Oops!

vwb563 said:
I did a big no no today and used my Kershaw Emerson 6K for a prying job. I ended up snapping the blade in half! Now I know we're not supposed to use a knife for a prying job and I don't normally but I was trying to pry up a stuck piece of porch flooring board and I thought this would be a good chance to see just how tough these China made Emerson knives were. Well, I found out. The blade actually broke quite easily. I was applying a mediocre amount of prying pressure when I heard a "ting" sound then as I applied a bit more pressure the blade snapped. I believe the "ting" sound was the crack starting from the offset drilled hole where the thumb disk is mounted. Here are a few pics of the disaster.



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I gave a friend a cqc6k which he promptly snapped in half at his work site in exactly the same way.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Well that sucks, but it could happen to any knife.

Maybe get yourself a Dasco pro pry-bar set for about $20 at Walmart, it's a 3-4pc set and comes with a little one you could put in your pocket...ect.


I wonder if it would be possible to have a knife with a quick detatch pocket clip that doubles as a mini pry-bar ?
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Marlin spike makes a great pry bar compared to a blade. The ones on the David Boye boat knives are advertised as such.
 
Well there are a lot of pry knives , cop tools and actual smallish pry bars available . I think most longer fixed blades made for survival , eg Cold Steel SRK are sturdy enough for some prying . Still this kind of failure is disappointing . :(
 
Thanks for sharing the pics, it’s interesting to see where potential weak points might be on tools.

Obviously we don’t advocate using knives as pry tools but I’ve been in situations where getting the right tool isn’t possible. It’s always good info to see what failures we can anticipate.

Anyway, good luck shopping for a replacement!
 
We all have oops moments. I stuck a freshly razor shapenened s90v edge into the roots on a potted tree I was planting and ruined the edge. I should if known.
 
Smatchet! :D Seriously, this is why many carry a fixed blade; not that they are for prying either, but much less likely to fail under excess stress uses. Worth considering I think. ;)
 
Glenn Goodlett said:
Am I missing something? Why is the hole so deep and the threads so shallow?
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I have no idea. The off centering is a goof up I'm sure but the depth of the hole is ridiculous compared to how deep it needed to be. Both the off centering and hole depth added to blade snapping so easily. I guess the ole say "You get what you pay for" applies in this situation.
 
I had this happen under regular use without prying. Sent to Kershaw with note explaining I believed it to be a defect. A few weeks later received a brand new cqc6. No questions asked.
 
Not really surprised or interested that it broke.

I am interested in how thick that blade is ground. Did it cut well?
 
DocJD said:
Agreed on all points . Cold Steel uses something similar on all their thumb plate wave openers , of which I have many . Have not heard of any such problems yet with those .
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It's really not a "problem" though. Any hole in steel is a stress riser and prying with it was actually the problem.
I agree though, that hole being so far off center and as deep as it was most definitely contributed to such an easy failure.
 
vwb563 said:
It's not advisable to pry with any knife and definitely don't pry with any knives with a drilled spine used to mount a thumb disk. Apparently it causes a very weak point in the blade and allows a place for a stress fracture to start.
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I think this sums it up pretty well. I am in the "don't pry with knife at all" camp.

I was surprised to see how off-center that hole was drilled, but not sure if that contributed to the failure.

I carry this one around the house when I need a tool that I might have to pry with -

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https://kershaw.kaiusaltd.com/knives/knife/barge

Sorry to see your knife break - I would bet that the folks at Kai would like to see that so they could address the issue of the off-center hole.

best

mqqn
 
And, something looks funny in your photos. Both of the blade cross section photos are a little out of focus, but, the metal adjacent to the treaded portion of the hole looks darker. Like maybe it was already cracked.
 
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