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".



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.



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.



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.