Yu Kurosaki chef knife whodunit

G

gaucheist

Joined
Jan 26, 2019
Messages
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Hello Bladeforums! Today, I've got a bit of a whodunit mystery for the kitchen cutlery experts. This morning, I discovered a pretty severely damaged Yu Kurosaki chef knife. This knife is one that my wife and I cherish and baby (no dishwashing, no sitting in water, immediate wash with dish soap, warm water and sponge, towel-dry and replace onto magnet after each use).

The last time I touched this knife was during edge maintenance a couple of weeks ago; I sharpen freehand trying to follow Yu Kurosaki's angle to the best of my ability- a few passes on my DMT red 800(?) plate followed by Shapton ceramic 6000 stone and light stropping. Definitely saw no damage of any kind apparent after maintenance.

When I showed my wife the damage this morning she was devastated, and said she has no recollection of doing anything that could've caused such damage.

Finally to the point...I'd guess there could be countless ways something like this could happen, but since I don't recall causing this damage nor does my wife, I'd like to challenge the community to take a stab at why something like this would've occurred.

Could my choice of sharpening tools have weakened the steel so much that it caused it to be susceptible to chipping?

Is this just clearly indication of a misuse/abuse of some kind?

Could this possibly be a heat treat issue? My metallurgy knowledge is minimal at best, but the location of this chip leads me to believe this is not the culprit.DSC_7240.jpg DSC_7239.jpg DSC_7238.jpg DSC_7237.jpg
 
That chip didn't simply fall off, certainly impact damage no matter what the metallurgical properties.
Anyone else in your household?
I know from experience that when something like that occurred in my house when I was a kid I was definitely the first usual suspect rounded up.
 
Barman1 said:
That chip didn't simply fall off, certainly impact damage no matter what the metallurgical properties.
Anyone else in your household?
I know from experience that when something like that occurred in my house when I was a kid I was definitely the first usual suspect rounded up.
Click to expand...

One other involuntarily quarantined relative. When I asked him about the knife after posting this, he claims not only that he has never used this particular knife because it looked too fancy, but that he saw the damage a few days ago and thought it had been there all along.

My first thought was maybe someone hit bone accidentally or some other material not meant for the edge to come in contact with. But I figured, surely the offender would know, and there has got to be a piece of steel left somewhere due to this pretty substantial chip being lost, no?
 
Chips, even fairly prominent ones like this, often happen during use but the user is not aware that it happened. Usually noticed some time later creating a bewildering puzzle. Like this one. The possible causes are nearly endless, from something hard mixed into something that was cut, to unconfirmed droppings and manufacturing flaws. The bigger question I would have is the outlook for reprofiling the edge after sharpening and removing that chip. Will the knife still be satisfactory?
 
KenHash said:
The bigger question I would have is the outlook for reprofiling the edge after sharpening and removing that chip. Will the knife still be satisfactory?
Click to expand...
I’ve sent this off to Razor Edge Knives to try to keep the original blade shape and edge geometry, which likely will mean parting with over 1” of blade length. :(
 
Ouch, one inch.
But....I've had work done by Josh. Your Kurosaki couldn't be in better hands.
 
Sweet!
You may like the new profile even better?
Be sure to give us an update.:thumbsup:
 
Barman1 said:
Sweet!
You may like the new profile even better?
Be sure to give us an update.:thumbsup:
Click to expand...

The wife finally used this re-profiled knife. She's thrilled with the performance and says she has better control with the shorter blade. Thanks all for participating and another kudos to Josh at Razor Edge Knives on a job well done! Here it is next to the knife it was originally pictured with to give an idea of how much length Josh removed.
IMG_4208.jpg
 
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