Knife Failure Stories

Matthew Gregory

Matthew Gregory

Chief Executive in charge of Entertainment
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There's been talk of 'failures' of knives... whether it's blade breakage, handle failures, etc... and these tales are brought up to promote discussion on what makes a knife a beneficial tool under situations of duress. However, I've yet to hear what I would call a 'firsthand' failure.

Rather than beleaguer the usual "knives are/aren't prybars -bend or break- baton/no baton" arguments, I want to hear where YOUR knife failed, in whatever situation you encountered the failure in. Please, I'd prefer it if this didn't turn into a chorus of "well, of COURSE it failed -- that's ABUSE" replies. If you have a personal example, please share it here!
 
I was using the small blade on a Benchmade Switchback to cut silicone caulk off the edge of ceramic tiles by the bathtub in one of our apartments, and the blade snapped right off. I wasn't prying, chopping, batoning or anything else, just cutting caulk when it went. When I contacted BM about it, they volunteered to replace the blade at no charge, but advised me that it was not suitable for such "heavy duty cutting tasks" :rolleyes:

I finished the job with a Case Wharncliffe Mini-Copperhead with a main blade of nearly identical dimensions to the BM that broke.

I didn't bother getting the decorative blade on the BM replaced, and I don't carry their knives anymore.
 
My first blade failure was also my first knife wound. About 8 or 9 and was using a beater lockback (if I remember right a 110 knock off on my dads workbench) to try to hollow out the inside of a stick. Blade closed on my finger with a nasty gash. Didn't want to get in trouble so bandaged it up and hid it. I was always getting hurt so I made up something about skinning up my finger on my bike I think;)
Several years ago Delta-Z went out of business and quite a few of us on the boards bought some at seriously discounted prices. Anyway I got a tanto design with olive wood handles. Had if for about a week and went to cut up some boxes. Went to pull it out of the cardboard about midway through the cut and the linerlock failed closing the blade on my hand. Luckily I was doing it slowly so I didn't end up getting cut. It was then relegated to mail opening and then I got rid of it so no one accidently picked it up and got hurt.
 
Wow, I'm completely stunned that there haven't been more posts on this thread! With all the horror stories of failures and 'urban myths' you here about, I thought this post would really garner some attention and discussion.

...makes you wonder what all the fuss is about, I guess.
 
...or maybe after all the hundreds of reports of knives breaking already posted on Bladeforums, not many people feel like reposting their experiences....
 
Ages ago I was running through the woods behind my house in Georgia with my first pocketknife, a 2.5 or 3" blade length lockback Buck folder.

I debarked the side of a tree, and then was trying to pry the live wood loose when about 3mm of the tip snapped right off. I still used it for a while after that, but man it looked ugly.

Obviously abuse...I backhand-gripped the thing, stabbed the tip into the tree, and pried to one side. Might as well have put the tip in a clamp and whack the handle with a hammer...
 
my first good knife was a Western W49, and now I have about 10 of em :D, but anyways one of them I bought used, and it wasnt in the best shape, so i threw it quite a bit and about 2 years back I was throwing it and I missed and when I went to pick it up it, the blade was in two pieces:grumpy:
 
jimbowie said:
my first good knife was a Western W49, and now I have about 10 of em :D, but anyways one of them I bought used, and it wasnt in the best shape, so i threw it quite a bit and about 2 years back I was throwing it and I missed and when I went to pick it up it, the blade was in two pieces:grumpy:
Click to expand...

So Jim, did I get this right? You did something the knife was not designed to do, it broke, and you consider that a failure? And this after you missed the target and hit Gd-knows-what?

I wouldn't consider that a knife failure.
 
Only had one knife fail on me, a Buck model 112. I bought it in anticipation of a warehouse job that never came through. The blade just didn't seem to lock open quite right. Gave it the old Spine Wack test. It failed. I overrode the lock easily. I should have dulled the blade, rounded the tip, and used it as a metal trainer. But I was young, so I just threw it out with the garbage.
 
Back when I knew zero about knives, I had a $3 kitchen knife from Wal-Mart.

One day, as I was slicing through an onion, the .0001" of tang glued into the plastic handle slipped out and launched the blade across the room. I counted up what my eyes and extremities were worth, and decided that $20 for a Victorinox chef's knife was a pretty good deal.

