I am completely perplexed

[Skybird]

I had quite some knives in my life. Swiss Army pocket knives, other pocket knives of cheaper kind when I was a boy, full blade knives, I still have not-too-cheap Japanese kitchen knives of proverbial surgical sharpness (I just love to grind these things, it is very relaxing), and I had an old-generation, 40 years old BW combat knife as well.

Some of these knives need cleaning and maintenance and oiling at times, also grinding. I have one day per year at last when I do all that on all these knives in one session.

This afternoon I took the BW combat knife, quite a robust and big thing with a I think in Germany now illegal blade length, it is stainless steel, and it is quite thick, so very stable and durable. Considering there are two screws in the grip, I assume it is a full tang covered by the hard plastic grip from all sides, but that grip prevents from seeing the tang to be sure. Its quite massive and anything but a toy.

I pulled the blade out of the sheath, I looked at it, it looked fine, there was nothing unusual to see - and then suddenly, one finger's width above the grip, before my eyes, the blade broke and fell to the ground. Just that. And the gripü stillö in my hand, the tang broken into two parts.

To say I was perplexed, would be a monumental understatement. And if I am honest, I was kind of frightened int eh first seconds. This came totally unexpected. And I have no explanation still.

The fracture is not completely smooth, but still, there is no rust, my knives are all well-maintained, heck I once even owned Japanese ancient swords, I really know a thing or tow about how to treat a blade good and well and how toi grind it. This steel is not suposed to just break into pieces when being hit by a harmless glance".

:o

I am even more perplexed, because this morning my wrist watch, a Citizen model that costed around 250 bucks when I bought it 15 years ago, so it is no cheap China watch, stopped working as well from one moment to the next. It just stopped. The battery is still fine, and did not leak.

:o :o

Early this afternoon I also wanted to clean my SLR's optics, and the lenses on my digital compact camera. The SLR still is an analogue thing, and I do not user it anymore, just move the optics' mechanisms once or twice a year to prevent the grease from becoming sticky. The digital compact camera however - while I had it switched on and wanted to check the SD card and what still was stored on it - it died in my hand, from one second to the next. Screen off, power gone, dead.

:o :o :o

That are three totally unexpected and quite unexplainable breakdowns of items that had proven their durability over the past years. especially the knife is what sticks to my mind, since there is no visible corrosion and no moving parts and complex mechanism and no electricity and no micro electronics involved. A piece of thick, stainless steel without corrosion and in quite good state should not just break into pieces all by itself. It just should not.

Weired day. I must admit I feel irrationally worried. I am not known to fall to these kind of sentiments easily, and I am certainly not superstitious, I am just too coldblooded for that. But when the camera, the third item, broke down, I was stunned and worried.

Weired, weired day.

[Rhodes]

You may not believe in witches, but they do exist!

As normally one would say around here. Some times there are days like that and I got my share of strange things.

When stuff begins to break or fall, by no normal reason or what so ever, I tend to pick some object and throw it against the floor or the wall. If it is going to break at least it is by my actions.

Funny thing is after I do that, the "events" that are annoying me do stop.

[Aktungbby]

I had quite some knives in my life. Swiss Army pocket knives, other pocket knives of cheaper kind when I was a boy, full blade knives, I still have not-too-cheap Japanese kitchen knives of proverbial surgical sharpness (I just love to grind these things, it is very relaxing), and I had an old-generation, 40 years old BW combat knife as well.

Some of these knives need cleaning and maintenance and oiling at times, also grinding. I have one day per year at last when I do all that on all these knives in one session.

This afternoon I took the BW combat knife, quite a robust and big thing with a I think in Germany now illegal blade length, it is stainless steel, and it is quite thick, so very stable and durable. Considering there are two screws in the grip, I assume it is a full tang covered by the hard plastic grip from all sides, but that grip prevents from seeing the tang to be sure. Its quite massive and anything but a toy.

I pulled the blade out of the sheath, I looked at it, it looked fine, there was nothing unusual to see - and then suddenly, one finger's width above the grip, before my eyes, the blade broke and fell to the ground. Just that. And the gripü stillö in my hand, the tang broken into two parts.

To say I was perplexed, would be a monumental understatement. And if I am honest, I was kind of frightened int eh first seconds. This came totally unexpected. And I have no explanation still.

