.
Anyway, yesterday I was replacing a door for a friend and his cheap-ass 5-way painter's chisel was not making it for me. The first indication was when I stuck it in between frame and casing and the blade separated from the handle. I guess you DO get what you pay for.
So with all the hubris which comes from knowing you've got an indestructible wundertul clipped inside your belt, and knowing you've used it to open paint cans, scrape whatever, pry whatever, shape, shave and shiv whatever, I pushed the point in between the casing, really 1x4 lumber, and the frame, 4x4 posts. It's a river house built about 60 years ago and held together with 16d nails thruout.
The top of the door was cased with a larger stock, maybe 1x6 and a few more nails so I got "clever" and less patient than I should have. I used a hammer to insert the knife further into the newly formed gap between casing and frame. See, instead of going a little at a time, I'm doing more with less (you should be laughing by now)
In inserting the knife only an inch to inch and a half, and then working the gap gently so i could insert a WonderBar, I was giving the knife time and room to flex along the blade.
In shoving and then hammering it in up to the choil, then, ah, levering (yanking) it sideways, we achieved a different result. It had no room for give and I am about 185 with long strong levers. Whoops.
My immediate reaction was the usual (SHIT!) followed by a belly laugh at my own expense. I do not believe the knife failed. I failed it. I just went well past the parameters of the design. You cannot take a piece of steel, remove the element of flex mechanically and then lever the hell out of it laterally unless you accept this as a likely result.
They can be broken if you do dumb stuff.
Still, I got a good laugh out of it and then wandered out to the car and stuck a Mad Dog in my belt. Yeah, I admit it, I stuck the RAT in my belt because I know I'll do dumb stuff like pry whatever with it and it IS easier to get a new one than a handmade knife, but despite the cost difference, considerable, and the bitch of replacing it if I phark it up too, I still put the Baby Mako into immediate replacement service when the RAT went down.
I did not baby the MD, even did some of the same type of prying with it (not as exuberantly as the initial experiment), and I guess that's why I carry both the MDK and the RAT. They're made for users, not the guy whittling tent pegs in a cub scout camp, but real serious knife users who maybe will find the edge of the envelope once in a while, even push past it.
RAT Guys (okay, okay, ESEE Guys), you do build a hell of a knife and I've got another going back out with me today. You want me to send you the knife so your magicians can get a look at it, see what happened when it broke?
I hope this tickles someone's funny bone the way it does mine, but there is a lesson in here as well. Just like use, the knives do have a failure point and it's just like ours - remove the room for give and it will break under the right kind of stress.
Have a great Saturday, ESEE Folks.
Yep, I broke an RC-3 yesterday.
I'm the same guy who sent Jeff and Mike the note about the RC3 which I bent about 120 degrees (total flex to the right and then the left) with no damage or deformation. I love that knife. Even with the newly broken blade I love that knife.
I'm the guy who's carrying, even with a few other flirtations along the way, only two versions of a fixed blade. Either a Mad Dog Bear Cat/ Baby Mako (I just retired the Pack Rat and sold it) which run into the $700-800 range, or a RAT RC-3. Other than some specific uses for small knife, the daily carry rig is still one of these two choices.
Anyway, yesterday I was replacing a door for a friend and his cheap-ass 5-way painter's chisel was not making it for me. The first indication was when I stuck it in between frame and casing and the blade separated from the handle. I guess you DO get what you pay for.
So with all the hubris which comes from knowing you've got an indestructible wundertul clipped inside your belt, and knowing you've used it to open paint cans, scrape whatever, pry whatever, shape, shave and shiv whatever, I pushed the point in between the casing, really 1x4 lumber, and the frame, 4x4 posts. It's a river house built about 60 years ago and held together with 16d nails thruout.
The top of the door was cased with a larger stock, maybe 1x6 and a few more nails so I got "clever" and less patient than I should have. I used a hammer to insert the knife further into the newly formed gap between casing and frame. See, instead of going a little at a time, I'm doing more with less (you should be laughing by now)
In inserting the knife only an inch to inch and a half, and then working the gap gently so i could insert a WonderBar, I was giving the knife time and room to flex along the blade.
In shoving and then hammering it in up to the choil, then, ah, levering (yanking) it sideways, we achieved a different result. It had no room for give and I am about 185 with long strong levers. Whoops.
My immediate reaction was the usual (SHIT!) followed by a belly laugh at my own expense. I do not believe the knife failed. I failed it. I just went well past the parameters of the design. You cannot take a piece of steel, remove the element of flex mechanically and then lever the hell out of it laterally unless you accept this as a likely result.
They can be broken if you do dumb stuff.
Still, I got a good laugh out of it and then wandered out to the car and stuck a Mad Dog in my belt. Yeah, I admit it, I stuck the RAT in my belt because I know I'll do dumb stuff like pry whatever with it and it IS easier to get a new one than a handmade knife, but despite the cost difference, considerable, and the bitch of replacing it if I phark it up too, I still put the Baby Mako into immediate replacement service when the RAT went down.
I did not baby the MD, even did some of the same type of prying with it (not as exuberantly as the initial experiment), and I guess that's why I carry both the MDK and the RAT. They're made for users, not the guy whittling tent pegs in a cub scout camp, but real serious knife users who maybe will find the edge of the envelope once in a while, even push past it.
RAT Guys (okay, okay, ESEE Guys), you do build a hell of a knife and I've got another going back out with me today. You want me to send you the knife so your magicians can get a look at it, see what happened when it broke?
I hope this tickles someone's funny bone the way it does mine, but there is a lesson in here as well. Just like use, the knives do have a failure point and it's just like ours - remove the room for give and it will break under the right kind of stress.
Have a great Saturday, ESEE Folks.
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