Knife Failure Survey

WILLIAM.M

WILLIAM.M

Joined
Apr 14, 2006
Messages
12,196
Knife Failure Survey

It would be interesting to see how many of us broke a knife(fixed or folding) and exactly how it was done.(especially if it was done doing sometype of Wilderness or Bushcraft chore)

So --If you have ever broken or damaged(bent the blade for example) a Knife-
-Tell us how you did it.

The only thing I ever broke in 2 was the Blade of a cheap samurai sword cutting a 2X4 about 1990 or so.(no injury--but will never be attempting that again)

How about the rest of you???
 
About 10 years ago, I broke a Himalayan Imports BAS Khukuri in two at the ricasso doing some light chopping of 1" or so branches. It was immediately replaced and the new one has been great. I'm pretty sure it was a manufacturing defect as these knives have a very tough reputation.
 
I've never broken a knife. The worst damage I've ever done to a knife was to a Kershaw OD-1, which came with a slightly bent tip. I tried to straighten it out with a pair of pliers, and "PING!"- off came the tip. About 1/8" worth. No big deal, I just put a new, more robust tip on there with a diamond file.

None of my woods use has ever significantly damaged any of my knives. Dinged edges, sure. I've had lots of those, but they're to be expected when you hit rocks, concrete etc. Blade coatings wear off, but that's normal. I used to throw my Ka-Bar Cutlass machete several years ago- before I "knew better". It handled the abuse without a whimper. The only thing that happened to it, after hundreds of throws, was that I hit the end of the handle a few times, which mushed the lanyard tube a little bit. Tough knife!

Other than those two minor instances, all of my knives have proven more or less indestructible. :thumbup:
 
Is this for "normal" use? I'd hate to see this thread go off on the wrong track, if you know what I mean. :)
Scott
 
I had a Leatherman pulse that broke the first time I used it, put me off Leathermans for good.
 
I have never once caused significant damage to a knife. I plan on keeping it that way. :D
 
I had two failures. One with a Schrade lockback. The rockerbar spring broke. The other was a Leatherman SuperTool where the plier head broke in two cutting wire.
Scott
 
When I was a kid, we were playing mumblety peg with my swiss army knife. On one throw, the knife stuck at the tip, but the back swayed back and forth from the momentum and the thick, heavy, body caused the stainless tip to snap off, about an 1/8". Shocking at the time, easily repaired.

Also had an original Spyderco Endura that turned into a bit of a slipjoint over time. Sent it to Spyderco, they sent it to Engineering, and sent me a new one.
 
Leatherman Wave plier jaws broke in two gripping a bolt. Not hardened. Never broke a quality blade, pocket clips on a number of Gerber folders I had in the 90's as well as teeth from the serrations broke. As for China cheapos.......how do you think I ended up here?
 
I've had a couple of pocketknife springs break.... one slipjoint and one lockback.

I broke the tip off a Mercator folder blade trying to kill an injured goat once. I was trying to sever the neck. Not a nice story or a pleasant experience. Clubbed it with a rock in the end.

A visitor broke one of my best kitchen knives. He had simply pushed it into a hot roast of pork to lift it out of the roasting dish. It broke off at the handle. This wasn't an all-purpose outdoors knife though.

I broke the blade on an old "Nest" pocketknife as a kid. Levering something as I recall. Broke easily. Pity though, my Grandfather had probably used it for years without a mishap.
 
Broke a blade on a Swiss Army knife (a twenty year old SAK), by accidentally putting pry pressure on it. (Wrong tool for the job doing some lawn irrigation work.)
 
Koster 3V Bushcraft - was drilling a divot hole for bowdrill. SNAP!
No more tip, this was a first generation.
This was in regular ole pine, nothing hard, not on a knot.
Took it home to the powered wet stone & "fixed" it enough to sell it @ a Gun & knife show.

Gerber Gator - while making a tripod with about a 2" thick branch the lock pivot broke off leaving me with a non-locking, free flipping, slipjoint. I was only push cutting, not chopping or anything. Sent Gerber an email, got a phone call followed by a shipment of a brand new Gator II.
 
When a kid - back in the early 1970's I had the spring on a Camillus Boy Scout Knife (the deluxe version at the time) break. I had cleaned the knife and was letting it dry with the blades at 90 degrees when one of the springs broke in half. The Scout Store replaced it at no cost to me. I still have that knife.

In the early 1980's I bought a real cheap stainless steel fixed blade knife with a black plastic handle and a odd black plastic sheath at a Pamida to use to dig plants out of the ground while taking a botany class. I worked the heck out of that knife using it to dig and pry on roots. I came to really like that knife - amazed by how sharp it would get when resharpened. It wasn't until more than 20 years later that I came to know that this was a Mora knife. It is still a great knife with no breaks or bends. Amazingly tough.
 
Don't shoot me guys...When I was a kid, my dad had an old Kabar MK2 fighting knife. A Marine gave it to him when he first got to Vietnam. He told my dad that it saved his life more than once and figured it had more left in it. My dad carried that through two tours with the 5th group, and it saved his life as well.

I used to steal it and go running through the woods stabbing bad guys (trees) and generally saving the USA from Communism...until I broke the tip off. I couldn't sit for a week. Later I stole it again and lost it somewhere. About every two years Dad tells me about that old knife, just to rub it in. I still feel guilty and will for the rest of my life.
 
Through sheer stupidity I broke a Buck, a Case and a Victorinox. I have to add that all three knives were replaced by these fine companies at no cost to me. I have never broke any knife under normal use conditions.
 
I haven't broken a knife blade yet but I did break the flat screw driver blade on a Gerber multi-tool opening a can of paint. No more Gerbers for me but I still have that craptastic multi-tool and have beaten the crap out of it.
 
I only remember a few actual failures and only one was the knife being used in an acceptable knife use.

A Buck 119 throwing at a tree in the dead of winter. I was young. Half the blade stuck and the other half and the handle went flying away.

A Camillus version of the Ka-Bar...same as above but broke where the tang met the blade (just stubborn I guess)

Explorer "Rambo" knife snapped at the handle when I fell and landed on that side.

Schrade Clip Hanger...blade by-passed the locking mechanism and folded backwards while trying to sharpen a 1 inch hickory limb and trying to cut as much at a time as I would with a fixed blade.
 
My only failure was on a Cold Steel Vaquero folder a couple years ago. I was just flipping it open and the blade snapped at the pivot. I try not to abuse my knives to bad and this is the only real problem I have had.
 
A Cold Steel LTC i think it was called (not the machete type) broke at the tang just splitting some wood for the fire.
078.jpg
 
Just one broken tip, apparently sod can get some pretty big rocks in it.
 
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