My FB01 broke, too easily!

[ThomasH]

Hello Sal, et al,



Hey, my beautiful FB01 Moran Featherweight broke, and way too easily!



http://homepage.mac.com/thomashaller/.Pictures/Broken_FB01_whole.jpg



It is an older style, not numbered, but with the mirror polished blade and it came with the leather horizontal sheath. I loved it for working as a low voltage technician, very sharp, tough convex edge, "non-conductive" handle and guard, and a nice "harmless" look about it so I could carry it on school campuses, hospitals, etc. I had used this one for about a year, and had not one complaint.



But I was using it to cut some drywall, and I was prying (VERY lightly) to see if the cut out chunk was "free" and -Click- the tip of my knife just popped off!



http://homepage.mac.com/thomashaller/.Pictures/Broken_FB01_tip.jpg



The blade had not bent a bit, and there was _very_ little pressure on the blade despite my description of the action as "prying". This does not seem like the appropriate behavior for a quality knife. I thought these blades were forged, but this acted like it was cast! Ed Fowler (I have one of his Pronghorn knives) will just cross his arms and _smile_ at me when I tell him about it, know what I mean? :-)



Anyhow, I am hoping that this is not how all of my FB01 Moran's will perform, I really like the knife and was planning on using them for years. But this experience has made me a bit nervous, because it broke so easily. I would be glad to send it to you for analysis, but I would like it back to go on my Valhalla shelf, and I would appreciate it if I could get a replacement at a discounted price. I don't imagine you have more of the mirror polished convex edged models left, which I would prefer, but that's the way it goes, I guess.



Thanks for listening!



- Thomas



Oops, sorry about the image HTML, I thought it would work in this forum, but I guess not. I've removed the "code" and just left the URLs for the pictures.



Edited by - ThomasH on 2/16/2001 12:59:18 PM

[sam the man..]

OUCH! <img src="sad.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle> Better send the Moran blade so that them Spyderco crew can have a closer look dude! <img src="wink.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle>

Sam

have spydies
will travel...

[ThomasH]

Thanks for the sympathy Sam! I hope somebody from Spydie-land eventually reads this too! :-) Must be a big weekend coming up...

- Thomas

[sal]

Hi Thomas. Sorry about that. You're the first. We've never had one break. It sounds like one of the earlier ones, my guess is it was too hard. Please send it back to us. We'll need to test it and I'm sure we'll take good care of you.

Regarding the forging of knives, to my knowledge, there are no production knives being hammer forged today. There are a few kitchen knives that are dropped forged, but they have not demonstrated any increase in strength, it just makes it easier to build in the bolster. The only cast blades I'm aware of is the David Boye Dendritic stuff. Our knives are stock removal method of manufacture.

Regarding Ed Fowler, just ask him if he'd like to make hammer forged stainless knives for us so we can retail them for under $100, keeping in mind the distibution chain. Tell him that sal will take all he can make.

sal

[ThomasH]

Hi sal!

&gt; &quot;...We've never had one break...&quot;
&gt;
Thanks for the encouragement, I feel more confident...

&gt; &quot;...Please send it back...&quot;
&gt;
Is there a special address, or should I just put &quot;warranty&quot; on the label? I will be able to get it back, won't I?

&gt; &quot;...there are no production knives being hammer forged today...Our knives are [of the] stock removal method of manufacture....&quot;
&gt;
Hey, I own both Fowler and Boye knives! :-) But I thought the usual stock was roll forged, or machine farged, or something, before removal?

&gt; &quot;...ask [Ed] if he'd like to make hammer forged stainless knives for us so we can retail them for
&gt; under $100, keeping in mind the distibution chain. Tell him that sal will take all he can make.
&gt;
I'm just trying to be funny sal! Ed wouldn't make &quot;stainless&quot; knives in the first place, and the multi-year waiting period can be a kink in the distribution chain. And I think you left a zero off, too! :-)

I'm sorry if I'm acting offensive, you make a bunch of great products available at reasonable prices. Perhaps I was upset at the disappointment, I don't mean to be attacking you.

Thanks for your response, if I don't hear further I'll just mail it to the listed address with an explanation.

- Thomas

[sal]

Hi Thomas. Just send it to Spyderco Warrantee &amp; repair at 20011 Golden Gate Canyon. Golden 80403. I've already alerted them to the fact it's coming. We'll need it in the lab to determine the problem.

Fowler is a bladedsmith (and a good one at that). He's also a friend of mine so it's more of a fun thing to &quot;rib&quot; him.

In hammer forging a blade, the smith begins with a &quot;chunk&quot; of something and heats it and hammers the shape into the blade while it is hot. Then some grinding is necessary to finish the blade. Advantages are; &quot;relaxing&quot; the steel after shaping, very hard edges and soft spines (due to differential heat treat) and a great deal of personal attention from the smith as they are done one at a time. Some even argue &quot;packin g&quot; the edge but that's still up for discussion. Great blades but not possible in production.

I have maded a few forged blades (I have my own forge, hammer, etc). I've learned a great deal from Goddard, Fowler, Moran, Hastings, Bagwell, Wood, Judd Evans and Jerry Rice. It's a craft and an art requiring much expeience to be good.

I don't think it's realistic to expect that type of attention in a production knife.

David Boye casts his blades, but they too need some grinding to finish. the argument for casting is the dendrites that are formed make better cutters.

In Stock removal, we begin with steel that is flat in shape in large sheets. The blade shape is cut out (either stamping or laser) and then grinding is used for thickness (+/- .001), bevels, etc.

sal

[ThomasH]

Hi Spyde-folks,

The Post Office says it has been a couple of weeks since they delivered my poor soldier, is there any status? Should I be getting some message about it by now? Just curious! :-)

- Thomas

[tique]

Don't forget that most of the Spydie crew took a trip to Europe I believe that required a lot of time and resources. I am guessing they are still there. The home base is running really short handed, so replys take longer and repairs probably are slowed down quite a bit. Just a time thing, wait till Sal and co gets back home and then they will get it all back to normal<img src="smile.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle>

[ThomasH]

Thanks tique! I didn't know...

I say, a trip to the Continent! Jolly good fun, what?

Okay, I'll wait quietly... :-)