Last year I picked up a Camillus Carnivore "Titanium Bonded" tac-tool imitation from Wal-Mart for $20-something. I didn't expect much for the price, but I thought it would make a decent light-to-medium-duty yard tool. I thought I was getting a small machete combined with a light chopper. That was my expectation, and has nothing to do with any advertisement Camillus may or may not put forward for this product.
Last year I trimmed the hedges with it. I used the hook for snipping low-lying weeds, and I sawed or chopped through a couple <0.5" branches. I used it and put it away wet.
Fast forward 8+ months, and I broke it out again for some yard work. It was still covered in dried sap from last year but showed no signs of oxidation. I was thinking they might be on to something here. I trimmed a hedge or two and started on cleaning up a branch I'd taken from a lodgepole pine last year. I chopped through a couple of <0.5" branches with no problem. Then, just for fun, I tried chopping on the main branch, which measured up to a "whopping" 3" diameter. The first strike sank about half an inch in, which I thought was respectable. The second strike broke the blade, sending a piece of shrapnel bouncing off my face just under my eye and the tip of the blade twirling back onto my thumb.
Some blood was lost. I'm lucky it wasn't much, and even luckier the smaller blade fragment missed my eye. It was my good eye. The one I aim with. I'd be P.O.'d if I lost that one.
I'm posting this as a warning to others. Don't trust this blade. I don't think I abused it, and if failed dangerously. I've asked much more of other knives, and never experienced this kind of failure. I'm glad this happened in my backyard doing yardwork and not in the middle of nowhere where someone might actually depend on this knife. This was not a glancing or unusual strike, was against soft wood, and I don't have superhuman strength. I don't think a knife this thick should fail with this kind of use.
I'm disappointed Camillus. Tsk. Tsk. :grumpy:
Last year I trimmed the hedges with it. I used the hook for snipping low-lying weeds, and I sawed or chopped through a couple <0.5" branches. I used it and put it away wet.
Fast forward 8+ months, and I broke it out again for some yard work. It was still covered in dried sap from last year but showed no signs of oxidation. I was thinking they might be on to something here. I trimmed a hedge or two and started on cleaning up a branch I'd taken from a lodgepole pine last year. I chopped through a couple of <0.5" branches with no problem. Then, just for fun, I tried chopping on the main branch, which measured up to a "whopping" 3" diameter. The first strike sank about half an inch in, which I thought was respectable. The second strike broke the blade, sending a piece of shrapnel bouncing off my face just under my eye and the tip of the blade twirling back onto my thumb.
Some blood was lost. I'm lucky it wasn't much, and even luckier the smaller blade fragment missed my eye. It was my good eye. The one I aim with. I'd be P.O.'d if I lost that one.
I'm posting this as a warning to others. Don't trust this blade. I don't think I abused it, and if failed dangerously. I've asked much more of other knives, and never experienced this kind of failure. I'm glad this happened in my backyard doing yardwork and not in the middle of nowhere where someone might actually depend on this knife. This was not a glancing or unusual strike, was against soft wood, and I don't have superhuman strength. I don't think a knife this thick should fail with this kind of use.
I'm disappointed Camillus. Tsk. Tsk. :grumpy:
