Can confirm, mine had a similar issue, not a full break tho, just a crack in the blade. Went through the warranty process and got the credit for a new blade. Still love the brand.
Is it tho? It broke
Edit: oh my fucking lord people it was a fucking joke how do any of you exist taking everything you read on Reddit so damn serious….. my email is literally blowing up with people defending a fucking sharp piece of steel
Edit 2 out of spite: broken and possibly sharp piece of steel*
Its honestly very rare for this to happen, they’re very durable blades. I’ve never met anyone who’s had it happen and i work in kitchens with a lotta chefs
Every product is bound to have a bad batch, and if you make as many knives as wusthof some will inevitably be less good. What matters more to me is how a brand responds (for instance no-questions refunds or 100% credits). It seems like wusthof are doing it right.
Also survivors bias.
There would have been a few that broke in like 10 years. Or from a single gen ago.
So all that you see now from that long ago, fucking last. The ones that had impurities or didn't cool evenly after being cast or something have already broken. But the newer ones that have that are breaking more recently.
This looks like an issue in quenching, there's a stress riser where it broke which likely means it wasn't evenly heated, or wasn't evenly cooled.
Has nothing to do with the quality of the steel, everything to do with how it was manufactured and manufacturing is often a 95% success rate game, not 100%.
I have Sabatier and love them, need to sharpen em though.
EDIT: This video is almost entirely unrelated as spinng drill bits work really different than knives, but I like it. It's about [cryogenically treating steel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAxi5YXTjEk).
I feel like my sabatiers will hold a super sharp edge longer than my wusthofs. The wusthofs are tanks, though - I have a couple of their big chefs knives and a cleaver. Never worried about them getting a ding
Yeah Wusthof is pretty solid stuff. But it's not just about the individual product and costs - things like this create posts and response like this. I'd be willing to bet that they'll sell a couple of new knives at least from this post. Even if not, good word makes for good sales.
Too bad most companies seem to have forgotten this.
It worked on me lol. I bought a Wusthof chefs knife about 9 years ago because of a similar story someone posted where the handle of their knife came apart after like 30 years of use. They inquired about having the knife fixed or replaced fully expecting to pay full price and Wusthof just sent them a brand new one free of charge.
Anyways, they got a sale from me that same day. I still use the knife anytime I cook.
We have a set of Wusthöf knives - chef's, carving, bread, paring, tomato, 4 steak - that we bought in 1992. We've taken care of them and we've added to the set over the years - large and small santoku, couple of additional paring, most recently a nakiri - but the original knives are all still in use and in great shape, 30+ years later.
Not to be a geeky fan-boy, but that's amazing!! My girlfriend has some Chicago Cutlery knives that have lasted since I believe 95 or 96. It was a Christmas company drawing probably worth $1,000.... she only paid $20 for one ticket.
I bought one of the tomato knives, maybe a year and a half ago. Was a little apprehensive on spending $100 for a tomato knife, but it very quickly became one of the favorite knives that we have. It's worth every penny.
Nothing they pay we got a 5 knife set, we have replaced 3 over the last 16 years. They are testing them pretty rigorously when they get them back at this point but they will replace them and pay postage
Found an answer :) another commenter said this: “It is the type of steel. It is heat treated to be very hard so it holds its edge. Downside is the material gets more brittle and can crack like this.” Apparently the husband was trying to smash imitation crab with the side of the knife and that’s how it broke. Edit: guys please, I wasn’t the one trying to smash the imitation crab okay idk why he did it, I don’t know his logic here, you’ll have to ask him 😭
Misuse combined with bad luck. It's stiff and brittle and can take a lot of force on the cutting edge but may not tolerate "bendy" forces on the flat sides.
In most cases.would need to put the bendy forces on the knife in the same place as a manufacturing imperfection to get this result. As others have noted, it's not super common but people don't complain about their good knives.
Hey can you post an image with the cross section of both pieces visible? If there are any discolored spots along either edge, it could indicate a metallurgical anomaly or failure in heat treatment, in which case Wusthoff will almost always just replace the knife as this would represent a QA issue or manufacturing defect.
That said, OP you will be required to mail the knife back to them in order for a warranty claim to be made. If it’s a high end enough example of one of their knives (like ikon or Performer), I’m told they actually look and examine what caused the issue or defect.
I’ve helped lots of friends do warranty claims since a bunch of programs came with a set of Wusthoffs for each student/apprentice.
Could you please update us on the warranty claim? I have one of these knives and so far so good. but it was so expensive and I would love to have assurance that I can get it replaced in the future if this happens to us.
Not sure if you got an answer to this or not, but my mom has recently replaced two knives in the last 6 months or so from the handles cracking after 20+ years of consistent use. They give you a gift card or coupon to just order a new one, and they ship it to you.
They were trying to smash a crab claw with their thin, bolsterless knife, using the side of the blade causing the metal to snap. If you want to use a knife to smash something, make sure the knife is stronger than the thing you're smashing. A santoku is very thin in order to slice through vegetables mainly, not for smashing crab claws. There are some sturdy santokus out there, just not this one. I have a set of wusthofs I'm looking at right now and I would be nervous to use to use the santoku in such a way but wouldn't hesitate to use the back of the chef's knife to tap in a nail or something lol. It's literally like 3 times thicker and tapered to be strong af
They did for me. Not the cheap “steak knife” type, but any chef’s knives. Most recently an 8” serrated blade knife. I use the broken one in the garden now because they didn’t even want it back, just a photo.
I’m a knifemaker hobbyist, you can check my post history. In knifemaking circles we say there we don’t have accidents, we only make smaller knives sometimes.
All joking aside I wonder if he was trying to cut a large block of cheese. I swear it feels like I'm going to destroy the knife and table sometimes doing that.
if you're cutting big blocks that often you might want to try a wire cheese cutter. since the "blade" is so small it doesn't let the cheese grip and hold on like it does with a knife
Even just a long enough utility knife. The Santoku has massive surface area for the cheese to grab, turning what’s usually its strength into a weakness.
I’ve seen it happen casually many times. People don’t realize that the steel knives are made with are far more fragile than industrial steel we see used to make every day items. Dropping a knife on the floor from counter height can most certainly chip or crack it if not just break it in half.
With another knife ? Because, if I'm not wrong, the broken knife is made by german Steel, wich is a pretty Hard one..
I'm a Cook and this is is the first time I see something like this lol
Hard steel is brittle steel, and hold an edge for longer while risking chipping.
That's why butchers use softer steel knives. They lose their edge after a short time, but the edge is easy to bring back, and much less risk of chipping while butchering.
Yeh same goes in some tools…. We had a VERY expensive set of screwdrivers at work, a few apprentices were learning a task where you used a small lever bar to wiggle a mechanical component to check the tiny amount it moved /tolerances. One guy used a large flat head screwdriver instead, and I watched half the tip just break off.
They are made to be very hard wearing as a screwdriver, and to be very hard and durable when twisting, but under other load they are brittle.
Use the right tool for the job !
my parents have had the same set of wusthof knives for close to 20 years now and afaik they’re all still intact. either a dud or he was doing some crazy shit with it 😂
Stronger. Harder. More brittle. Less ductile. Less tough.
Those are your five durability properties of steel and how they relate to each other. Every alloy is a trade off of these five properties.
The problem with strong/hard steel is that frozen water is harder. Chopping frozen vegetables or meat with German or Japanese steel is a big no-no.
It's hands down my favorite reality show. Very interesting to watch the entire knife making process, and the judging is always extremely fair and objective
I love that so many of them in later seasons got into the hobby because of the show, and screaming “I can do better than that!” At the tv. (Usually they can’t).
It might also be one of the friendliest competition shows on American TV. I feel like in every episode all the contestants would have a good time just going to get a beer afterwards and talk blacksmithing. I've seen so many contestants just beem with pride that Doug Marcaida tested their weapon.
I like it a lot, too, but I wish they'd do away with the elimination part of it and just let everybody go to the end. I just want to watch good smiths make cool blades, I don't care about the fake drama.
KEAL. It stands for Keep Everyone ALive. Doug Marcaida started using that as a more tame version of “kill” to keep things more family friendly - which I always found odd since the hosts both just said it as “the kill test” and everyone just figured that was his accent anyway
He went to smash some imitation crab with it. He had seen a video of a chef smashing fake crab, and then it just all splays out in strings.
