wow....my military tip broke off...

O

oneformula

Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
14
yes, i was prying... but c'mon! i was turning a PLASTIC screw on an electric outlet cover... PLASTIC! the blade tip is gone, but the plastic has no mark... i put VERY LITTLE torque on it.... what gives???
 
i've never broken a tip in 25 years of my many knives... is the military just that weak at the point (compared to other spyderco's and benchmade's) or is the cpm s30v that brittle?
 
Just look at the tip. VERY stabby, but I wouldn't think of prying heavy carboard near the tip.
Overall, a tough knife, and practically the pointiest tip I've seen . But definitely not a strong tip.
Great knife though.
 
Bad move. The Military is a slicer. Sorry you had to learn the hard way, but don't let it get you down.
 
Why does the screw material make any difference? You broke the thin tip on a knife by using it as a screwdriver. . . Not really surprising.
 
i'm really bummed... i just got this! and this is FAR from the dumbest thing i've done with a knife... i had no idea a piece of plastic was stronger than the tip...

so.... is cpm s30v really that brittle?
 
I would never use my Millie for a screwdriver. The tip is way too fine and pointy for that.
 
From the product info on s30v, and my own experience, its a very tough steel. Heat treat can always be bad, of course - it could have got too hard and brittle at the end there. But maybe a torque applied right to the very thin tip of a Military may be just the right way to crack off the tip.
 
I have heard that S30V is pretty brittle. I am not familiar with the design of the knife, but from what people have said, it sounds like the knife was designed as a slicer and hence didn't have a very thick/strong tip. I wouldn't think that the screw material would really matter that much, what I would think is more important is how tight the screw is and how much flex the blade has. S30V gives up flex for hardness (and used correctly needs to be sharpened much less than alot of other steels, or so I hear).

Sorry you had to learn it this way, I luckily learned on an old kitchen knife

~Cody
 
oneformula said:
i've never broken a tip in 25 years of my many knives... is the military just that weak at the point (compared to other spyderco's and benchmade's) or is the cpm s30v that brittle?
Click to expand...

I think you're leaving an important factor out of your logic. Your posts seem to presuppose that the materials involved are the only things to consider in the broker tip. The amount of the material, the leverage applied are some other things you need to consider. Glass is more brittle than steel, but if you take a 2 pound cube of it and apply the twisting motion against plastic with the same force that you applied with the Military, you'll notice that the cube won't break in half.

This is not to say that your Military didn't have anything wrong with it, there's really no way for us to prove that either way since this is all anecdotal. My point is that you seem to have come to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with the Military since the tip broke off. I'm suggesting that you may very well be wrong since there are so many other factors involved that you're not considering.
 
You know, I'm going to have to say that no matter what steel. You used a knife as a screw driver. You put torque on the weakest part of the blade, in the direction that is the weakest, and did so in a twisting motion. Yet another weak motion. Brittle or not, I don’t know any steel that if ground like the Military would not have broken.

I'm sure Spyderco would gladly repair it for a fee. But screwdriver isn’t covered by the Warranty, I don’t feel like they owe you anything. Oh course, people using a knife as a screwdriver is one of my biggest pet peeves so please forgive my harshness

Brad
 
i don't want anything from spyderco... i just tried the same thing with my endura, a couple of swiss army victorinox, and my 2 benchmades... no tip breakage.

i'm fairly certain that the military either has a very frail tip from the shape, or cpm s30v brittle, or the heat treat had a problem. i'm thinking it is the blade tip shape.


i've cranked FAR harder on the others as a test after this on the same plastic screw
 
oneformula said:
i don't want anything from spyderco... i just tried the same thing with my endura, a couple of swiss army victorinox, and my 2 benchmades... no tip breakage.

i'm fairly certain that the military either has a very frail tip from the shape, or cpm s30v brittle, or the heat treat had a problem. i'm thinking it is the blade tip shape.


i've cranked FAR harder on the others as a test after this on the same plastic screw
Click to expand...

you really need to get yourself a screwdriver bro.
 
Sorry for your broken blade. The Military has one of the pointiest and finest tips I've seen on a knife, it is not made for prying, but will penetrate like a mother on a stab. The Endura has a very fat saber grind with a dropped, reinforced tip, it should handle prying better than a Military. The bottom line is still that knives, especially really thin tipped pointy ones, are best left to cutting and not screw driving. As an afterthought, it would have been interesting if there was a way you could have got a torque wrench with a screw driver bit on that screw to see just how much torque it took to loosen the screw.

Mike
 
I'm not going to be so hard on you.Same thing could have happened to me.I've got a D2 Military on the way and I'm already dissapointed yours broke.

Yes I know knives aren't screwdrivers and all that but for an EDC a blade should be able to loosen a small plastic screw without breaking.I mean I've got fillet knives that are plenty thin and pointy that would do the job.

I know you serious knife guys would never use a knife like a screwdriver but lighten up on the guy.I'm sure he is not the first and won't be the last to use an EDC a little rough.
 
i had a real oldtimer tell me this onetime while i was at work

"A knife is the most expensive least useful screwdriver/prybar you will ever buy"
 
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