Off Topic I hate this kid.

I'm almost 61. The Boy Scouts, my old man, my uncles all taught me that only idiots mistreated tools. I did baton once - I was cooking outdoors and needed a spatula. Miles from anywhere. Took a ten dollar kitchen knife and split a 3/16" thick billet from a piece of firewood, then carved a crude wooden spatula. I sure would not have cried to the manufacturer if I had broken it. It was a calculated risk, and 20 people wanted fried potatoes. I would not do this to my nice knives.
 
gedlicks said:
While I am not someone who would ever beat a 119 thru a log Buck's iconic logo is one of their fixed blades being hammered thru a nail.
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What ged & 300 said. Thru marketing and the survival craze (yes even by Buck) malleting was advanced. Some models are built for this market area. Thus, the thinking many more models are built to take it. So, we need to show these people as we encounter them what knives are built to do. DM
 
That is like putting a 4 foot cheater bar on a 3/8 drive ratchet and then crying when it breaks. A 3/8 ratchet will do nearly everything I need just like a 119 but I know when it is time to grab a 1/2 drive... Or in this case, a hatchet.

You can't fix stupid with all the tools in the world.
 
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Times have changed people. I am 56 and when I was a kid growing up I would learn from my parents, other relatives, friends, and neighbors and they would teach me how to use a tool for it's intended use and to
take care of it and buy quality. I still made mistakes though. I never heard of testing a knife by pounding it through a log to see how it would hold up. Many of the younger generation now a days grow up without these influences and learn from others on the internet or TV. This kid did not learn anything about the proper care and use of a knife but did certainly learn from the web and or TV about testing a knife on it's strength and batoning a knife to see if it would hold up. He doesn't know any better. It's not his fault. It is the fault of today's society and how they view and learn things now a days versus how we see and learned things. It is a different generation growing up and learning under different times. No different than how my Father looked at things I did when I was growing up or how my Grandparents looked at things my Father did and so on. We shouldn't be critical of kids like this but should when we have the chance help to educate them and pass down our knowledge. Many of these kids now adays don't have Fathers and Grandparents around to help them and most kids would rather sit on the computer or on their phone than be out in the shop working with their Fathers and or others learning how to use tools properly and build good work ethics.

I have broken my share of tools in the past and have made many mistakes and have learned from them as I am sure everyone has yet I still do things on an occasion that afterwords I think to myself how stupid that was.
I just never posted those mistakes on the web for others to criticize and tell me how stupid it was.

Something to think about.
 
Just to be honest.At 51 I do it. When I need kindling there is nothing faster. But,,, I use 1/4 inch carbon full tang blades.
The buck Froe I have put to much harder use. I don't have many chances to use this heavy duty tool. It works great. Seems too heavy to flail around cutting brush but I haven't tried that either. Not sure how to classify a froe it's 1/4 inch thick all the way from one end to another. I would not use a rat tail knife by any means. I don't prefer it to an axe. Nothing works as well as an axe. Kindling the other hand I don't mind.

If you found yourself in a bad spot with no axe I can guarantee if you have a fixed blade it will be put to the test. I think most quality made knives can make kindling fairly easy. I can only imagine what this kid was trying to do when he broke the knife.

I have three boys and one girl. All the boys know how to make a fire from just a few items. I load them up with all kinds of gear on birthdays and Christmas. My daughter relies on her boyfriend to do it. Lol . So I load him up.
 
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I would feel a little bad for this kid if he’s being neglected by his parents etc, as he does kinda sound too young to be doing things entirely on his own. But many people are working at least twice as many hours, and working twice as hard each hour, to make less money(in real terms) than they were 10 or 15 years ago. And every child takes at least as much energy as an adult does, if not more! I agree with the poster who suggested this child’s enthusiasm would be welcomed by a parent or grandparent, who would in return impart some instruction/guidance. I don’t remember an age at which I wasn’t expected to contribute work either repairing and maintaining at home or outside earning(or helping to earn.)
 
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Several of these posts hits a cord w/ me. But especially Yonose above. Parents working trying to keep food on the table and kids get left to themselves. And yes supervisors requiring more of them than the generation before. Taking off at 'his outside earning'. Starting at age 13,
I would leave home each summer to work at what ever job I could find. Mostly farming (driving a tractor) or carpenter. And not return home
until Sept. 1. School started Sept. 3 then. I had to make my own way, stay out of trouble and save my money to buy clothes when school started. I developed a lot. DM
 
sassafrassdogs3 said:
I'll bet the farm he got it as a gift. So he had no personal investment in it...