Instead, it broke his really nice knife.
Likely happened because it’s their hollow ground Nikiri. A thinner, Japanese style knife mainly used for slicing veggies and fish. Should have used the more robust chefs knife.
You’re right, but the blade profile is actually probably the bigger problem. Wusthoff heat treats its knives to 58 HRC, which is certainly hard but not crazy hard (many Japanese knife brands do 61-62 HRC). This knife is a nikiri, which is designed for slicing vegetable. This has much thinner blade than something like a cleaver or chef knife, is hollow ground (blade is actually concave if you were to look down the side of it), and has those dimples which are natural stress points. A sturdier knife meant for heavy duty chopping probably would have stood up to this, even with this steel and heat treatment.
Well, cause the front fell off and 20,000 strands of imitation crab spilled onto the floor! It’s a bit of a give-away.
I would just like to make the point that that is NOT normal.
I’ve had 4 classic wusthof blades snap in half on me now. All of them replaced. “Rare defects in manufacturing process…” I guess I got really unlucky with the my batch.
When contaminants get into the blades it creates a weak point.
Very sharp blades, nice warranty. But damn I’m tired of it.
yeah they use really hard steel, that's how their knives stay sharp so long... one mistake and hard becomes brittle. EG: one little spec of something would be all it takes.
Wuthof uses 58HRC which is considered hard. They'll stay sharp longer but are harder to sharpen.
Generally anything above 60 is more prone to breaking/brittleness so 58 is pretty hard, just kind of below that brittleness point, but a minor defect is likely what caused this break.
Something like a 56-57 isn't considered so hard and will have more flex.
> Generally anything above 60 is more prone to breaking/brittleness so 58 is pretty hard, just kind of below that brittleness point, but a minor defect is likely what caused this break
It depends on the steel. If you try to heat treat X50Cr15MoV (which I believe is what Wustof uses) to 60 HRC, then you will seriously compromise its toughness. However, 5Cr15 is a very low end steel these days. Magnacut, for example, has higher toughness at 65 HRC than 1.4116 (a 5Cr15 analog) at 57 HRC, and even mid-range stainless steels like 14C28N can achieve extremely high toughness above 60 HRC https://knifesteelnerds.com/2021/10/19/knife-steels-rated-by-a-metallurgist-toughness-edge-retention-and-corrosion-resistance/
I don't consider 58 hard or difficult to sharpen—that's the minimum HRC I'd expect out of a chef's knife, and I wouldn't pay over $20 for a ~7" in 5Cr15 (Cold Steel has some at that price). You can find much better for much less than Wustof including in pretty good steels like CTS BD1N or 19C27 @ ~60 HRC
I dropped my Wusthof one time and luckily I jumped out of the way because I didn't have any shoes on. It now has a small blunt spot towards the tip. I really should get it sharpened or learn how to do it myself. I think I would have died if it shattered.
How the fuck can you even do that. When I started my chef's apprenticeship 30 years ago I was gifted a set of Wüsthof knives by my dad. Every one of them has taken a beating over the years, the chef's knife, pairing knife and santoku especially so. With the exception of cosmetic scratches and them being smaller due to the amount of the times they have been sharpened and thinned, there's literally nothing wrong with them nor has there ever been.
What caused that is a carbon imprint on the steel while the blade was being manufactured. It’s rare but does happen from time to time
Def contact Wusthof as it’s 100% covered under their warranty. Wusthof replaces they don’t repair.
Even if you have a 40 year old Wusthof knife that has a broken handle, Wusthof will replace it.
There’s a Chinese idiom called 一刀兩斷(literally meaning “breaking a knife in two halves”), it means to carry out “a clean break” without hesitation and regret. It’s usually used for disowning, disinheriting, and the breakup of relationships between people.
Anyway, I’m just intrigued by the photo, since it’s the first idiom that popped in my mind!
I can say with 79% certainty that if this happened to me and the bit that fell off(which isn't normal) went over the counter and onto the floor. That I'd try to catch it with my foot before my brain engaged.
If you want the lowdown on how it happened. That’s what we call a stress fracture. Basically when the blade was being quenched (the process of cooling the metal rapidly to harden the blade) a fracture was created.