The fracture is not completely smooth, but still, there is no rust, my knives are all well-maintained, heck I once even owned Japanese ancient swords, I really know a thing or tow about how to treat a blade good and well and how toi grind it. This steel is not suposed to just break into pieces when being hit by a harmless glance".

:o

I am even more perplexed, because this morning my wrist watch, a Citizen model that costed around 250 bucks when I bought it 15 years ago, so it is no cheap China watch, stopped working as well from one moment to the next. It just stopped. The battery is still fine, and did not leak.

:o :o

Early this afternoon I also wanted to clean my SLR's optics, and the lenses on my digital compact camera. The SLR still is an analogue thing, and I do not user it anymore, just move the optics' mechanisms once or twice a year to prevent the grease from becoming sticky. The digital compact camera however - while I had it switched on and wanted to check the SD card and what still was stored on it - it died in my hand, from one second to the next. Screen off, power gone, dead.

:o :o :o

That are three totally unexpected and quite unexplainable breakdowns of items that had proven their durability over the past years. especially the knife is what sticks to my mind, since there is no visible corrosion and no moving parts and complex mechanism and no electricity and no micro electronics involved. A piece of thick, stainless steel without corrosion and in quite good state should not just break into pieces all by itself. It just should not.

Weired day. I must admit I feel irrationally worried. I am not known to fall to these kind of sentiments easily, and I am certainly not superstitious, I am just too coldblooded for that. But when the camera, the third item, broke down, I was stunned and worried.

Weired, weired day.Perfectly normal-not Weird at all: "they go in threes" :dead:just met "nuthin' good lasts forever!":yep: I just lost the battery, CD player and the pcv emission valve on my '05 Corrolla...at 259666:hmmm:(considering my :subsim: avatar??) miles on the odometer...now that's weird!:arrgh!:

[Buddahaid]

There must be a good conspiracy theory in there somewhere, oh I got it, George Soros must be behind it. :hmmm:

[Catfish]

There must be a good conspiracy theory in there somewhere, oh I got it, George Soros must be behind it. :hmmm:

^ This, or the EU. :D

Seriously, i just switched on a lamp, and the bulb made a loud "Pop",
and went out. To change the bulb i tried to switch on another lamp, and "Pop". So i got a torch and wanted to switch it on.. and it lit up and went out immediately. Not the battery.. :hmmm:

No power peaks, and certainly not on the torch.. I still don't get it :o

[u crank]

You guys are sweating the small stuff. We had a post-tropical cyclone, the remains of Hurricane Dorian blow through here last night. Put your big boy pants on. :D

[Skybird]

I wanted to photograph the broken knife, think many people will not believe me when they do not see it.

I found that while my smartphone is working - the camera on it has broken down. Last picture taken was two days ago, when it still worked. This evening, it did not work anymore.

Thats four strange breakdowns for today.

When my father's father died, having gotten bad family news and starting to cry while laying in bed, being dead 30 minutes later (said my grandmother), my father said that the clock on the wall in my parent's kitchen stopped running. Not exactly the same minute, but close to it. When my mother'S father died, in that night I dreamed of meeting him on a stroll through the forest, and he was so serious and waved me good-bye when he lkeft an vanished in the green. The next day I heared that he had died.

I must admit I called my parents on phone today, just to hear their voices, and a friend, to hear hers.

I wish I were made all-Vulcan, not just some percent.

[Skybird]

^ This, or the EU. :D

Seriously, i just switched on a lamp, and the bulb made a loud "Pop",
and went out. To change the bulb i tried to switch on another lamp, and "Pop". So i got a torch and wanted to switch it on.. and it lit up and went out immediately. Not the battery.. :hmmm:

No power peaks, and certainly not on the torch.. I still don't get it :o
We had a over-2-hour power blackout last week, Northern part and northern outer sectors of the city. This is Münster, district capitol, 380 thousand population, 2019. Third power blackout this year, though the other two were just less than a second. But it shows the stability of the powergrid is going down the drain. It goes like this since three years.

[ikalugin]

Don't worry, your Russian (Arab, Chinese, AI, underline the prefered option) overlords are just making sure that you are safe and sound. Stay calm and continue onwards with your routine.

