It certainly would be possible to bend the thin bevels on a Light Chopper if you land some wonky cuts hard enough.
Lorien and I both managed to bend bevels on the original A2 prototypes, although Dan (who cut up 2X4s with his in just a few whacks) had no damage at all. The difference was not that Lorien and I hit harder than Dan, it's because Dan was more skilled as a cutter.
You're not likely to badly bend a bevel hitting something like a rock. That might cause edge damage that goes up into the bevel a little, but a properly bent primary grind comes from chopping into something deep and having the blade out of alignment with the cut. The edge bites and steers in one direction while the force of the cut is moving in a different direction. This is a wonky cut and we've all done it and is one reason I'm not allowed to use Jo's racing knife. It takes quite a bit of deflection to result in a permanent bend, but it can be done.
This is one reason I've beefed up the new 10" Medium Chopper. I loved the LC, it weighed nothing and filled a roll between camp knife and small machete, but at the end of the day it was not stout enough for some people's needs. While there have been no breaks or blowouts, there have been some tweaked bevels here and there. It's probably more common than people realize, it's a limitation for such a thin light knife. While it's practically impossible to break, if you're going to wail on it you should attempt to keep your cutting form straight and true. The flip side is, the knife is practically unbreakable, so if you manage to tweak a bevel continue to use it, it's not going to break. If anybody gets a badly bent bevel you can return it and we can straighten it some by running it through another temper cycle while it's sprung in a fixture.
actually, in my case, this kind of damage has more to do with what I'm cutting than how I cut it. I don't chop 2x4s or any other processed, dried wood, although I plan on building a bladesports type rig for when I get my comp chopper and can finally prove to Nathan that I'm a halfway decent cutter
I chop seasoned dead wood and green wood, in its natural environment and in its whole state, and cut all sorts of stuff that you wouldn't call 'wood' per se, that is actually way harder on the knife- usually in awkward positions. One example is ocean spray, which is historically known around here as iron wood. It maxes out at 2" diameter most of the time, but it is very hard, (1st peoples used it for arrows and spears) and is always under tension due to the way that it grows. I've ended up with more damage to knives cutting this stuff than I have cutting through knots or anything else you'd expect in timber
just about every knife that I have which I use for cutting trail has the kind of damage described here. There are a few exceptions, which all have a lot more meat behind the secondary bevel than the LC. In almost all of these cases, the knife is just a little too heavy to carry in hand which is what I like in a trail cutter. The beauty of the LC is in its cutting ability and portability. For its weight, it is an exceptionally good performer...but it does have its limits. You pay for the ease of carry and excellent cutting performance at the expense of ultimate durability
awhile ago, a guy sent me a pm with some photos of damage he'd done to an LC. I think it was an RLC based on the height of the secondary bevel, but I digress. He had tried to baton it through a knot. Unless you're using something with a relatively useless cutting edge, (ie; a chopping edge) you are going to have damage trying to forcefully drive an acute edge through a hard, non linear grain that knots are constitued of
there is a really good reason why axes designed for different tasks exhibit either really acute or really obtuse bevels. A felling axe is a completely different tool than a maul
I've said in the past that competition style cutting is harder on the participant than it is on the knife, and that what I do is harder on the knife and easier on the participant. Common sense dictates that every tool has its limits. One would hope that common sense would inform a user automatically to avoid doing things that would damage a given tool. Alas, it is only through trial and error that we can really learn the limitations of our tools. Fortunately, CPK has done an excellent job, in my opinion, of providing a good, solid rationale behind each knife, laying out the limitations to all who care to read about them. There's only so much CPK can do to inform users of the products of the limitations of them, before the onus falls on the user
if it makes anyone feel better, none of the distortions my blades have endured have negatively impacted their performance. They still hold an edge for a really long time, and cut just as well. Your resale value might have tanked due to this damage, but rest assured, your knife will serve you well for as long as you choose to use it
