Snapped BK-2 during batoning back in 2014?

Joined
Nov 23, 2019
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3
Hey all,

This is sort of embarassing.

My best friend bought me a BK-2 back in late 2014. I wasn't able to take it out and use it for another six months or so. The first trip out with it, I was batoning some wood with it and it snapped.

I put it away and kind of forgot about it. It was one of those things that I figured I'd get to resolving eventually. I didn't think it'd take four years for me to get around to it, but what're you gonna do?

Any ideas?

bk2.jpg
 
Welcome to the forum, glad to have you here. Not sure why you waited all this time, haha. You could always contact KA-BAR, see if they'll do anything about it or not. Batonning isn't included in the warranty, iirc, but, you never know, they may replace it.

Question...Did you hit the spine of the blade near the handle while batonning? That's usually what causes a break back there. Was it during the winter, aka cold out, pine wood, etc? You didn't hit it with something else metal, did you? I remember someone coming here with a break like that, and they used the butt of their hatchet to use as a baton.
 
Welcome to the forum, glad to have you here. Not sure why you waited all this time, haha. You could always contact KA-BAR, see if they'll do anything about it or not. Batonning isn't included in the warranty, iirc, but, you never know, they may replace it.

Question...Did you hit the spine of the blade near the handle while batonning? That's usually what causes a break back there. Was it during the winter, aka cold out, pine wood, etc? You didn't hit it with something else metal, did you? I remember someone coming here with a break like that, and they used the butt of their hatchet to use as a baton.

Thanks for the welcome.

I remember striking it only at the tip, but it was also four years ago. It was in the autumn, but wasn't too cold if I remember correctly. I think it was low 40s maybe when it happened?

I carved a mallet from an osage orange branch and started batoning the rest of the wood from it with it. I don't remember it being particularly knotty. I don't even remember how much wood we got through it before it happened, but it definitely didn't snap *immediately.* Afterwards, we just carved a wooden wedge and started splitting wood that way pretty easily, so I don't think it was the wood itself that caused it, but who knows?
 
I would just contact KA-BAR, see what they have to say. Batonning isn't covered, I just read it briefly: https://www.kabar.com/customer/warranty.jsp

Still doesn't mean they won't help you out though. Here's the number: 800-282-0130
 
By the way, I remember you posting about this on BushcraftUSA, back in 2014, if you're the same person. He used the same wood as a baton. He was from Texas, and so are you. :thumbsup:
 
we Aren't supposed to hit the handle with the baton?
Geez, I learned something new today... Ugh!

I have smacked the crap out of the handle and the tip, going through Big, tough logs sometimes... :/
 
First off let me extend a great big โ€œSorry about thatโ€.....

there are two schools of thought about tempering the spine and leaving it soft.....Ka-Bar has historically been in favor of a soft spine which allows a bend before a snap..... This works pretty well almost all the time....Occasionally you get an anomalous grain structure at the transition area between hard and soft.... I would like to emphasize the OCCASIONAL aspect.... There is in any process of making things a rare occurrence of โ€œNo crap. Looky here guys. how did THAT happenโ€..... Steels do interesting things in heat treat sometimes. Ka-Bar uses some of the best people on the planet but.....

BTW Most, but not all,v batonning fails involve clubbing the blade on the handle side of the target piece. I do not know why. I have asked around and no one seems to have a good answer..... It is like throwing a blade... If the blade is over about 54 RC in hardness it will break.....If you throw your blade and it does not break just throw it a few more times and it will. No one knows for sure as to why.

Give Ka-Bar a call....

Sorry about the inconvenience....

Ethan
 
First off I just want to say I don't throw my Knives :) but on that subject I've been curious about the 1095 thrower KA-BAR has and the Heat treat they say it has and wondering how long it could take that kind of abuse?
 
Broken BK2s aren't really something you ever hear of, but winds blow, fires burn, crops fail and sh__ [...] "stuff happens.
KaBar is a great company and ... you just never know; you may get lucky..

Separately, but related, how many knife companies have what is tantamount to an on-call, at-the -ready designer/representative responding to forum threads like Ethan does?

KaBar makes good becker knives - Ethan makes them even better yet!

Good to hear from you E.
 
My poor, poor old Buck 120, tisk, tisk, tisk. And the box logo clearly shows you can hit it with a hammer through a block of (I used dry Oak) wood, so I thought as a young whipper snapper.
 
I tried to break my BK2, but I failed...

However mine is Gen 1 with not cutouts in the handle, which is where the OP broke his...
 
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