[Jeff-Groves]

Was that the KM2000 combat knife?
Very strange it would just break like that.

[em2nought]

Possibly HRC was vacationing in Germany? :hmmm: :har:

[Catfish]

We had a over-2-hour power blackout last week, Northern part and northern outer sectors of the city. This is Münster, district capitol, 380 thousand population, 2019. Third power blackout this year, though the other two were just less than a second. But it shows the stability of the powergrid is going down the drain. It goes like this since three years.
Well we did not have any blackout, not even for a split second according to online reports of the energy distributing centers. Despite some unpleasant "meteorologic disturbances". Also our main FI protection fuse blows in a split second, and there is a secondary power limiter switched between that and our home distributor.

OT:
Let me guess, your energy provider has been privatized?

Like with the "Bundesbahn", the state-built and tax-financed network is being "sold" to some private company for peanuts, so they take their present and the first thing they spare is maintenance to maximize profits.
And when the first dead hit the news and there is an uproar because of neglected care it is all being bought back for billions, and repaired by.. tax money!
And then the circle can start again :yeah:

[Skybird]

the westfälische nachrichten wrote about. northern parts of münster were affected, some more in fact than was written at the time. they qoted the police with saying that it as due to some "störung im hochspannungsnetz". it lasted from 1730 to 2000.



microblackouts of less than a second are indications for instabilities in maintaining grid voltage on equal levels, they stem from switching on and off reserves that create short spli second moments when spikes race through affected parts of the network when own production is not sufficient and neighbours powerplants must jump in. this gets centrally controlled, and such emergencies happen now every week due to unexpected shortcomings from regenerative power production: both overproduction - sun shining - and lack of (lacking wind). in this case oil and gas powerblocks must get activated, germany increasingly lacks the ability to react with that, and so power from other nations must fill the gap - leading to instabilities in these.


the grid stability is europe-wide declining since some years, especially in staes that directly border to germany.


there are activists websites documenting the performance of the grid daily. the majority of weeks in a year sees one or several emergencies of these kinds. this year alone they say germany escaped state wide blackouts just by narrowest margins of time.


government offices of course do not publish this loud in tne media. the energiewende must be narrated as a success.

[Skybird]

Was that the KM2000 combat knife?
Very strange it would just break like that.
No, it was this model, 40 years old, in very good shape, zero rust, no visible microfractures:


https://www.kpemig.de/Bundeswehr-Kampfmesser-alter-Art-mit-Koppelschuh_1

[Skybird]

I think I found a nice "replacement" for the broken BW dagger. I spend some time to check whats on the market, and decided for a Morakniv Garberg Black with carbon steel blade, not a stainless steel blade, which is also available. The thing gave me a very good impression already from the first look at it. The blade is shorter, which is okay, since I want it more as a robust, durable tool (inj the very few instances when i actually "need" it :) ), and beyond 12 cm its illegal in Germany anyway. Carbon it is because although the blade needs more maintenance and protectiona gainst rust, it is easier to sharpen in the wild, and gets sharper and keeps its sharpness longer, than a stainless steel would. You need to oil it, okay, but you get something for it that stainless steel does not offer. And the sheath of it seems to be fantastic.


I have a soft spot for good knives, of any kind. If I would have the space, maybe I would be a collector.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdUby5sAJ8c

[Jimbuna]

No, it was this model, 40 years old, in very good shape, zero rust, no visible microfractures:


https://www.kpemig.de/Bundeswehr-Kampfmesser-alter-Art-mit-Koppelschuh_1

Metal fatigue?

[Skybird]

Its not as if I have heavy duty jobs for it, also, I care for the knives I have, oil them, sharpen them, check them at least once per year. I would be very surprise dit were fatigue.

Also, the way in which it broke., It was so - so absurd. I pulled it out, held it before me, tip pointing upolwards at a 30 degree angle or so, weatche dit, did nothing, just had may eyes ging over the blade checking what maybe shouzld get my attention, no poressure put on it, and suddenly - plink. 3 mm of hardened stainless steel - plink.

The event had something very ridiculous, hilarious, laughable, absurd in it. If it were a movie, people would burst in laughter.

