Customers with the worst knives - Museum of Horrors

[KasumiJLA]

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!


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


Customer - I have a little bit of rust on my knife.
Me - Indeed..

 

[Choppin]

enjoy your new boning knife

 

[Corradobrit1]

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?

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Paging @bsfsu...

 

[Jovidah]

Just put them on ebay as functional art...

 

[M1k3]

 

[KasumiJLA]

Is that blade made of aluminium?

Haha I really don't know and I should have asked what happened!

 

[Rangen]

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?

 

[bsfsu]

Paging @bsfsu...

It is funny when customers come in and ask if you can sharpen their knife. Sometimes it's quite a bit of work to get the knife to sharpening stage.

I wish I had pictures of the knives I've been turning away for sharpening.

 

[Greasylake]

This was definitely the worst I ever bought, vs now, waiting for a bit of a polish and a handle

 

[D J]

Not the worst I've done. I don't feel comfortable taking pics of peoples knives but did on this one. They got a sharp serrated knife back

 

[cotedupy]

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.

 

[Jovidah]

X30Cr13... 0,3% chromium. I guess it'll be sharp until about 3 seconds after the first usage.

 

[KasumiJLA]

Not the worst I've done. I don't feel comfortable taking pics of peoples knives but did on this one. They got a sharp serrated knife backView attachment 261817

Look like he was trying to cut some piano strings

 

[KasumiJLA]

Not the worst I've seen, but some love was needed!

 

[T85]

I’m not a professional sharpener but I do sharpen some of my fellow cooks knives. I have a good one here, some of you may shed a tear

I still haven’t fix this, I may mail to somebody because I’m not sure if I have the patience or skill to fix this

 

[cotedupy]

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:

 

[KasumiJLA]

I’m not a professional sharpener but I do sharpen some of my fellow cooks knives. I have a good one here, some of you may shed a tearView attachment 262071 View attachment 262070 View attachment 262072
I still haven’t fix this, I may mail to somebody because I’m not sure if I have the patience or skill to fix this

This is serious stuff right here! 🫣

Chips
Broker tip
Rust
Bends
Crack !?

You are currently the leader man

 

[KasumiJLA]

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:

View attachment 262077

View attachment 262076

Seriously that transformation is really awesome Well done!

 

[T85]

This is serious stuff right here! 🫣

Chips
Broker tip
Rust
Bends
Crack !?

You are currently the leader man

Wow I get a trophy! It’s been a while

 

[sansho]

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.

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).

 

[Blank Blades.]

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.

 

[cotedupy]

Ah feck it, why not. Let’s see what we can do...

 

[Rangen]

Ah feck it, why not. Let’s see what we can do...

Bandage is from before, or after, you started dealing with this "knife?"

 

[Heckel7302]

Ah feck it, why not. Let’s see what we can do...

View attachment 262527

View attachment 262529

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

 

[KasumiJLA]

@cotedupy damn, that's a lovely one right here! You could transform it as a kid knife! (Seriously that could be awesome haha)

 

[cotedupy]

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.

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...

 

[bjmsharp]

Here are a few good ones from a quick flip through my camera roll

 

[M1k3]

View attachment 262552 View attachment 262553 View attachment 262554 View attachment 262555 View attachment 262556 View attachment 262557
Here are a few good ones from a quick flip through my camera roll

What happened to number 2? You'd think they'd stop after the first chip....but noooo. They wanted a Suji

 

[JBroida]

i need to take more before and after pics because even the worst of these pale in comparison to what i see here sometimes