I think my terminology has made what I have said unclear. Disregarding what brand these knives are, the impact of the hammer with any object can range from elastic or plastic. In a perfectly elastic impact, no energy is lost. In the case of a perfectly plastic impact, all energy is lost. That being said, the impact of the hammer on any rubber, including Res-C is more of a plastic impact than that of a hammer impact on hardened steel. Think of it as standard pool balls colliding vs. rubber pool balls colliding. Due to the more elastic nature of the collision between standard pool balls, the balls move faster after the collision than rubber pool balls would. All of this really has more to do with momentum and impulse momentum than force. Going by the physics definition of force alone, we would conclude that the force applied by Noss's hand alone is what broke the Ranger. Why any knife would break from a hammer impact has more to due with changes in momentum than applied force. To clarify my point, if Noss were to use a standard claw hammer instead, he would have a much harder time breaking any knives because a smaller hammer has much less momentum than the 3lb hammer which he uses. Also, had he used a rubber mallet, he would have a harder time breaking knives because the impacts of the hammer would be far more plastic, or energy losing, than when he uses his current 3lb steel hammer. In the end, I don't think Res-C would have saved the Ranger. I love my knives from both of these companies! The real problem is that I don't have enough money to buy everything I want!