My becker bk9 broke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

don't chop cedar trees. including xmas trees. that should be a rule :D

they pick up rock and silica grit, and are hard as rocks in the knots.

99% of the problems we have seen seeing are rocks, nails/hidden metal, or cedar trees ;)
 
Ya know, it's threads like this that just make me want to buy another Becker knife. Love the 20... eyeing the 10. Mr. Becker, you're a good man. :thumbup:
 
I reground mine to a slightly ridiculous convex edge-when i did the chopping comparison with the JEST bolo I was using hop hornbeam logs (aka musclewood or ironwood) and it's holding up fine-sounds like an inclusion or very fine HT crack (I've had it happen during HT) and maybe a little slop in technique (if it rolls laterally in your hand as it hits, or worse during the cut, it puts a lot of torque on the blade. Glad it'll be taken care of-Ethan, I'd love to get a look at that one...
 
KingMC said:
Some pictures wouldn't hurt, I believe you but others obviously don't.
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Ethan Becker said:
Hey Everyone....

I just got pix from Nick and it really does look like a slight nick( no pun intended) went Crazy Eddie on him...... The "chip" is really impressive.....About a quarter of the blade, actually and it may be the record..... Nick seems a damned decent guy...... There may also have been an inclusion in the steel, as rolled.... This last is a very rare occurrence these days, mind but it can happen...... I want to put this one under a microscope...... It is a shame that a bad thing happened to a good person.....

Thanks for listening Mister Nick.....

Ethan
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It wasn't that I did not believe a blade got damaged, and as Mr. Becker himself has now confirmed, it sure looks like it did.
But providing pics when making a post like this really helps out.

It removes the doubt that some folks will have had, and makes the conversation more productive.
I'm sure we all can remember threads where the "blade damage" turned out to be miniscule when photos were provided, and people here were able to tell the guy to sharpen it out, and move on.
It sure sounds like this was nothing like that, much like the times when photos were provided and we all screamed "Send it back!!! OMG, how did that happen?"
 
Ethan Becker said:
Hey Everyone....

I just got pix from Nick and it really does look like a slight nick( no pun intended) went Crazy Eddie on him...... The "chip" is really impressive.....About a quarter of the blade, actually and it may be the record..... Nick seems a damned decent guy...... There may also have been an inclusion in the steel, as rolled.... This last is a very rare occurrence these days, mind but it can happen...... I want to put this one under a microscope...... It is a shame that a bad thing happened to a good person.....

Thanks for listening Mister Nick.....

Ethan
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And this is why there are so many Beckers in my box-o-knives.
 
I've always said that when you buy a product, such as a knife, you are also buying a relationship with a company. Some relationships are better than others - some companies appreciate relationships with their customers while others just want the sale and then ...

With BK&T, you get Ethan! Oh, and Ka-Bar ain't so bad either.

The situation related in this thread, and as handled can only help but to increase faith, confidence and trust in BK&T.
 
Sending the knife off to Ka-bar today, hopefully it will come back soon enough. I have other knives to play with but man, I loved that BK9. Glad to know Mr. Becker and Ka-Bar takes care of their customers. Will be a customer for a long time.
 
bowieknifenick said:
Sending the knife off to Ka-bar today, hopefully it will come back soon enough. I have other knives to play with but man, I loved that BK9. Glad to know Mr. Becker and Ka-Bar takes care of their customers. Will be a customer for a long time.
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Good to hear!
I'm glad you're getting taken care of.
Ka-Bar is a great company and Ethan is a world class individual.

I can relate to the frustration that comes when a knife breaks...lol
It's not a fun thing to go through.
But it's nice to know that there's a quality company with outstanding customer service standing behind you.
 
Ethan Becker said:
Hey Everyone....

I just got pix from Nick and it really does look like a slight nick( no pun intended) went Crazy Eddie on him...... The "chip" is really impressive.....About a quarter of the blade, actually and it may be the record..... Nick seems a damned decent guy...... There may also have been an inclusion in the steel, as rolled.... This last is a very rare occurrence these days, mind but it can happen...... I want to put this one under a microscope...... It is a shame that a bad thing happened to a good person.....

Thanks for listening Mister Nick.....

Ethan
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I've seen a similar chip from another forum. The big question is how Kabar is going to solve this issue? i wouldn't say its a quality issue in their part but a supplier issue. if there's no protocol for checking that type of inclusion in the steel, Maybe Kabar should invest into a Scanninng Electron Microscope and create a sampling plan per batch to see these type of issue.
 
knife chop said:
I've seen a similar chip from another forum. The big question is how Kabar is going to solve this issue? i wouldn't say its a quality issue in their part but a supplier issue. if there's no protocol for checking that type of inclusion in the steel, Maybe Kabar should invest into a Scanninng Electron Microscope and create a sampling plan per batch to see these type of issue.
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Since this is one of the first instances I've been aware of it happening, I don't know if investing money into solving such a rare problem is even worth their time. It's obviously covered under their warranty, a replacement knife once every few years is a lot cheaper than trying to prevent a problem that's not actually a big problem.

