My beloved BK16 is bent!!!

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First of all I think the Becker knives are great. I do not see why people are trying to dog on those of us that would prefer to not have the cutouts. As users of knives we are entitled to our own opinion. I am a machinist and have worked as a tool and die maker so I have a pretty good understanding of the properties of steel and its uses in parts that are subject to much more stress then knives.

The cutouts under the handle would make little difference in a knife this size as far as balance. If we were talking a larger knife then this might make more of a difference, however we are not. In the past most full tang knives were made without the cutouts and the knives handle just fine. I would take the ounce or so more weight for the extra strength. I don't see why people are getting so upset about that.

I am not in the knife batoning crowd. I have always been an axe user and reserve heavy tasks for this tool as it is what it was created for. However if people want to baton great, I have no problem with it. The BK-16 with the cutout handle might not be the best choice for this though and I think the OP is plenty aware of this. I think the OP also agrees that this is not a warranty issue and I do not think they have any reason to honor this as a warranty claim.

As Larry Potterfield would say, "and that's the way it is". Hehe:D
 
hhmoore said:
Simply put, what happened to that knife is not a manufacturing defect.
Having a great warranty is good; but there's a big difference between a knife failing because of a problem in production vs it falling because some f-nut (not referring to the OP) decides to do a destruction test. Granted this was not a destruction test....by the same token, the knife didn't fail. It was subjected to extreme forces; and, when one part couldn't move, another did.
Years ago, this situation would have played differently:
Guy pounds on knife
Knife bends/breaks
Guy shows friends - enjoys attention & revels in how he really f-d up that knife
Guy buys new knife, and probably tries not to wreck it.

Now, it seems that people think they can do whatever they want without consequence. No need to worry about damaging something, when the maker is expected to replace it for free. But, those replacement aren't really free - they still cost the company money; and those claims add up. Eventually, those costs trickle back to the consumer in the form of higher prices.
I guess I'm just old school enough to think that a company shouldn't have to replace something that I break myself.
That said Ka-Bar may well replace it...I just happen to feel that they shouldn't be asked to.

I can agree with letting them know how the knife performed, for the sake of feedback and R&D - but it should be with full disclosure and without any claim. The knife performed exactly as it should have.


Why would a Beckerhead steal from the company that makes the knives?
Click to expand...

I'm not saying I disagree with any of that and I'm also not suggesting that the user send this knife in on the warranty. I don't even think Ka-Bar should replace it unless they find they should. I DO think that Ka-Bar should be interested in the failure. You can call it abuse and that may very well be what it was. Could have been bad technique. Could have been a particularly hard piece of wood. Whatever it was, the knife was ruined and Ka-Bar should (at the least) be interested in taking a look at the knife. How do we know that the knife in question wasn't heat treated right? What if there was a reason it failed other than abuse?

I'm quite familiar with the costs of returns, having once been responsible for the entire quality control department in a high speed fluid system distributor that serviced most of the Biopharma and Semiconductor companies in the Bay Area. There is definitely a cost associated with examining failures. At the same time, this is how improvements in products are made. For an intelligent company, it's the cost of doing business if they have any desire to continually provide a superior product. The other part of this that a good company needs to consider is the result of the failure, whether or not it was their fault. When someone is unhappy with a product or a service, they typically tell 20 people about it. When someone is happy with a product or service, they usually tell only 5. Is the cost of replacing a knife worth the lost sales that could occur if it wasn't replaced? Think about this...every time someone, anyone, not just a Bladeforum users, searches Google for "BK16 bent" or "BK16 failure", there's a good chance they are going to find this thread. I don't pretend to know what kind of numbers Ka-Bar is doing selling these knives but it's not inconceivable that they could lose $500 or $1000 dollars worth of BK16 sales because of this thread.

I'm not suggesting Ka-Bar replace knives that were obviously abused and that includes this one. They could, of course, examine those knives and maybe make small changes to improve existing designs. Imagine if they looked into this and the other similar instances that we know nothing about, and decided to remove a tiny bit less material to strengthen the handle.
 
Thanks for your input, Guys! Kabar replied and said that they won't replace it (That's fine). I was using it for something it wasn't intended for and broke it.

I will continue to use knives for this. I'm a kid and I think I should be able to push some knives this far, obviously I can't push a16 this far, and won't. I'll use a tougher knife for this

I'm thinking that tougher knife will be an ESEE 4. later on I may got a 16 again. Maybe.

I'll close the thread now. If one of the mods wants to open it, fine by me.
 
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