Cracked Sukenari honyaki

Had the knife for about 6 months, normal everyday use on boneless meats and veg. Polished off the patina on it yesterday and noticed a hairline in the steel both sides surrounding the hamon- exactly around the hamon where the heat treatment would have been. The line is unbroken and not uniform to polishing marks. Im pretty sure its a fail in heat treatment. would this occur after 6 months of use or just have been hidden by polish initially.

Its sad really because the knife is a stunning performer, by far my favourite even amongst my Carter and shigefusa.

ive tried to show it up in some photos but exceedingly hard to capture.

ill contact Chefknives to go and see about having it replaced i guess.

anyone come across similar? any advise?







mike

LOL I spent a while looking for a crack in the red circle.
Its really hard to see anything, can you outline the crack on one of the pics?

Kippington said:

LOL I spent a while looking for a crack in the red circle.
Its really hard to see anything, can you outline the crack on one of the pics?

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sorry- here it is outlined in red to compare with the other photos,

im sure its there, its just what to do about it..

the red circle is the camera lens so ignore..

miccro said:

the red circle is the camera lens so ignore..

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I figured that out eventually but it took me longer then I care to admit...

Yes I would try to get it replaced if I were you. Its a pretty big crack and any kind of sudden shock will cause it to grow further along the path of least resistance. The outcome won't be pleasant...

I have the same knife (240 but from JCK), what did you use to polish yours? I'll clean mine up and see if I have anything similar. I have a rehandle in the works so would rather find out if there are issues before it goes on.

Bizarr. Have never seen anything quite like that. Ouch.
If that is on both sides then indeed you have a crack and no that is not from use.
Good luck.

Keep us posted on the response you get from that place. I suspect that you will be pointed to their return policy, which states that you have 30 days to return unused products. You will likely have better luck trying to contact the maker.

CompE said:

Keep us posted on the response you get from that place. I suspect that you will be pointed to their return policy, which states that you have 30 days to return unused products. You will likely have better luck trying to contact the maker.

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This. A very good reason to only purchase through trusted vendors.

Post about it on that salesman's own forum and see.

CompE said:

Keep us posted on the response you get from that place. I suspect that you will be pointed to their return policy, which states that you have 30 days to return unused products. You will likely have better luck trying to contact the maker.

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Wow any respectable business would take take back a defective product like that. The 30 day/unused return policy doesn't even contemplate something like this. Hard to imagine it could possibly be the result of misuse! I mean I know honyaki blades are supposed to be "more fragile" but a through and through crack??

Good luck and I agree that you should post how the vendor handles it.

(This is no pot shot at sukenari . . . Obviously mistakes happen!)

Had a Hiromoto Honyaki and after 3 weeks a tiny hairline crack developed. Sent it back and got a replacement by JCK . Yr hairline crack is interesting as it veers... suggesting that there is a weak line resistance inherent in the blade . Mine was abt 1cm from the edge to where it stopped... straight up.

I suppose if there is no evidence of abuse blade height is almost as original ( suggesting no big chip (due to heavy use; literally) and grinded away)).. good case of a "lemon" can be made. I do have faith that the manufacturer wld replace .

good luck..

rgds
d

The amount of coin you spent on it and the fact it goes thru the knife on both sides I think they should replace it.

Probably premature to start throwing rocks at the vendor. I'm not a fan of Togo but everything I've read lately says he is standing behind his wares. (Much more so than he did with me back in the day) By making this about him instead of about the knife we've made it awkward for the most knowledgeable people here to comment.

Some of the knives I've owned that were differentials hardened, had a snagging edge where the steels meet. I doubt the blade is going to self-destruct upon not all use. But, if you bought a Honyaki, your probably pretty detail oriented and that may be one detail that isn't acceptable. We understand. Mark will stand behind his wears. Please post your experience in dealing with CKTG.

Sometimes if the steel is too hot during quench it will show hairline fractures you will not notice it until it is near mirror polish , this one looks more like it happened during straightening rather than heat treatment , it may look like it could hold but it will snap off from that line one day , contact the vendor and ask for replacement I would say

daveb said:

Probably premature to start throwing rocks at the vendor. I'm not a fan of Togo but everything I've read lately says he is standing behind his wares. (Much more so than he did with me back in the day) By making this about him instead of about the knife we've made it awkward for the most knowledgeable people here to comment.

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I didn't mean to start throwing rocks. It would be welcome news to hear if they will take the knife back or exchange it.

CompE said:

I didn't mean to start throwing rocks. It would be welcome news to hear if they will take the knife back or exchange it.

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Yes, I hope the OP keeps us posted as to his response.

OP, if you don't get a good response from the vendortogo just point him here and it'll all be right as rain.

thanks guys, emails sent, ill let you know the outcome,

mike

tjangula said:

I have the same knife (240 but from JCK), what did you use to polish yours? I'll clean mine up and see if I have anything similar. I have a rehandle in the works so would rather find out if there are issues before it goes on.

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i used mud from my wet stones and polishing cloth

I can see how something like that got through QC; the issue wasn't easy to spot even when you took closeups for us.

One thing I recall about the factory polish is that it leaves a lot of uniformly spaced lines if viewed at the right angle so perhaps it blended in

Heard from CKTG - they have been in contact with Sukenari who said they will replace the knife. i will be sending the knife back through CKTG to Sukenari, ill let you know the outcome and hopefully when i have new knife in hand.

cheers,

mike

So far so good. It's nice to know Sukenari stands behind their product. QC slips can happen, it's in how they're dealt with IMO that matters

miccro said:

Heard from CKTG - they have been in contact with Sukenari who said they will replace the knife. i will be sending the knife back through CKTG to Sukenari, ill let you know the outcome and hopefully when i have new knife in hand.

cheers,

mike

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That sounds good mike

This is welcome news to hear about CKTG's customer service, and I am glad that it looks like things will work out for you.

However, I don't want to heap too much praise on CKTG for exceeding low expectations. Ultimately, the vendor sold a defective product and they need to make it right with the customer. The fact that CKTG contacted Sukenari doesn't concern you and you shouldn't need to wait until CKTG has worked something out with Sukenari in order for you to get remediation. CKTG should have been ready to eat the cost and then deal with the manufacturer separately. I'll give them credit for heading in the right direction, but CKTG isn't there yet.

^ wow lol.

**** happens. They are trying to make it right. Can't ask for more then that.

CompE said:

This is welcome news to hear about CKTG's customer service, and I am glad that it looks like things will work out for you.

However, I don't want to heap too much praise on CKTG for exceeding low expectations. Ultimately, the vendor sold a defective product and they need to make it right with the customer. The fact that CKTG contacted Sukenari doesn't concern you and you shouldn't need to wait until CKTG has worked something out with Sukenari in order for you to get remediation. CKTG should have been ready to eat the cost and then deal with the manufacturer separately. I'll give them credit for heading in the right direction, but CKTG isn't there yet.

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Couldn't agree more. Was exactly my first thought, with my local law in mind. I ignore how these things are regulated in different US states. Glad to hear it seems to be highly similar.

I had a couple flawed knives come to me through the years I've spent money w/ CKTG and have yet to have any issues returning them. They've always been pretty stand up with me so I'd expect they'll do you right as well.