Also, the sheath for this model is of metal and has a spring inside that hold the knif ein place so that it canot fall out even if the leather safety is open. Some strength and mechanical pressure is need to oull it out, which i just had done. But I felt nothing when doing so, there was no suspicious noise, no crankling sound, no feeling of some movement in the blade's structure indicating there was a fracture developing.

I am curious, since it is so mysterious and absurd, I will take the thing to a dealer over here and have him checking it and telling me what he thinks. Some kind of material analysis on the edge of where the thing broke. Some analysis under the microscope, some weired scifi stuff, or whatever.



It just does not make sense to me.

[Jimbuna]

The only plausible answer is metal fatigue, surely.

[Rockstar]

https://media.giphy.com/media/11PyEGIyET0NSU/giphy.gif

[vienna]

Rockstar ascends the stairs... :D






<O>

[Skybird]

He better don't because up there in the shadows he can only find me and my new toy of darkness. :D Its mine since a few hours.

https://p7009152.vo.llnwd.net/e1/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/800x/ddd65cf0afb2b02d0e268796e7139244/m/o/mora-13100det.jpg

Excellent quality, perfectly balanced, very good grip that snuggles into my hand. Very good value for the money I think, and one of the best knives I ever had in my hands. Hard to put it away. Sharpness is about right, but it was easy to sharpen it even further, just as I expected form this kind of steel. I could now use it to shave myself without soap. Extremely sharp I made it, but I got good practice in sharpenign knives from my Japanese kitchen knives, I have them at surigical scalpels level and could use them to make Sushi if that were what I want (I dont like Sushi)... Wanted to see how far sharpness can be pushed. Well, VERY far, what is typical for iron and also high carbon blades. In practical use, it makes no sense to have the sharp edge of the blade this extreme, since the cutting edge also becomes more vulnerable that way, so: once done for testing, but then never again.

Did a bit of wood cutting and carving in the garden to see how it works. Excellent. It cuts like a laser. The blade geometry and the Scandi shape almost commands this to be used on wood.

For the money range below 100 bucks maybe one of the best knives you can get. And so well-balanced.

So good that the dagger broke. :D

[Platapus]

I guess some knives can become brittle with age?

[Jimbuna]

Looks perfect for cutting the veg :hmmm:

[Skybird]

Looks perfect for cutting the veg :hmmm:
I already sparked a small and short-living fire with it and a fire rod on my loggia. :D Carbon steel, a sharp edge and soft magnesium works miracles and wonders LOL.

Got a telephone call from the trader whom i hgave the broken knife. He is kind of a knife freak and this really caught his attention, and had it handed around to some friends of his. He now asked for permission to send it to a guy he knows who works in some material anaylsis laboratory, with access to some really specific high tech stuff. So far he said everybody he showe dit to and who had a look at it under magnifying lenses, could not make sens eof it, the characteristics of the rim along the breakline simply do not look like one would expect they would if material fatigue, corrosion or widenign microfractions (or bad steel mixture) were the reason for the breaking.

He really starts to play detective now. :)


Its been many years since I last did a long distance journey to somewhere, and thought i would never do it again. Egypt, ten years and more ago, fifteen years. I feel a growing urge to hike again, but no more to the hot south, but to the colder north. Maybe in Spring. I have started to collect gear again. Thinking of north-eastern Poland, or southern Norway, Sweden. Just no heat and no crowds of people around, please. :) Or I go on a trail. In the past, in the ME i got along woithut own car nicely. Dont know how that would work in Scandinavia, i know nothing about their traffic networks, and I assume i cannot walk into a village of theirs and lust lease a mule...

[Catfish]

Iron or steel are of chrystalline structure, maybe there has been a blow some time before at a 'decisive' point that weakened some neighbouring elementary cells and lead to a widening microcrack :hmmm:
But i admit i have not heard of such an occurrence before.

OT edit: regarding travelling and seeing your Hanse - link, i can recommend Gotland, starting at Visby. Landscape and country are beautiful, as are the friendly people. When you walk along the coast, under the big cliffs, you can see billions of fossils of all sizes in the layers and on the ground, along with several meter long fossilized crinoids just lying around openly; not allowed to take it with you unfortunately. The whole of Gotland is one (once tropical) big fossilized silurian reef.

[em2nought]

Rockstar ascends the stairs... :D
<O>


Slender Knife Man. :D