Sad sad day for my bk7

[B.Mauser]

Hey guys! Just wanted to let everyone know that I recieved a new bk7 in the mail yesterday! I was so excited when i got home and saw the box by the door! I have ordered a bk2 as well, and it will be here wed of next week. I am glad to see we still have companies out there that will stand by there products, but no more roots for the new one!

Great news! Although most of us knew how this would end. Stick around brward, get your Beckerhead number. :thumbup:

 

[brward]

I am definatly going to stick around, as i have already learned so much from all you guys! I am very interested in getting my beckerhead number and cant wait to do so!

 

[randori]

You're in the desert, you have no water. The closest thing you can find is a depression in the land, with a few shrubs and grasses at the center. That's where the water is son. But it's underground, you gotta DIG!

You're going for a day-hike in the slot canyons of Utah, you step on a loose rock wedged in one of the canyons, and it becomes dislodged. A boulder the size of a mini-fridge falls, wedging your left arm into a crevice in the rock. If only you had something to PRY it up the two inches needed to pull your arm out.

You're lost in the Australian Outback, you haven't eaten in 4 days when suddenly a kangaroo comes bounding across your field of vision. You gotta BOOMERANG the hell outta that mofo to survive.

Ok maybe the last one is a stretch...did you mean Batoning instead of boomeranging?

The main quality I look for in a survival knife is that I can depend on it to do things most knives wont. That's why it's a survival knife, something to handle situations where you don't have an axe, a saw, a shovel, a pry bar, or a hammer. I still trust my own BK7 with my life, I wouldn't take it out with me if I didn't, but yes there are some knives that just don't come out the same as others, no matter how good your QC is, and there is such a thing as knife-abuse, I just don't think this qualifies as it.

I hope it all gets taken care of quickly. Kabar is on thin ice with me after my Machax fiasco, and while I give them the benefit of the doubt that they will make things right, be prepared to have to give them some gentle, and not-so-gentle reminders as to why the customer matters first.

If you're in a survival situation...a real survival situation...the first thing you should be doing is creating tools to survive. A heavy weight rabbit stick or a spear will kill a kangaroo. A proper knife (IE: Becker, KaBar, ESEE etc) can make that no sweat.

If your arm is caught under a boulder a lifetime transferrable warranty won't lift it up. You can try prying it up, but you're talking about anywhere up to half a ton of rock. Due to the position you'd be in (hopefully on your back...you'd still be working across your body), you probably wouldn't have sufficient leverage to lift it up anyway. You have a knife...you want to survive? Cut your arm off. Critters in traps do it every day.

Desert with no water? Again, if you're equipped with knowledge to survive then you would have grabbed something from the car when it broke down or a stick, bone, or piece of rubbage while walking with the forethought of digging for water. You would do that because in a real, non-staged survival situation, you will cherish your knife like your soulmate. I know my knives...all of them...are able to feed me, clothe me, warm me, shelter me, comfort me, and protect me. If I let them fill the roles they were designed to do, they will forever accomplish those roles. If I ask it to do something outside of what it can handle, then all of a sudden my situation has worsened severely. I've been in survival situations because I'm stupid, planned trips poorly, or did not pay mother nature enough attention. KaBar has never failed me.

A knife is a cutting tool. It is not designed to pry (google crow bar for reference) nor is it designed to be weilded by a woods ninja. It is a tool to create other tools. If used correctly a knife cannot fail. Its simply about edge retention, design, and egornomics. Cavemen used obsidian knives to create digging sticks, awles, drills, pry bars, and spears for a reason. A knife was too valuable of a tool to foolishly destroy and other tools were better suited for the job. Learn from the people that HAD to depend on their knife.

With that in mind, the Becker BK7 has an added role as a Combat Knife. The thinner profile of the knife is to aid in stabbing...not prying. I'd go as far to say that it is a "Survivable" knife, not a survivor knife. Even my trusted KaBar was first intended as a combat knife, second as a survival knife. It, too, is "Survivable." The BK2 is a survival blade...as is the 9 or 16. Each has strengths and weaknesses. Other knives of different manufacture will have different strengths. If a Junglass can pry 100 more pounds than a BK9 before breaking, does that make it a superior product? In my mind and by that definition....not at all.

If KaBar is experiencing quality control issues, they need to be resolved...no doubt about it. But before attacking a company, look at HOW the blades are failing. What is being done to them. Are they failing as knives or are they failing as other tools? The BK7 was not advertised as a multi tool. It's a knife. Cut, chop, slice, and stab. Not dig, throw, pry and twist.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Jonny1280]

Hey guys! Just wanted to let everyone know that I recieved a new bk7 in the mail yesterday! I was so excited when i got home and saw the box by the door! I have ordered a bk2 as well, and it will be here wed of next week. I am glad to see we still have companies out there that will stand by there products, but no more roots for the new one!

Ka-bar customer service "Works for a living" also! Awesome. Glad everything worked out for ya brward. I figured it would.
Do you know if Toog looked at the knife? And if so, what did he come up with as far as the root cause of breakage? lol

 

[brward]

Jonny1280, I really cant answer that, as it was delivered to them thursday of last week and didnt even know they had made a decision on it till i called yesterday, and they told me it would be on my doorstep when i arrived home. I am very curious what the issue was though, but dont think they would have replaced it if they felt i was being stupid and doing something i shouldnt have. I know im gonna get flamed because "the warranty clearly states" and " try a prybar or a shovel" bs, but i still feel as though i didnt put more stress than it should have been able to take. I am really glad it all worked out and i truly appreciate all that the beckerheads and posters to this forum do. I read and check this forum everyday and the wealth of knowledge and creativity here is unlike anywhere else i have been on the internet. Also the level of generousity and trust is unmatched anywhere and i cant wait to be a part of the beckerhead crew!

 

[Jonny1280]

Hopefully nobody beats you up too bad for this. If they do, it's too bad. I believe 90%-95% of us would have done the same. That is, if a Ka-bar made knife that broke under a light load of stress.
It's my belief that stand up buisinesses do stand up things for their customers when need be. That's what Ka-bar did here. I'm glad I buy from a company that stands behind their customers and does the right thing.

 

[Moosez45]

Awesome, brward got his knife replaced, no I don't think he abused it, but you know what, it don't matter.

This sad day is turned into a glad day, cause I'm lockin' this beotch before we get a survival knife test boulder breaker root digger convo goin' on.

Yeah, I can do that.

Moose