Knife Failure Survey

I have broken an old Kershaw with rosewood inlays whittling, a leatherman at the joint using it to cut wire (which turned me off them for years), the secondary blade on my Benchmade switchback whittling with it (I sent it back and they put a new one in it).
 
mistwalker said:
A Camillus version of the Ka-Bar...same as above but broke where the tang met the blade
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Me too, but at the time I was trying to chop through a railroad tie. Fair enough.

I also broke the very tip off a Kershaw folder (using it as a pry tool :eek:). Re-ground the tip and it has served well for another 20 years.
 
This doesn't really count, but I snapped about 3/16" of tip off a Gryphon when I dropped it on the concrete.:barf:
 
pitdog said:
I had a Leatherman pulse that broke the first time I used it, put me off Leathermans for good.
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Gossman Knives said:
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
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The only Leatherman I ever had broke the first time I used it. I was simply crimping the s hook on a bungee cord and it broke in half. I took it back to Leatherman's office in Portland and they replaced it on the spot. I then gave it to my ex-wife and bought a Sog.
 
Bent a kuhkuri of unknown origin using it to split wood with a baton.

Broke the lock of a ZDP Endura that I had reground into a Scandi blade when I was testing how durable the edge was. Batoned it into a log a few times, held up fine, then it got stuck and I whacked the underside of the handle (Which from my uneducated eyes should of compressed the lock if anything, not stretched it and broke it) and the lock gave. Still shaved afterwards, but the blade swung freely. Bad combo :D

The first surprised me, the second I chalk up to me being dumb. What I was doing was stressing the overall knife too much when I just wanted to test the edge.
 
I had a swiss army adventurer break. I was using a chest lever grip on a stick cutting pretty hard and the blade came all the way back. Broken back spring.
 
I broke a quarter-inch off the main blade of my first knife, a Schrade stockman. I was about eight or nine years old, and just stuck the tip into a stump. I pulled it out a quarter-inch shorter. Must have applied some lateral pressure...I was an idiot kid. :eek: I eventually lost that knife. I wish I hadn't.
 
I broke about 1/8" off the tip of my Spyderco Police while throwing it.

Never damaged a knife during "legitimate" use.
 
When I was a kid, using my first real knife Higonokami, it sometimes get chipped.
It takes really sharp edge and holds it long but as my skill was quite poor, it sometimes
suffered chip. It was a sad thing to see chipped edge. I can remember that feeling
very clearly.
 
My first Leatherman, a gen 1 model, saw some hard use in the Army. The blade broke a third from the tip, and several screwdrivers/leather punches snapped too. I still have it in my range bag.
 
Somehow managed to displace the pliers in one of the Gerber Recoil MT's. Just went to flip them out and the pliers head when skittering across the floor.

Managed to snap the flathead blade of a LM SuperTool trying to break a screw free.

Cold Steel Voyager (I think) when it fell out of my pocket to the shop floor. Freak accident.

There's more I'm sure...
 
I had this 11'ish comlubia river bowie style knife and I assumed it was full tang, specially given the size of the blade. Through use the tang breask right inthe handle are. Turn out it was a stick tang that hinged on a another "composite" materal tang.
 
Thanks for all your stories...

Seems so far that knife damage or breaking(other than the tip) is VERY RARE under normal circumstances(other than the Leatherman and Gerber Pliers)

Please keep your stories coming!!!

Dr.Bill
 
I have broken....
- original Leatherman multitool pliers at work trying to remove a rusted nut, clearly not as strong as actual pliers
- lock from a old german lockback folding knife when battoning wood, with the blade open and lock engaged, my fault and a sad day as that was my favourite folder at the time
- a linerlock from a Smith&Wesson Spec Ops heavy duty folder loosened (vertical and sideways movement) during batoning, lock engaged, my fault again obviously
- 1/4 in tip broke from a Scout Mora opening a paint can lid, stoopid boy :)
- a cheap Viking brand hatchet rubber handle (on a steel shaft) loosened from normal wood chopping, fixed with epoxy
 
only 'failure' that comes to mind, is when my Son used my Randall #11 to skin a deer. He CHOPPED at a leg bone, instead of just disjointing it, and rolled the edge. I thought I would faint dead away. :mad:
It took me an afternoon to gently return the edge to it's correct shape. This was not a failure of the knife, but of the operator.
damagedrandall.jpg
 
I have had bad experiences with S30V.

Broke the tip off a Manix field dressing a hog when cutting the hooves off and chipped a fatty chunk out of a Military blade while camping doing kitchen chores, I wish I could be more specific but I was processing Chukar and somewhere there is a piece of pricey metal lodged in a vertebrae. imo that metal is too brittle for the work of outdoors when ground thin. Now I stick to ATS34, AUS8 and BG42.
 
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