Hi all, new member just dropping in to ask if this bent knife can be explained b anything other than user error:

[Not_the_Sharpest_Tool]

Hello everyone, sorry to drop in with a question straight off the bat, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to the following:

So I bought my first 'good' knife a little over a year ago from CuttingEdgeKnives in the UK. It's a Yu Kurosaki Shizuku Santoku.

I hadn't used it in a few months as I had been living elsewhere, and it had spent that time sitting on a magnetic knife holder from the same vendor.

Today I noticed this very significant bend in the knife:

And I am a bit dumbfounded to be honest. I'm looking at it thinking it looks like I used the knife to pry open a door.... But I haven't (I wouldn't dream of it, it's a very expensive knife for me)

Can knives like these develop this kind of bend naturally?

 

[daveb]

Welcome. I'll let others that are more knowledgeable answer your question and suggest ways to fix it.

 

[Corradobrit1]

Not uncommon unfortunately. Good news its sanmai construction so should be fairly easy to straighten with the right knowledge and tools. Try the shop you bought it from or if you are near London maybe the guys at Blenheim Forge could take a look.

Oh and welcome. Lots of Brits joining KKF recently.

 

[josemartinlopez]

what would cause this?

 

[blunt_cutter]

A disturbance in the force.

 

[ian]

I’d just try bending it back against the counter. Not sure what caused the bend, but it might very well bend right back. I’ve done this with less severe bends on several san mai knives. Unless you’re going crazy with it it’s not gonna break.

 

[Jaszer13]

HI, knives bend for many reasons. Most commonly when using knife magnet holders which use neodymium magnets you might bend the knife every time you remove it. They can also bend when sharpening or even when smashing garlic. It's also common when people don't lay their knife on a flat surface when polishing or removing patina.

None the less this can be fixed. Here's a good thread for you to read through:

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/knife-bending-feedback.38905/

Also, here's a great video from Murray... If the "counter top" method does not work.

 

[Corradobrit1]

Has Uri Geller been anywhere near it?

 

[Jaszer13]

Has Uri Geller dropped by recently?

Valid question. I too would like to know.

 

[Not_the_Sharpest_Tool]

Thanks all,
@Jaszer13 - That thread actually brought me here - although it doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that it will be in any way easy to bend it back. Hopefully it is not as difficult to straighten as that knife.

@Corradobrit1 - unfortunately I'm no where near London -in Manchester up North. The shop I bought from is online based, the knife should still be under warranty in it's first year so hopefully they will be able to help. They have a good reputation which is the reason I bought from them, so fingers crossed.

One of the reasons for this post was because I emailed them asking if this could happen without user fault - the magnetic block is one recommended by them and I have barely used the knife (I don't use it to crush garlic, which would be the only lateral force I could think of) so I wanted to double check if the knife bending could happen 'naturally' and if it was acceptable or expected when purchasing these hand made items.

It probably was Uri bloody Geller - the shifty bast...

 

[billyO]

if the knife bending could happen 'naturally' and if it was acceptable or expected when purchasing these hand made items

Acceptable? unfortunately, probably, provided the rest of the package is well done. Expected? Not necessarily, but as mentioned above, it does happen sometimes.

what would cause this?

A disturbance in the force.

Not sure if I have a great answer, but blunt_cutter might be close to the truth here. I do have a couple of questions first. Are you 100% sure that the warp wasn't there when you bought it (is it possible you just didn't notice it)? Do you know how old the blade is?

As a maker, I've seen blades warp at times I wouldn't have expected. When forging/heat treating a blade enormous stresses are placed in the steel on a molecular level (the atoms actually rearrange themselves during proper heat treating). Sometimes these stresses relieve themselves over time.
I've seen blades spontaneously crack when just sitting on the bench after quenching when they weren't tempered right away. I've had blades that were flat out of the quench/tempering and then develop a warp while doing the finish grinding the blade.

Like others have already said, if it's a quality san-mai blade with a mild steel spine and hard edge, it should be easy and safe to straighten with minimal risk of breaking (wear heavy gloves and eye protection just in case). One reason for this type of construction is to allow the blade to bend instead of break.

 

[Not_the_Sharpest_Tool]

Are you 100% sure that the warp wasn't there when you bought it (is it possible you just didn;t notice it)? Do you know how old the blade is?

No, I am not sure of this. As far as I understand it this knife maker is quite popular so based only on that one might assume the knife is not particularly old (completely an assumption - I do not know anything about how these are bought and sold).

Given I hadn't used it in quite a while, then spotted this the day after I got back, it leads me towards thinking I would have noticed this in the 4-5 months use I had out of it beforehand. But it is not outside the realms of possibility that I am wrong about this.

 

[billyO]

But it is not outside the realms of possibility that I am wrong about this.

I can't tell you how many times in my life I've made the comment to myself. "Surely I would have noticed this before???"

 

[Not_the_Sharpest_Tool]

Absolutely, my post should definitely be read as "It's quite possible".

Unfortunately I would never be able to prove such a thing to the shop I bought it, and if it were the case I would have thought they would be obliged to refund or replace - although warranty law does not apply in the same way to 'handmade' items, so perhaps not.

 

[Not_the_Sharpest_Tool]

Just to update:

As I was never sure where this bend came from I didn't outright ask Cutting Edge Knives to repair the knife for me in warranty. They did offer to bend it back if I sent it to them, but this is about £12 insured each way... I wasn't wild about having to pay another £25 for this knife.

As it turns out however the knife is incredibly easy to bend. Just to see how hard it would be to do myself, expecting to put significant weight on the knife and have it spring back, I placed it on a chopping board and carefully applied pressure and it just bent back without any problem whatsoever.

I think this rather solves the question of how it happened as well, as something this easy to bend could have bent by ending up under a bag of flour at the wrong angle...

 

[billyO]

Good news its sanmai construction so should be fairly easy to straighten

There you go. Right on!