A terrible mistake.

[Martyn]

It was accidentally dropped on some rocks and driven over by a small tractor with a lawnmower attachment on the front, pulling a trailer loaded with firewood. A lot of firewood. As in, 8 feet long and 4 wide of heaped high trailer's worth of firewood.

I know this because I made the knife and was there when my uncle drove over it

Basically the tip of the knife was wedged against one rock and the other end against another, and the blade gave under the weight of the ATV/tractor/load.

So you might say the forces involved were excessive...

Barry, the blade might be broken now, but that picture is the worst photochop I've seen in a long time. Aint it time you put your hand up to that leg-puller?

What you probably dont know, it that the picture was disected and reconstructed to show how it was photoshopped back when you originally posted it on BB. Dont make me copy it over mate.

 

[Chris the Cat]

Say what ! ??

 

[ashes1627]

Copy it over!

 

[Nonsuch]

Back to the original subject, don't you think batonning with bushcraft knives is in general a bad idea, unless it's fine kindling? I was always told it was an emergency technique if all you have is a knife. I would far rather use a hatchet to split wood, despite the extra weight. Not meaning to suggest the OP shouldn't have been batonning, just that I am even less inclined to use my knives for it now.

 

[Tony]

To be honest I'm happy for you guys to go to BB and have a look, I don't want this flaring up on here as it will only end badly.

Good call Nonsuch

 

[Robbi]

i'm the same as Nonsuch, i never baton with my knives, makes my toes curl just the thought of whacking my lovely blades with a dirty great lump of wood, i know they'll take it but.......i can't do it got a hatchet that's useful

 

[steven andrews]

Batoning offers great accuracy when splitting smaller kindling and I believe it fine to do on larger pieces of wood with a fairly straight grain, when the forces on the knife are minimal.
Gorse for Kelly Kettle fuel:



However, baton gnarly stuff at your peril!

 

[Robbi]

now there's a thing, i'd happily baton with my Mora but not my custom knives, i know, i know, i'm a wimp

 

[Toddy]

I've even batoned with an Opinel; it's technique not brute force and ignorance that makes it a useful skill.
It's a two handed affair, and you have to keep the balance right. You can only hit it as hard with one hand as you can keep it steady and true with the other; and, learn to make wedges, and as soon as you have a split put one in it. The wedge is really the great breaker upper of gnarly or heavy or just too wide, timber.

For small kindling the knife itself is usually ample, and it's a very tidy way to make small stuff for hobo stoves or kelly kettles.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[TomBartlett]

It wasn't the batoning as such that caused the break, it was the stupid way I tried to remove the knife. I was using it to get a straighter split as I was intending to carve some spoons from the wood and I felt that batoning would give me more control than using a hatchet. The break happened when I used too much force trying to wriggle the blade free.

 

[Robbi]

i think i would have cried !

 

[TomBartlett]

Yeah, I went for a run pretty much straight after doing it to stop myself from breaking anything else!

 

[zorro]

it's technique not brute force and ignorance that makes it a useful skill..............

learn to make wedges, and as soon as you have a split put one in it.

For small kindling the knife itself is usually ample, and it's a very tidy way to make small stuff for hobo stoves or kelly kettles.

cheers,
Toddy

And there you have it gentlemen.

 

[Shinken]

Barry, genuine question. With regards to toughness, why are live swords still typically made from carbon steel (or variants of), and never to my knowledge from CPM-3V (or variants of)?

Japanese swords at least are a combination of soft and hard steel, with Cpm3v as far as i am aware you'd have a job finding a steel to weld it too that would get spring hard at the same heat treating temperature as cpm3v.

Either way it is a lot simpler to make make a sword from simple carbon steels that is flexible at spine and hard at edge.

The advantage on a knife sized blade is you get great toughness with cpm3v at the same time as having really good stiffness

 

[Shinken]

It wasn't the batoning as such that caused the break, it was the stupid way I tried to remove the knife. I was using it to get a straighter split as I was intending to carve some spoons from the wood and I felt that batoning would give me more control than using a hatchet. The break happened when I used too much force trying to wriggle the blade free.

While i agree that battoning may not be the best use for a knife, it really should have survived wriggling the blade free. I still think you should contact Ben

 

[nowhereman]

bad one - at least no injuries (physical anyway) ;-)...

 

[Stew]

Missed this first time round.

Perhaps we need. Tally of how many baton breakages we've had. Im still not worried about doing it myself though.

What happened to your knife in the end?

 

[salad]

I feel for you mate, that was a lovely looking knife