I have to ask, So Dave what where you shoveling for 3 days?

Don
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Well Don, I must have been in my early teens and digging a drain field for my folks. I always loved the feeling for accomplishment working with a shovel. I am in my mid 60's and will still pick a chore that I can accomplish with a couple of wheel borrows a day.
 
He's a kid...wadya expect? Fat kid at that, subject to ridicule because his parents don't care about what he eats.

We've all done stupider things at the same age. At least he likes knives :)
 
David Martin said:
Several of these posts hits a cord w/ me. But especially Yonose above. Parents working trying to keep food on the table and kids get left to themselves. And yes supervisors requiring more of them than the generation before. Taking off at 'his outside earning'. Starting at age 13,
I would leave home each summer to work at what ever job I could find. Mostly farming (driving a tractor) or carpenter. And not return home
until Sept. 1. School started Sept. 3 then. I had to make my own way, stay out of trouble and save my money to buy clothes when school started. I developed a lot. DM
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It’s true, imho that today’s “social mores” take responsibility away from children while tying their hands and those of their parents with regard to learning how to get it back. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to hear that walking a couple miles to school in snow/rain or working outside at night or in inclement weather was illegal for minors in some jurisdictions.
 
Well, we given this video and it's creator heck. And here near the end, I think the group has two conclusions: Poor 119 and poor kid. The world swirls around us good or bad. One thing no one attacked was the need of big pig stickers in the Buck world. In the past you would see some bowie's on peoples hips and they might split small kindling or fight a bear, but mostly it was just having something from the past that might have been necessary to preserve life. Only those of us that were in or are in the service to the nation and its public might have had to preserve our life with a knife. I am sorry a good 119 was ruined in this videoed experiment, I wish, like you others, that the film star had some good learnin' about knives and wood chopping. But, those experiences are fewer in number as most kids don't have to cut wood for fires. In the end I've gone from disappointment in the kid to sadness for his apparent lack of real experiences. Not video ones, ones where you learn not to let a match burn down to the end before you throw it in the fire. More and more things are not youthful events. Video is useful but not over real experience and practice from learning from the experienced teacher.
Teach your kids and any you can drag up how to treat knives and build proper fires. Maybe even consider a hatchet or axe talk. Who knows they may need to know those things to survive sometime in the future of this crazy world. 300
 
300Bucks said:
Well, we given this video and it's creator heck. And here near the end, I think the group has two conclusions: Poor 119 and poor kid. The world swirls around us good or bad. One thing no one attacked was the need of big pig stickers in the Buck world. In the past you would see some bowie's on peoples hips and they might split small kindling or fight a bear, but mostly it was just having something from the past that might have been necessary to preserve life. Only those of us that were in or are in the service to the nation and its public might have had to preserve our life with a knife. I am sorry a good 119 was ruined in this videoed experiment, I wish, like you others, that the film star had some good learnin' about knives and wood chopping. But, those experiences are fewer in number as most kids don't have to cut wood for fires. In the end I've gone from disappointment in the kid to sadness for his apparent lack of real experiences. Not video ones, ones where you learn not to let a match burn down to the end before you throw it in the fire. More and more things are not youthful events. Video is useful but not over real experience and practice from learning from the experienced teacher.
Teach your kids and any you can drag up how to treat knives and build proper fires. Maybe even consider a hatchet or axe talk. Who knows they may need to know those things to survive sometime in the future of this crazy world. 300
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Touché
 
Everyone made some great points here :thumbsup:
Many things I didn't even think of.

My problem personally was more with his attitude towards Buck knives based on 1 experience of a knife that broke during abuse.

I wouldn't have even posted this here if he had said, I broke my Buck 119 batoning with it so maybe it's not a survival knife after all.
Not " it's crap because it didn't take my gross abuse "
 
Interesting how the attitude changed from the beginning of this thread to this point. Sometimes you just need to see things through someone else's footsteps and eye's.
 
I dumped my $0.02 the last time batoning came up.

I’ll never beat/baton a knife when:
A) it’s hardened stainless, or
B) it’s the only tool I have for survival

Beyond those two points, even a good carbon steel of thin stock shouldn’t be beat on either.

I hope he tries a fillet knife next...

TAH TAH - I’ve typed a response that included mention of his finger nails at least a dozen times since this thread was started... perhaps his clippers were the first thing he tried batoning. o_O
 
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