Knife Failure Survey

Heat treatment is more important than type of steel.
I've heard low tempered S30v without cryo suffers that kind of brittle edge due to retained autstenite.
 
I was using my Kabar Kukri to strip branches off a log. I hit a 1" branch right where it meets the log and it bit a piece off my blade, maybe 3" long, 3/16" deep. I'm going to try to see if Kabar will replace it:rolleyes:
 
I bought a pretty fancy Microtech automatic a few years ago. Was a great knife, had a bolster release. I got checked by a cop once that was convinced it was a switchblade, but he couldn't figure out how to open it so I played dumb. Anyways, after the hurricanes out here in S Fla I was doing recovery work for AT&T. I was on top of a 3 story bldg in lauderdale and the roof door locked behind me. Mind you the poer was still off everywhere, everything was closed, no one around. So, I whipped out my trusty blade and promptly broke the tip of the blade, damn. Took some doing, but I got the door open. Anywhere where to get a new blade for this thing?
 
Broke a SAK blade using it as a screwdriver, broke a slipjoint blade using it as a screwdriver....this was as a kid...Now I use a screwdriver. Broke the tip off an AL MAR Talon dropping it in the garage once....Just operator errors, and accidents mostly.

Other then that, it hasnt happened..
 
Mannlicher said:
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
Click to expand...

FYIY, if it didn't chip, I wouldn't call that a complete failure. Machetes are designed to do that. But I'm talking about a $10 machete and you are talking about an expensive knife. It feels different when you are beating the edge back on the expensive knife.
 
The only knife I ever damaged was the edge on a Bark River Mini Northstar. I split a thumb sized cedar stick and bent the edge pretty bad. I don't own it anymore.
 
I knocked a big piece (1/2" x 3/4" triangle) out of the edge of a 1084 custom knife... I was trying to force it though the sternum of a lamb. Got at least halfway, but then I must have given it a little left-to-right action and *TING*, there it went.

I keep meaning to regrind it, but haven't gotten around to it.
 
I used to unload fishing and shrimp boats in the early 80s.Well,I was unloading a shrimp boat and was having a hard time trying to remove a board out of a bin.So,out came my trusty Buck 110,which I used to pry the board up by using the tip,lost about 3/16 off my tip.I learned that it is not a good idea to use a folder for that.
 
I took a 2" crescent-shaped chunk out of the blade of an Ontario Bolo while chopping branches once -- they gave me a new, different knife -- they didn't make the same model anymore.
 
Hubby broke 2 Buck blades cutting baling twine and had 2 back springs break on Bokers. He gave up on Bucks. Also he broke an axe head that had an air pocket in it.
 
I've bent the tip of my Buck 110 when using it as an awl,trying to make a hole in a 1/2'' thick piece of wood.Then I've tried to straighten it and SNAP - around 1/2'' of the tip was broken - it was all my fault !
The knife has a new blade now and I'm more then happy when using it :)
 
Worst I ever did was bend the corkscrew on my old SAK years, years back. Never got one with a corkscrew again:D


My well-abused Ontario Machete has seen a few edge nicks and rolls....
 
KA-BAR USMC broke at the tang while clearing finger sized branches from a limb for a fire. Water had gotten under the leather handle and in to what appears to be a fracture in the tang. The knife had not been used before this.
 
Broken, no, but I did watch a Cold Steel video and promptly ruined my kukri machete by chopping a cinder block in half.

I'd like to think I wised up :D.
 
Two KA-Bars: tang failure; one 'normal' use, one probably my fault...
SOG Government: didn't survive 1/2 day of wilderness skills training for SAR, broke 3/4" off tip, bent overall blade. Very disappointing :thumbdn:.
Cold Steel khukri: essentially the same as the other example in this thread.
Gerber multi-tool: bending a nail attempting field expedient repair of snowshoe during week-long winter survival training.

Upgraded to Busse (via gift (if you can believe that :eek:!)) and Siegle; haven't looked back!

Great thread folks!!

8
 
I have never had a knife fail, but I've had the operator (me) fail on the knife. I had a nice looking folding knife that was given to me when I left the Marine Corps. It was nicely engraved, with ivory (synthetic, I think) scales.

I should have put it into a drawer and saved it, but no, I carried it in my pocket. One night there was a lady who had locked her keys in her car. I whipped out my nice little knife and used it to pry open the wind-wing (remember those?) just enough to get a coat hanger wire inside to pop the lock.

Well, that was the plan, anyway. As soon as I put pressure on the knife to PRY the window open, about a quarter of an inch of blade snapped off. I was sick about this, because it was shear stupidity on my part (alcohol was involved, which can increase stupidity by an order of magnitude). I knew better, but did it anyway. Hey, there was a damsel in distress — what can I say? I reground the tip, but it was never the same for me, because the memory of my stupidity is still there.

While I have seen a number of knives broken, that's the only one that I've actually broken myself.
 
I had a leatherman PST fail while prying with the tips of the pliers. Guarantee took care of it.
I also own a Colt AR-15 440 folder that used to be a lockback but today, with enough force aplied, you can actually close it without depressing the locking bar. I guess it just wore out.

Mikel
 
I had to think long and hard on his one. While I have seen and witnessed many other blade failures I have never had one myself.

Except once. I had the can opener blade on my 15-20 yr. old SAK Farmer break....when using it to tighten a nut on a crib.
 
Never broke a knife out of the hundreds I've owned, or had one fail on me. I have lost maybe a few tips, but these were maybe 1-3mm of length. I wouldn't consider anything that I can fix by hand a "failure" though.

I have had dozens of knives, production & custom, come to me with flaws in their manufacture though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top