It's here!!!! FK Destruction Video!!!

[JustinFournier]

The question it leaves me with, though, is: how many knives are, in actuality, failing at the plunge line?

Personally I would never snap either knife there. I was sent a LC with the sole purpose of seeing what it could handle and instructed to return it in two or more pieces. It went back a little dull, but perfectly serviceable and I did things to it that I would NEVER do with my own knife, or any knife in normal use.

The point I was trying to make is this.

We're talking about destructive testing. Nothing to do with regular knife use. A comment was made, perhaps not as an intentional troll, but none the less has fueled the latter part of this discussion.

If we are talking about failure, and at which point it WOULD occur when someone references another model in comparison to the FK, as potentially stronger, but fails to identify that the FK has been engineered to resist failure as much as it can within it's intended design, while the other knife was simply made thick and fat. Then ignores it almost looks like a notch was built in to allow controlled failure, hence the pic I referenced, is mistaken in where they have placed their confidence.

So if Nathan says, my knife is designed to cut and slice, it completes that objective beautifully while being as strong as it reasonably can be without sacrificing too much performance and is designed around the material used. While....

The other Guy says, my knife is designed to never fail, to be a survival knife, to be the one tool you can depend on... cutting performance is secondary, (it really is) but then seems to not understand the material used effects that design (same design many materials) and really seems to be missing the fact that the design has a massive introduced weakness, it's not a plunge line in itself, it's the notch (can be choil or jimping)... well I will leave the rest up to you!

 

[sfrigon1]

What knife was the one that snapped ?

 

[JustinFournier]

Glad to see I am not the only one dumb enough to hammer a knife into a tree then jump on the handle!! I feel better now.

 

[timichango]

His point and mine was if a knife will fail from flexing (life of death or fucking around) odds are 90-99% it will be in the middle of the knife at the knotch. A common metal test is a knotch test where they put a notch in a piece of metal, hit it, and 99% of the time it breaks at the notch. Unless you have previously exerted or internally damaged the steel.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I completely get your point, and Justin's. The big question for me is around the "If". Is that "if" enough of a possibility, in probable usage, that it's a central design consideration? Or just a nice bit of prevention?

Put another way: would you consider the sharpening notch + plunge line arrangement on the S!K knives to be a design flaw? Or just a potential weak spot?

 

[JustinFournier]

On Nathan's forum I'm not gonna call it anything other than food for thought for the people making comparisons.

In my opinion it's a massive inconsistency. If your primary design goal is to make it indestructible, every aspect of the design should conform to that goal as much as is reasonable and nothing about it can directly undermine it.

 

[gsx-rboy750]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I completely get your point, and Justin's. The big question for me is around the "If". Is that "if" enough of a possibility, in probable usage, that it's a central design consideration? Or just a nice bit of prevention?

Put another way: would you consider the sharpening notch + plunge line arrangement on the S!K knives to be a design flaw? Or just a potential weak spot?

If you said I want a "survival" knife which I may need to use in hard use one tool options. There would be no sharpening choil notch whatever.

Glad to see I am not the only one dumb enough to hammer a knife into a tree then jump on the handle!! I feel better now.

Ya definetly not. It is actually a really bad idea. If it would break your leg would likely get seriously cut up. The edges on that broken part were razor and micro serrated. I would not repeat this. Again in hind sight.

On Nathan's forum I'm not gonna call it anything other than food for thought for the people making comparisons.

In my opinion it's a massive inconsistency. If your primary design goal is to make it indestructible, every aspect of the design should conform to that goal as much as is reasonable and nothing about it can directly undermine it.

Bam this ding!!

 

[gsx-rboy750]

What knife was the one that snapped ?

My first knife. 3v pht 62-63RC. I had been doing some serious "testing" and it was like 0'f outside. But to Nates point once you internally damage the steel it is only a matter of time.

 

[JustinFournier]

Ya definetly not. It is actually a really bad idea. If it would break your leg would likely get seriously cut up. The edges on that broken part were razor and micro serrated. I would not repeat this. Again in hind sight.

I was holding a branch above me with two hands (I can do a chin-up no problem) in case it did bend, snap or give out, but after watching the video of Nathan with like a 3' pipe on the handle of the LC, standing on a stool in the shop trying to get it to break, I figured I was pretty safe. Can you imagine if he fell from up there if it gave out? Hawt dayum. What a boss.

Night Gentlemen!

 

[gsx-rboy750]

I was holding a branch above me with two hands (I can do a chin-up no problem) in case it did bend, snap or give out, but after watching the video of Nathan with like a 3' pipe on the handle of the LC, standing on a stool in the shop trying to get it to break, I figured I was pretty safe. Can you imagine if he fell from up there if it gave out? Hawt dayum. What a boss.

Night Gentlemen!

Sorry 2nd shifter here. I am more saying in general I dont think it is a good idea. I broke a couple knives so far and when they let go it is not expected.

 

[Tim the Wizard]

I'd probably break trying this at home... way before the knife did.

 

[timichango]

Sorry 2nd shifter here. I am more saying in general I dont think it is a good idea. I broke a couple knives so far and when they let go it is not expected.

Yeah, the harder/less ductile the material, the more catastrophically and spontaneously it'll fail when it eventually does. Kinda the same thing as failure modes in cromoly bike frames vs. carbon fiber.

 

[sfrigon1]

My first knife. 3v pht 62-63RC. I had been doing some serious "testing" and it was like 0'f outside. But to Nates point once you internally damage the steel it is only a matter of time.

So at some point during your testing it took some serious shock and or bend ?

 

[gsx-rboy750]

So at some point during your testing it took some serious shock and or bend ?

Ah yes there is a pic of me standing on it at about 30-45' of bending. As stated I did everything to break it and it did. I just wanted to echo the statement where once you shock the shit out of it it is only a matter of time. I flexed it multiple times to about 45' and that day it was close to 0'f and I was battoning frozen knotty maple.