My SAK failed

G

ghostguy6

Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
452
So something strange happened today, the blade on my Swiss Soldier broke while I was cutting the paper tape on an Amazon box. I'm not sure why as it doesn't look like there are any defects in the steel. The blade is still shaving sharp so I wasn't forcing the blade. Its like it just suddenly fell apart mid cut. No snapping sound what soever. I have owned this knife for at least 15 years and never had an issue. Is it possible a micro crack held together for that long? I did sharpen away the serrated edge as I don't like them. Anyways here is the obligatory photo.

 
If used a lot , over 15yrs , maybe just cumulative metal fatigue ?

Thumb hole is a stress riser . Spyderco's sometimes fail this way .

IDK . I'm no expert . 🤷‍♂️

You might contact the maker , they could be interested ...or not .
 
ghostguy6 said:
So something strange happened today, the blade on my Swiss Soldier broke while I was cutting the paper tape on an Amazon box. I'm not sure why as it doesn't look like there are any defects in the steel. The blade is still shaving sharp so I wasn't forcing the blade. Its like it just suddenly fell apart mid cut. No snapping sound what soever. I have owned this knife for at least 15 years and never had an issue. Is it possible a micro crack held together for that long? I did sharpen away the serrated edge as I don't like them. Anyways here is the obligatory photo.

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Holy crap!! I hope mine doesn't go this way! I use it a lot!
 
Actually I don't use the blade that often. This knife usually lives in my hunting bag. I use the saw and can opener the most. When I need a blade I use my Busse BAD.
 
ghostguy6 said:
So something strange happened today, the blade on my Swiss Soldier broke while I was cutting the paper tape on an Amazon box. I'm not sure why as it doesn't look like there are any defects in the steel. The blade is still shaving sharp so I wasn't forcing the blade. Its like it just suddenly fell apart mid cut. No snapping sound what soever. I have owned this knife for at least 15 years and never had an issue. Is it possible a micro crack held together for that long? I did sharpen away the serrated edge as I don't like them.
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Broken blades suck.

At least VIC should replace the blade ... or the whole thing ... under their "lifetime" guarantee ... presuming sharpening out the serrations didn't nullify/void the guarantee.

I don't blame you for deleting the serrations. I loathe them too. Partial or full serrations, for me they are a deal murderer.
I'll try to find the non-serrated version, or go without.
(I never use the serrated blade on my LM ... tempting to see if they will sell me a plain edge blade ... or a jigsaw blade holder ... to replace it with.)
 
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Steven65 said:
Exactly what tool and method did you use to remove the serrations?
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Lansky with a extra course diamond stone for the majority of it then down through the different grits and finished on a leather strop. I don't use power tools on my blades.

I sent Victorinox an email last night to see if the blade could be replaced with the non serrated version. I have never dealt with Victorinox's warranty before, are they pretty good?
 
ghostguy6 said:
Lansky with a extra course diamond stone for the majority of it then down through the different grits and finished on a leather strop. I don't use power tools on my blades.

I sent Victorinox an email last night to see if the blade could be replaced with the non serrated version. I have never dealt with Victorinox's warranty before, are they pretty good?
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That definitely should not have caused the failure.
I have never used the Victorinox warranty before. Hopefully they sort it out.
Please let us know how it goes.
 
No doubt metal fatigue IMHO. I do not like the thumb hole opening style SAKs. If you examine them closely there is only the thin steel of the lower blade grind and that thin top loop of steel of the thumb hole. This is not a very strong design. With repeated flexing over many years that accumulative work hardening might well cause it to fail.
 
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I'm not really a fan of the thumb hole blades on the SAK's either. Does anyone know if the regular 111mm blades can be used on this knife? I'm not sure if the release for the bottle opener might get in the way of the finger nail notch on the blade? There must be someone on the forum who has tried.

For a bit of an update I called House of Knives which is listed as a service center on Victorinox's website and they said they don't deal with warranty or carry spare parts. I still have not heard from Victorinox but with it being the weekend I'm not worried. I will keep everyone informed.
 
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ghostguy6 said:
I'm not really a fan of the thumb hole blades on the SAK's either. Does anyone know if the regular 111mm blades can be used on this knife? I'm not sure if the release for the bottle opener might get in the way of the finger nail notch on the blade? There must be someone on the forum who has tried.

For a bit of an update I called House of Knives which is listed as a service center on Victorinox's website and they said they don't deal with warranty or carry spare parts. I still have not heard from Victorinox but with it being the weekend I'm not worried. I will keep everyone informed.
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As far as I know there should be no problem with regular 111mm blade. Forester M grip is basically the same knife as the service knife except that it comes with both blade types, red scales and corkscrew in place of the screwdriver.
 
With no other explanation one can arrive at the assumption that "it was just time" and 15 years is a good life span for a folding knife that thin
 
Just a bit of an update. I had not heard back from Victorianox so I called them and initiated the repair procedure. Apparently there is a issue with Firefox not showing all the links which made the process much harder than it had to be. To start a warranty repair you simply need to go to https://service.victorinox.com/default.aspx and select your product from the drop down menu. If you are using a Firefox browser this menu will be blank so you must use another browser. Select pocket tools from the drop down menu and fill out the forms required. I was unable to process my per-authorization online (likely due to my credit card company flagging it), but I was told to just send it in with my name, email return address and phone number and they will bill me when it arrives.

I likely wont have any updates for a few days.
 
Over fifteen years a thin blade can have a lot of flex stress especially in the middle of that spydie hole is the weakest spot. You don’t realize it because you don’t feel like you are exerting pressure but little by little flexing back and forth it eventually fatigues . That’s one reason I shy away from holes or cut outs in blades. I’ve seen a bunch of them over the years that have failed.
 
True, but the pivot hole portion of the blade is tightly supported by the liners/handles and pivot pin itself so is not subject to flexing.
 
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