Monkey business advice needed!

Bear does nice work

 

It was @Bear posts that brought me to this site as I searched info on forges and knife making....trust me, I'm a fan. Hopefully, one day I will be one of the lucky owners as you are!

 

Worked as a machinist 40 years ago making ball bearings and I have to agree with Bear. The steel was very special, often speced out by the company with cobalt, nickel, etc and assay would tell you just what it was made out of and you could reverse engineer all of the dimension easy, but they were very secretive about the heat treat that made the difference between a bearing suitable for a roller skate and one for a jet turbine. They heated it, tempered it, cold soaked it at 150 degrees below 0 to relieve stresses and for all I know, had a burnt offering of a goat to the gods of steel. A knife or axe,chisel or plane blade, good drill bits etc are works of art and craftsmanship and missing any step, design, steel selection, fabrication,or heat treat, will give you a beautiful paper weight, A skilled craftsman can make add hock corrections and compensate for things, but it will not happen on a production line. CNC machining, hammer forging with a press and dies, heat treating 100's of parts in an oven, all can lead to major mistakes. The man forging the knife stops and talks for a minute about the football game, and then the die comes down on a cool piece of steel and makes a perfect looking piece that can never be perfect. If your life is going to depend on a tool you have two choices, get one and use it and make sure it works before TSHTF, or buy one from a trusted source with a good track record. As you found out, it maybe best to do both.
Thank you for the post and for provoking a discussion on the arcane arts of technology and the difference between a man on an assembly line in China and a craftsman. There really is a reason for spending a lot of money on a good knife, saw, rifle, etc, both as a work of art and in their life and use and you usually do get what you pay for. There well may be times that your life or at least your comfort may depend on the quality of the tool you are using.

 

That's the direction I was headed. I have had previous experience with Ka-bar products, and hado come to think of them as durable and dependable. Some others seem to agree as well.

Important lesson here:just because it is touted as the lastest, greatest doodads around...it really is worth nothing (well, possibly your life!) until it has been tested and proven to do the tasks that you are going to ask of it.

I'm really glad I found this out now hacking some wood in the backyard, as opposed to the backwoods. This truly was an imposing knife and I never would have believed it had I not seen it myself.

Lesson learned here. I hope others have got something from this as well.

 

I would suggest checking with amazon first. Their customer service is usually very awesome. They even send you a shipping label so you won't have to pay to send it back. Or they may say no need because it is broken. At the same time, let Ka-bar know they made a lemon.

Amazon has always taken good care of me. I bought a goal for soccer practice and one of the arms was defective. Small thing. Internal shock cord was broken. They sent a new one right away. Told me to keep using the old one until I get the replacement, then send it back on their dime. When orders come late, the send out a new order. And when I get the original order, I contact them to send it back. They tell me to keep it with their compliments. Good stuff!

 

Thoughtless!

 

@duane and others make good points @GrayGhost

I was trying to remember where I had seen a similar design failure like this ... that may also be a heat treat issue... even by a well known name like Paul Bos The People Behind Buck

Anyway this was a while ago but just do a simple search for Buck Hoodlum Failure... lots of links and discussion as well as videos.... take note of where this particular knife failed during use ... the Kabar notch (even though it is on the other side) reminded me of this...

Here's just one...


Design is critical regardless of heat treat... and heat treat can make it catastrophic.... of course abuse will cause any tool to fail eventually... and laws of physics can be a cruel teacher... I think @Hanzo just posted a video of a shopping network person who learned that the hard way....

Sometimes simple is best... especially when you are going to rely on it with your life...

Beware notches... fancy grinds... and coatings... that in some case just hide flaws....

Hope that helps...

Have a great Wednesday!

Take Care and God Bless,

Bear

PS... Treat your tools with respect and take care of them.... and they will be there to take care of you ....

PSS... @GrayGhost ... be sure to thank @Motomom34 if any of what I said helps... she was the one who messaged me to make me aware of your post....

 

I think I only commented on said video. Otherwise, Senator, I have no recollection of that event.

 

Your bring up some really good points @Bear. Specifically, the notch but also the coating. I was mulling that over yesterday. I'd be curious as to how that coating is applied. My guess would be that heat is involved, though not sure about temps. More research to do.

Sorry about the late reply....looks as though work is gonna keep me busy this this week. More to come. Hopefully I'll find a little time to get an email off to day and get closer to a resolution. I'll keep y'all posted.

God bless, all.