Customers with the worst knives - Museum of Horrors

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KasumiJLA

Custom wa handle & honyaki polishing
KKF Supporting Craftsman
KKF Supporting Member
Joined
May 7, 2023
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I was cleaning up my photos and I redid the discovery of some photos that I had taken when some knives were brought to me in very poor condition. So I'm curious to see what you, my colleagues, have come across over time!

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Customer question - Can you fix it?
Me - Nope!

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Customer - I have a little bit of rust on my knife.
Me - Indeed..
 
I was cleaning up my photos and I redid the discovery of some photos that I had taken when some knives were brought to me in very poor condition. So I'm curious to see what you, my colleagues, have come across over time!

View attachment 261772
Customer question - Can you fix it?
Me - Nope!
Is that blade made of aluminium?
 
I was cleaning up my photos and I redid the discovery of some photos that I had taken when some knives were brought to me in very poor condition. So I'm curious to see what you, my colleagues, have come across over time!

View attachment 261772
Customer question - Can you fix it?
Me - Nope!

View attachment 261773
Customer - I have a little bit of rust on my knife.
Me - Indeed..
Is that second one the rare and elusive Sharkhead Santoku?
 
I see a lot of badly chipped and mangled knives, but here's one someone brought in on Friday (so I haven't got round to yet) but it's a bit different, and something I don't think I've seen before...

This looks like a stainless clad san mai knife, that someone's then left in bucket of water for a year or three. And it's just completely corroded away the core steel for much of the edge, leaving the cladding intact. You can't really tell from the pics below but it also caused some delamination up at the tip, so the corrosion of the core steel probably goes even further up than you can see atm. I have literally no idea how much of this knife will be left at the end.

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X30Cr13... 0,3% chromium. I guess it'll be sharp until about 3 seconds after the first usage. ;)
 
I see a lot of badly chipped and mangled knives, but here's one someone brought in on Friday (so I haven't got round to yet) but it's a bit different, and something I don't think I've seen before...

This looks like a stainless clad san mai knife, that someone's then left in bucket of water for a year or three. And it's just completely corroded away the core steel for much of the edge, leaving the cladding intact. You can't really tell from the pics below but it also caused some delamination up at the tip, so the corrosion of the core steel probably goes even further up than you can see atm. I have literally no idea how much of this knife will be left at the end.

View attachment 261829

View attachment 261832


Same guy who brought that knife in also brought a couple of nakiri he wanted taking down from about 7.5" to 5.5" cos they were too big for his taste. This is the badly rusted and beaten up one on top made into a wee funky bunka:

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this is my mom's nakiri, lol. she was a pro before my time.
i took it outside as a little kid and cut up a watermelon on the sidewalk, lol. i destroyed it.


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what's interesting looking at it now is how darn thin it is. it's almost nail flexing even at that deep chip.

recently, i asked her how she used to sharpen it and if she had to practice much to get good at it, and she said, "i don't remember. that was a lifetime ago. i just know i had a whetstone that i used with water." LOL

her response was kind of unacceptable to me because of how much effort i put into trying to learn how to sharpen. it honestly makes me wonder if she just put the blade flat against the stone and zero-ground it to sharpen it each time.... i bet you could get a blade sharp like that, but it sure would be fragile.

and i smashed it into the sidewalk. lmao

anyway, it would be cool to turn it into a petty eventually just for sentimental reasons. i don't have the time or inclination rn, but i made a paper mockup for fun (2nd pic).
 
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I was cleaning up my photos and I redid the discovery of some photos that I had taken when some knives were brought to me in very poor condition. So I'm curious to see what you, my colleagues, have come across over time!

View attachment 261772
Customer question - Can you fix it?
Me - Nope!

View attachment 261773
Customer - I have a little bit of rust on my knife.
Me - Indeed..
I should have taken pics like this when i had my little sharpening business lol.

I can check and see if i have any pics deep in my gallery. But honestly i saw some bad stuff i didnt even think to take pics of. I just got to work because i knew i had a long road ahead of me. Lol.
 
Bandage is from before, or after, you started dealing with this "knife?"

Ha... before. The only time I ever really do myself any damage is if I slip on coarse belts while shaping a handle. I’m doing a custom order for a set of knives with someone’s skateboard deck atm, and I’m not used to the wood.

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Why would someone even bother to bring that knife in? Best place for it is the bin if you ask me.

Ah, wait and see! The final edge length will only be about 90mm, but it’ll only take me about 20 mins to make it into a pretty funky little knife. I’ll post the result on Thurs...
 
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