Rat Finkenstein said:
I would still like to see the photo.
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I think we all would like to see it.
 
knife chop said:
I've seen a similar chip from another forum. The big question is how Kabar is going to solve this issue? i wouldn't say its a quality issue in their part but a supplier issue. if there's no protocol for checking that type of inclusion in the steel, Maybe Kabar should invest into a Scanninng Electron Microscope and create a sampling plan per batch to see these type of issue.
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even with a sample plan, unless you are scanning every blade, the chances of an internal inclusion, microfracture, or bad luck will still result in warranty claims such as this one -- and the cost of equipment and change to processes would materially affect the price of every knife coming out of that factory, so I'm personally OK with the ".01% failure rate" KaBar's current process results in. (WAG - not an actually published statistic)

I did a similar thing to a non-Becker knife a few years back, sent it to the company involved, and they sent me a replacement. I even traded a few emails with the engineer in charge of QC and his response was they couldn't figure out why the blade failed the way it did, because there were no inclusions, HT was right on, no sign of abuse, etc...but sometimes "stuff" happens.
 
Wow. That sounds like an impressive chip! I have some seasoned cedar I was going to process with the 9, but I think I might just use an axe...
 
Hey Everybody----Especially Knife Chop....

What I THINK happenned..... I Repeat THINK happened is a very small chip became a stress riser and the chip became a little itty bitty tiny crack and then kaboomski..... Big time failure....... Feces occur......

In this case the problem of doing sampling is that we know there will be a tiny number of inclusions and they may be someplace harmless and sampling, unless you have a rash of failures gets you essentially nowhere at considerable expense.....

If you ever see a pilot of a prop driven aircraft doing his preflight walk around you will see him run his fingers over the leading edge of the prop.....He is feeling for nicks and chips and if he detects one they will sand them out so the prop will not fail from a similar problem....... There is no way the factory can solve this one after the sale..... It does not happen very often and KaBar backs their product....... If there was a way to predict this and, I knew how, I would share...... I would recommend occasional visual inspection and if there is a v shaped notch or chip, sharpen it out...... I must admit I do not do this......, it does not happen often.....More often than the chances of being struck by lightning but-----

Even NASA who X-rays and magnafluxes everything occasionally has catastrophic material failures....... I looked into doing the X-ray on climbing equipment that I was going to hang my very own, very precious behind on at great heights and decided to not do it, if that tells you anything.....

I hope this has been at least a little value to you all........

E

One of the things we tend to take for granted is steel that very rarely exhibits flaws...... In order to get a very homogeneous steel, it s rumored that the great Andre Ferarra would forge a blade and the n file it to nothing, feedi to a chicken, resmelt the steel and then forge a finished product...... Myth it may very well be but it tells you something about how crappy(pun intended) the old steels could be..... We live in an age of wonders and very homogeneous, very consistent steels at a very good price is one of them.......E
 
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I think Mr. Becker is correct. I hadn't sharpened the knife in a while, sharpener broke a few days back. (when it rains it pours) and had been doing a lot of work with the knife. The knife did have small little nicks in the edge, nothing extreme, just normal edge wear and tear. I checked the red cedar I was chopping last night and there were some very hard small knots scattered throughout the wood. I must have just had a lucky strike and the nick in the edge likely turned into a fracture, and then the blade failed.

I have sent the knife to Kabar, shipped it this morning. I hope it comes back soon. My knife drawer is not complete without it.

I don't have any instragram or photobucket account to link pics to, and I don't plan on making one. I will send the pics to anyones email if they'd like to see. Comment or PM me your email and I can send the pics over.
 
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bowieknifenick said:
I think Mr. Becker is correct. I hadn't sharpened the knife in a while, sharpener broke a few days back. (when it rains it pours) and had been doing a lot of work with the knife. The knife did have small little nicks in the edge, nothing extreme, just normal edge wear and tear. I checked the red cedar I was chopping last night and there were some very hard small knots scattered throughout the wood. I must have just had a lucky strike and the nick in the edge likely turned into a fracture, and then the blade failed.

I have sent the knife to Kabar, shipped it this morning. I hope it comes back soon. My knife drawer is not complete without it.

I don't have any instragram or photobucket account to link pics to, and I don't plan on making one. I will send the pics to anyones email if they'd like to see. Comment or PM me your email and I can send the pics over.
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it would help if you go into your account settings and activate your ability to receive emails.
 
Failures happen, sometimes to quick to pass judgement. Love the Becker product.
 
Makael said:
Failures happen, sometimes to quick to pass judgement. Love the Becker product.
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brilliant words :D

my favorite axe is 100 + years old...

it chops like NOTHING made today. it's BRILLIANT...

light chopping. bah. NOTHING IS CLOSE...

i'd be pretty butt hurt if it broke. i spent some good money on it.

i also kinda choose what i do work with it. "nope. that's chainsaw work". "nope. that's pry bar work"...

my axe, despite the famous name, is kinda out of warranty :D

Beckers have some good price/value, that a lot of people bust those out and don't think about it.

that's GOOD!

look, even a $20 ultimate crow bar will break. i've done it. two feet of solid Stanley steel thicker than my ****. yah.

stuff breaks.

Becker has a warranty :D
 
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