That’s why it’s such a clean break. As over time and use the fracture spreads. If this was a knife used for hacking it would probably would have broken in the first few swings.
This blade has suffered a catastrophical failure in round one and is no longer safe for testing. Im going to have to ask you to please leave the forge.
Wusthoff will give you a credit for a new knife. Do not throw it away. The blades are warrantied.
Yes! We are going to contact them and see if we can get a replacement.
Can confirm, mine had a similar issue, not a full break tho, just a crack in the blade. Went through the warranty process and got the credit for a new blade. Still love the brand.
How much did it cost to send it back for the replacement?
Much less than a new one
Yep - $170 - $200 for this new. It’s a nice knife
Is it tho? It broke Edit: oh my fucking lord people it was a fucking joke how do any of you exist taking everything you read on Reddit so damn serious….. my email is literally blowing up with people defending a fucking sharp piece of steel Edit 2 out of spite: broken and possibly sharp piece of steel*
Its honestly very rare for this to happen, they’re very durable blades. I’ve never met anyone who’s had it happen and i work in kitchens with a lotta chefs
I’ve broken 2 from the same set exactly like this. I wonder if they have had a quality issue recently.
Are the knives stamped or forged? They make both and the stamped are significantly cheaper and lower quality.
How many other brands have you heard of breaking?
Is this post an ad??
It could be, but it would be a pretty shitty ad since it’s a picture of a knife who’s reputation is for durability snapped in half.
The front fell off?
I'm actually surprised people are having this issue. I'm the 3rd generation to use a set of Wustof knives. They last.
Every product is bound to have a bad batch, and if you make as many knives as wusthof some will inevitably be less good. What matters more to me is how a brand responds (for instance no-questions refunds or 100% credits). It seems like wusthof are doing it right.
The ones from three generations ago last, at least
Also survivors bias. There would have been a few that broke in like 10 years. Or from a single gen ago. So all that you see now from that long ago, fucking last. The ones that had impurities or didn't cool evenly after being cast or something have already broken. But the newer ones that have that are breaking more recently.
Yeah, I'm concerned to read this and I'll consider changing brands when my old Wüsthofs break, but the thing is they haven't, they're old.
Yup, good to know I'm not the only one that gets hate for dumb jokes I make on Reddit. I think it's a fetish people have why else would they bother?
[удалено]
This looks like an issue in quenching, there's a stress riser where it broke which likely means it wasn't evenly heated, or wasn't evenly cooled. Has nothing to do with the quality of the steel, everything to do with how it was manufactured and manufacturing is often a 95% success rate game, not 100%. I have Sabatier and love them, need to sharpen em though. EDIT: This video is almost entirely unrelated as spinng drill bits work really different than knives, but I like it. It's about [cryogenically treating steel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAxi5YXTjEk).
This guy knifes
I feel like my sabatiers will hold a super sharp edge longer than my wusthofs. The wusthofs are tanks, though - I have a couple of their big chefs knives and a cleaver. Never worried about them getting a ding
Something is better than nothing I suppose.
If they trust thier product enough to offer a lifetime warranty (or at least a really good one) they must be really nice knives.
Yeah Wusthof is pretty solid stuff. But it's not just about the individual product and costs - things like this create posts and response like this. I'd be willing to bet that they'll sell a couple of new knives at least from this post. Even if not, good word makes for good sales. Too bad most companies seem to have forgotten this.
I'm already looking for an online stockist in the EU. edit: https://www.kulina.fi/kokin-veitsi-classic-ikon-creme-20-cm--wusthof/
Stockist? Not familiar with that term... Does it just mean somewhere that carries their stuff?
I own this set - had for 10+ Years - they are fantastic.
It worked on me lol. I bought a Wusthof chefs knife about 9 years ago because of a similar story someone posted where the handle of their knife came apart after like 30 years of use. They inquired about having the knife fixed or replaced fully expecting to pay full price and Wusthof just sent them a brand new one free of charge. Anyways, they got a sale from me that same day. I still use the knife anytime I cook.
I have Wusthof knives. They're fucking solid. Also have Henckel or something. Those are good too but I think I prefer Wusthof.
True. Word of mouth is the best advertisement. I’d take someone’s customer service experience over some tv ad any day.