-MV
 
MatthewVanitas said:
Back when I knew zero about knives, I had a $3 kitchen knife from Wal-Mart.

One day, as I was slicing through an onion, the .0001" of tang glued into the plastic handle slipped out and launched the blade across the room. I counted up what my eyes and extremities were worth, and decided that $20 for a Victorinox chef's knife was a pretty good deal.

-MV
Click to expand...

Wow, you had a rare "pilum ballistic knife" there.

And imagine, for a mere 3 bucks!

;)
 
I was doing some light cutting on saplings with a Taylor Seto tanto(ya know the CS knockoff with the aluminum handle) Blade flew right out of the handle mid swing. Thank God it didn't hit anyone!!! It literally had one small drop of epoxy at the end of a 1in long X 3/16 wide tang!!!!!
 
My experiences have been most positive with knives, but I have had a couple "malfunction" without any serious consequences. I had a SOG Twitch II that never worked properly. The AO didn't work and the spring ended up breaking while I could actually close the knife overpowereing the lock by hand with a fair amount of ease. I manages to break the tip off my Leatherman while trying to open a latch on a door at work. I broke the tip off a Delica many years ago using it in a manner that was in no way the fault of the knife, but that doesn't count.
 
I have broken countless numbers of folders doing stuff that I should not have been doing like prying but I had no choice and it was all I had in hand. Tip breaks were the most comon problem. I had one kershaw Ti handled knife loose it's retaining detent so it swings open whenever it wants. I still like that knife, just can't carry it.

Fixed Blades - I have broken countless numbers fixed blades, batoning through wood, throwing into logs and prying. Hard uses in general.
 
Cobalt, if you don't mind me asking, what kinds of fixed blades failed on you, specifically? What brand and model, were they cheap or expensive?
 
When I was a teenager, I broke about an inch off the tip of a Buck 110. I was whittling and every time I'd take a break, I'd stab it into a tree stump to hold it. One time when I pulled it out, the tip snapped off.

I also had an old Valor balisong and the metal handle broke on one side while still remaining attached while I was flipping it.

Those were the only catastrophic failures I've had.
 
Several Years ago I was cutting plastic banding with a Spyderco Native. The lock disengaged twice while I was cutting. I believe it unlocked because there was a bit of lateral torquing while cutting. I ended up trading it for a Delica and I did not have any problems with the Delica.;)
 
knarfeng said:
So Jim, did I get this right? You did something the knife was not designed to do, it broke, and you consider that a failure? And this after you missed the target and hit Gd-knows-what?

I wouldn't consider that a knife failure.
Click to expand...


hmmm...maybe your right. I shouldnt really call it a knife failure, I should call it a failure of myself being a dumb teenager at the time;)
 
It was a Greco "Scagel" edition. I had ABUSED it. I was trying to buff off the crummy vise marks he shipped it with stating that it was the only way he could get the hilt on by pounding and it slipped in the vise.
OK. I thought I could live with that.
But found I couldn't and I tried to polish the scratches out and messed it up.
I got pissed and THREW the knife on the concrete patio.
It hit flat and the blade snapped off right at the hilt.
Here's a photo of the break.
knifebreakty8.jpg

The hidden tang had a sharp 90 degree stress riser right at the hilt.

Granted, it was I who abused the knife. I had no business getting so mad that I THREW it.

I posted here and some suggested that I call John and see what he might do.

I sheepishly did and told the truth about what I had done.

He graciously offered a 10% discount.

So I said I would use it on one of his knives that did NOT have that stress riser whereupon he informed me that he would allow the discount ONLY on an EXACT SAME MODEL.

No dice. I did not want another one. The shoddy finish from the beginning and the stress riser that I didn't know about were enough to tell me I did not want another Scagel type.

I can see no reason for him to offer only on the same model unless they are ALL that way.

In retrospect, I think I should have LIED and said I was "chopping something" and it broke.

Oh well. I was wrong to do what I did. The knife was bad to break as it did.

But BREAK it did! Surprised me to see that blade whanging off across the patio.

:(
 
Lets see, theres the Gerber Paraframe II where the locking arm (framelock) snapped right off when I went to close it one time. Then my first bali (CCC) which actually lasted quite a long time, a couple years, handle broke on me this past fall. Got a Cheetah bali to replace it, and broke the handle....twice...
 
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