I think what really made him look bad and was really embarrassing for him was 18-20 months ago when the first of his Ultimate Survival Knife came out many of them were breaking due to a problem that was later, I believe, traced back to improper plastic mixing on the removable pommel that doubles as a fire steel.
Yes, my understanding the pommel was breaking off of those first generation models under reasonable real-world use (it isn't supposed to be removable). Here's an
example.
That said, Bear was taking heat for the knife before anyone was able to test it out (similar to how some, now, are giving Les Stroud a hard time for his new knife line).