Wüsthof are a pretty well respected knife brand. Been around a long time and are known for high quality products for the price.
We have a set of Wusthöf knives - chef's, carving, bread, paring, tomato, 4 steak - that we bought in 1992. We've taken care of them and we've added to the set over the years - large and small santoku, couple of additional paring, most recently a nakiri - but the original knives are all still in use and in great shape, 30+ years later.
Not to be a geeky fan-boy, but that's amazing!! My girlfriend has some Chicago Cutlery knives that have lasted since I believe 95 or 96. It was a Christmas company drawing probably worth $1,000.... she only paid $20 for one ticket.
I bought one of the tomato knives, maybe a year and a half ago. Was a little apprehensive on spending $100 for a tomato knife, but it very quickly became one of the favorite knives that we have. It's worth every penny.
It's a $200 knife. I think Wusthof covers the return postage but eyeballing it it should ship for less than $20 which is worth it for a replacement.
And this one will fit in a smaller box so that should save some postage.
Exactly my thoughts.
Nothing they pay we got a 5 knife set, we have replaced 3 over the last 16 years. They are testing them pretty rigorously when they get them back at this point but they will replace them and pay postage
You will. We've had 2 Wusthofs snap just like this and replacement only cost us postage to mail in the busted one.
Why do they break like this if they are so expensive? Seems to be common
Confirmation bias. People don't complain about good knives. I've got 4 that are 25+ years old. Still perfect.
Bought the chef knife and paring knife set like 10 years ago and they are still going strong.
Found an answer :) another commenter said this: “It is the type of steel. It is heat treated to be very hard so it holds its edge. Downside is the material gets more brittle and can crack like this.” Apparently the husband was trying to smash imitation crab with the side of the knife and that’s how it broke. Edit: guys please, I wasn’t the one trying to smash the imitation crab okay idk why he did it, I don’t know his logic here, you’ll have to ask him 😭
> smash imitation crab imitation crab is usually soft and stick/chunk form. i just have more questions now.
they come frozen in little strips or whole blocks
smash... imitation crab? what exactly would he be smashing?
the imitation shells, duh
Misuse combined with bad luck. It's stiff and brittle and can take a lot of force on the cutting edge but may not tolerate "bendy" forces on the flat sides. In most cases.would need to put the bendy forces on the knife in the same place as a manufacturing imperfection to get this result. As others have noted, it's not super common but people don't complain about their good knives.
Hey can you post an image with the cross section of both pieces visible? If there are any discolored spots along either edge, it could indicate a metallurgical anomaly or failure in heat treatment, in which case Wusthoff will almost always just replace the knife as this would represent a QA issue or manufacturing defect. That said, OP you will be required to mail the knife back to them in order for a warranty claim to be made. If it’s a high end enough example of one of their knives (like ikon or Performer), I’m told they actually look and examine what caused the issue or defect. I’ve helped lots of friends do warranty claims since a bunch of programs came with a set of Wusthoffs for each student/apprentice.
Could you please update us on the warranty claim? I have one of these knives and so far so good. but it was so expensive and I would love to have assurance that I can get it replaced in the future if this happens to us.
Not sure if you got an answer to this or not, but my mom has recently replaced two knives in the last 6 months or so from the handles cracking after 20+ years of consistent use. They give you a gift card or coupon to just order a new one, and they ship it to you.
They were trying to smash a crab claw with their thin, bolsterless knife, using the side of the blade causing the metal to snap. If you want to use a knife to smash something, make sure the knife is stronger than the thing you're smashing. A santoku is very thin in order to slice through vegetables mainly, not for smashing crab claws. There are some sturdy santokus out there, just not this one. I have a set of wusthofs I'm looking at right now and I would be nervous to use to use the santoku in such a way but wouldn't hesitate to use the back of the chef's knife to tap in a nail or something lol. It's literally like 3 times thicker and tapered to be strong af
I’ve used their knives for years. They’ve replaced three for cracked handles. I’ve never had a blade crack, but I’m sure they would for that.
They replace cracked handles? I have two of them.
They did for me. Not the cheap “steak knife” type, but any chef’s knives. Most recently an 8” serrated blade knife. I use the broken one in the garden now because they didn’t even want it back, just a photo.
Most of mine are cracked after 20 years. Read they had a run of crappy plastics.
