Joe,

Only one other instance that I can remember in the last 10 years as follows (This one in 2006). You need to be a member to access the site. I've copied and pasted an excerpt:

http://www.customknivesandguns.com/ckgforums/showthread.php?t=1597&highlight=randall

[i]A friend of mine tests all of the knives he's going to deploy with by chopping on an old, damn near petrified, oak log......

Here's an example of why he does that before 'betting his life' that they're gonna work as advertised........new, out-of-the-butchers paper, never used.....but one chop.

I was told this happened because of a heavy grit grinding scratch that was missed before the heat-treat was done, causing a stress riser that resulted in catastrophic failure of this knife.







Best,

Ron