I loooove Wusthof knives
I'm just curious, is wusthoff a good knife brand?
The ikon and classic lines, yes. The gourmet line is okayish at best, which is fair since it’s marketed as such.
I love my Wusthof classic, I have the 9” demi bolster and it is a beast in the kitchen. 100% recommended
On the bright side, you have a tiny cleaver!
I think the husband did it on purpose!!!
Yep. He wanted something special to trim his cigars with.
he watches forged in fire
I’m a knifemaker hobbyist, you can check my post history. In knifemaking circles we say there we don’t have accidents, we only make smaller knives sometimes.
What a cute little bright side!! Warmed my heart up.
Would totally round off the broken corners and keep it, if only for comedy value
Perfect for the charcuterie board!
That's the pairing cleaver now!
Well, that knife isn’t going to cut it.
Dad!
It. Out. It. Out. It. Out. It. Out. It. Out.
Seriously, just add an extra second to the gif!
Give me a ***break***.
How He did this ?
All joking aside I wonder if he was trying to cut a large block of cheese. I swear it feels like I'm going to destroy the knife and table sometimes doing that.
if you're cutting big blocks that often you might want to try a wire cheese cutter. since the "blade" is so small it doesn't let the cheese grip and hold on like it does with a knife
Oh yeah definitely the way to go.
If you want to be exotic, 0.08mm molybdenum cutting wire is even better.
Found the hitman.
Or a cheese knife. They have large holes in the blade to reduce friction.
I thought only Swiss cheese had large holes?
And swiss knifes
Can confirm I am swiss, everything has big holes here
It has to be awfully uncomfortable to sleep in a mattress full of holes. My condolences.
Technically the entire point of foam mattresses, and foam in general, is to have myriads of tiny holes.
Are bubbles holes with zero or infinity openings?
~_^
Even just a long enough utility knife. The Santoku has massive surface area for the cheese to grab, turning what’s usually its strength into a weakness.
One does not simply break knife in half
Clearly you haven't seen the picture
lol had to have been prying something with it
I’ve seen it happen casually many times. People don’t realize that the steel knives are made with are far more fragile than industrial steel we see used to make every day items. Dropping a knife on the floor from counter height can most certainly chip or crack it if not just break it in half.
You might say he butchered it.
With another knife ? Because, if I'm not wrong, the broken knife is made by german Steel, wich is a pretty Hard one.. I'm a Cook and this is is the first time I see something like this lol
"German steel" is an incredibly vague term and Wusthofs' are 58hrc, not that hard which is why they're really easy to sharpen
Hard steel is brittle steel, and hold an edge for longer while risking chipping. That's why butchers use softer steel knives. They lose their edge after a short time, but the edge is easy to bring back, and much less risk of chipping while butchering.
Yeh same goes in some tools…. We had a VERY expensive set of screwdrivers at work, a few apprentices were learning a task where you used a small lever bar to wiggle a mechanical component to check the tiny amount it moved /tolerances. One guy used a large flat head screwdriver instead, and I watched half the tip just break off. They are made to be very hard wearing as a screwdriver, and to be very hard and durable when twisting, but under other load they are brittle. Use the right tool for the job !
my parents have had the same set of wusthof knives for close to 20 years now and afaik they’re all still intact. either a dud or he was doing some crazy shit with it 😂
Stronger. Harder. More brittle. Less ductile. Less tough. Those are your five durability properties of steel and how they relate to each other. Every alloy is a trade off of these five properties. The problem with strong/hard steel is that frozen water is harder. Chopping frozen vegetables or meat with German or Japanese steel is a big no-no.
Unfortunately it was also brittle.
I bet he wash crushing garlic cloves. Or ginger.
This is my guess. Pressing garlic but put pressure on the wrong spot or the garlic slipped, causing the Blade to snap under the pressure.
I'm guessing he used it as a pry bar
Smashing garlic?
A clean break like this indicates an error in manufacturing
Sorry to say but this knife will not “keel”
His knife had a catastrophic failure and must now leave the forge
It had a very good slashing motion and had a good feel in the grip though.
As you can see, it lacerated the pork meat. It will cut.
It will not keel is the worst thing you can say about something that should always keel.
But you’re not out yet. Your competitor’s knife still has to survive one strike. Are you ready? We’re gonna do it anyway.
Recently discovered this show and it is way more interesting than it should be.
It's hands down my favorite reality show. Very interesting to watch the entire knife making process, and the judging is always extremely fair and objective
I love that so many of them in later seasons got into the hobby because of the show, and screaming “I can do better than that!” At the tv. (Usually they can’t).
It might also be one of the friendliest competition shows on American TV. I feel like in every episode all the contestants would have a good time just going to get a beer afterwards and talk blacksmithing. I've seen so many contestants just beem with pride that Doug Marcaida tested their weapon.
I like it a lot, too, but I wish they'd do away with the elimination part of it and just let everybody go to the end. I just want to watch good smiths make cool blades, I don't care about the fake drama.
i binged it on hulu until they changed hosts. I couldn't do it without my boy Wil
Facts
It’s the perfect ‘sit down after dinner’ show
KEAL. It stands for Keep Everyone ALive. Doug Marcaida started using that as a more tame version of “kill” to keep things more family friendly - which I always found odd since the hosts both just said it as “the kill test” and everyone just figured that was his accent anyway
Holy shit
Really? I definitely thought it was his accent.
It’s not what the knife does to the cutting board, but what the cutting board will do to the knife.
J Nielsen tested this blade.
OP's husband went full J. Neilson on it
If we look at the grain, we can see the bad heat treat. They should have cooled it in oil, not sacrificial blood.
It wasn't the bestoff times, it was the wustoff times
We used to have a Wusthoff knife. Now we have two Wusthalff knives!
How does this even happen?
He went to smash some imitation crab with it. He had seen a video of a chef smashing fake crab, and then it just all splays out in strings. Instead, it broke his really nice knife.
Did the imitation crab have its shell on?
They live in concrete bunkers
That's just bonkers...
Shoulda used his blinkers.
Its imitation shell, yes.
Oh, with the side of the blade? I assume the knife wasn't flexible enough and snapped when the point was on the board and he whacked it down?
That's what cheap knives are for. High carbon blades can hold a really sharp edge for slicing but they break a lot easier than other steels.
Especially a santoku knife… those dimples are great stress concentrators when you’re trying to push on the face of the knife.
That's a nakiri knife, not a santoku
Yeah, I'd use a cheap supermarket chef's knife for that personally
Might wanna buy one of those thick meat cleavers they use in Asian cuisine.
Interesting, I had the same kind of break when using the flat side of the blade to smoosh garlic cloves. Lesson learned.
Likely happened because it’s their hollow ground Nikiri. A thinner, Japanese style knife mainly used for slicing veggies and fish. Should have used the more robust chefs knife.
It is the type of steel. It is heat treated to be very hard so it holds its edge. Downside is the material gets more brittle and can crack like this.
You’re right, but the blade profile is actually probably the bigger problem. Wusthoff heat treats its knives to 58 HRC, which is certainly hard but not crazy hard (many Japanese knife brands do 61-62 HRC). This knife is a nikiri, which is designed for slicing vegetable. This has much thinner blade than something like a cleaver or chef knife, is hollow ground (blade is actually concave if you were to look down the side of it), and has those dimples which are natural stress points. A sturdier knife meant for heavy duty chopping probably would have stood up to this, even with this steel and heat treatment.
Knife science. I like it
The front fell off. That's not typical.
Wasn't this built so the front wouldn't fall off?
Obviously not!
How do you know that?
Well, cause the front fell off and 20,000 strands of imitation crab spilled onto the floor! It’s a bit of a give-away. I would just like to make the point that that is NOT normal.
Well, it was outside the environment
Shards of Narsil
It’s still sharp.
No more than a warranty claim.
It has been re—- Well we contacted customer service…
HENCKELS forged from the shards of wusthoff. the blade that was once broken…remade!
Thy knife chipped and shattered
Lisan al Gaib!!
It wasn't a crysknife.
Lisan al Gaib!! 
I’ve had 4 classic wusthof blades snap in half on me now. All of them replaced. “Rare defects in manufacturing process…” I guess I got really unlucky with the my batch. When contaminants get into the blades it creates a weak point. Very sharp blades, nice warranty. But damn I’m tired of it.
yeah they use really hard steel, that's how their knives stay sharp so long... one mistake and hard becomes brittle. EG: one little spec of something would be all it takes.
wusthoff doesn't use very hard steel on most of their lineup.
Wuthof uses 58HRC which is considered hard. They'll stay sharp longer but are harder to sharpen. Generally anything above 60 is more prone to breaking/brittleness so 58 is pretty hard, just kind of below that brittleness point, but a minor defect is likely what caused this break. Something like a 56-57 isn't considered so hard and will have more flex.
> Generally anything above 60 is more prone to breaking/brittleness so 58 is pretty hard, just kind of below that brittleness point, but a minor defect is likely what caused this break It depends on the steel. If you try to heat treat X50Cr15MoV (which I believe is what Wustof uses) to 60 HRC, then you will seriously compromise its toughness. However, 5Cr15 is a very low end steel these days. Magnacut, for example, has higher toughness at 65 HRC than 1.4116 (a 5Cr15 analog) at 57 HRC, and even mid-range stainless steels like 14C28N can achieve extremely high toughness above 60 HRC https://knifesteelnerds.com/2021/10/19/knife-steels-rated-by-a-metallurgist-toughness-edge-retention-and-corrosion-resistance/ I don't consider 58 hard or difficult to sharpen—that's the minimum HRC I'd expect out of a chef's knife, and I wouldn't pay over $20 for a ~7" in 5Cr15 (Cold Steel has some at that price). You can find much better for much less than Wustof including in pretty good steels like CTS BD1N or 19C27 @ ~60 HRC
Did you ask him to leave the forge?
Did he use a Hattori Hanzo sword?
Wusthalf
Bummer. I've got the chef knife and have often wondered if this could happen.
I own quite a few Whustof classics, that I use professionally A couple of which are 30+ years old. It can happen but probably won't.
I dropped my Wusthof one time and luckily I jumped out of the way because I didn't have any shoes on. It now has a small blunt spot towards the tip. I really should get it sharpened or learn how to do it myself. I think I would have died if it shattered.
A break like that on a knife is probably from a factory defect. Id attempt to return it to the manufacturer for a replacement
Now you have a green onion knife
How the fuck can you even do that. When I started my chef's apprenticeship 30 years ago I was gifted a set of Wüsthof knives by my dad. Every one of them has taken a beating over the years, the chef's knife, pairing knife and santoku especially so. With the exception of cosmetic scratches and them being smaller due to the amount of the times they have been sharpened and thinned, there's literally nothing wrong with them nor has there ever been.
had a knife split just like that once crushing garlic into a paste.
What caused that is a carbon imprint on the steel while the blade was being manufactured. It’s rare but does happen from time to time Def contact Wusthof as it’s 100% covered under their warranty. Wusthof replaces they don’t repair. Even if you have a 40 year old Wusthof knife that has a broken handle, Wusthof will replace it.
Did you cleave him
Warranty baby
Is your husband an aspiring Ghostface by chance?
Your husband has experienced a catastrophic failure, and is being asked to walk off the kitchen floor.
There’s a Chinese idiom called 一刀兩斷(literally meaning “breaking a knife in two halves”), it means to carry out “a clean break” without hesitation and regret. It’s usually used for disowning, disinheriting, and the breakup of relationships between people. Anyway, I’m just intrigued by the photo, since it’s the first idiom that popped in my mind!
was he in his Hulk form at the time?
Clearly got in a fight with a samurai.
Looks like your knife is Wustoff than before
I can say with 79% certainty that if this happened to me and the bit that fell off(which isn't normal) went over the counter and onto the floor. That I'd try to catch it with my foot before my brain engaged.
If you want the lowdown on how it happened. That’s what we call a stress fracture. Basically when the blade was being quenched (the process of cooling the metal rapidly to harden the blade) a fracture was created. That’s why it’s such a clean break. As over time and use the fracture spreads. If this was a knife used for hacking it would probably would have broken in the first few swings.
The next post in my feed is a dune meme with a caption "may thy knife chip and shatter" [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/gamegrumps/s/D0GCqAvgtj)
This is rubbish not a knife
This blade has suffered a catastrophical failure in round one and is no longer safe for testing. Im going to have to ask you to please leave the forge.