Bastardizing a Stainless Kitchen Knife

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KillerGriller

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Sep 4, 2018
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Beginner question, tried searching first: My mom was cleaning out some old kitchen utensils, and was about to toss out a larger stainless steel knife when I “liberated” it for closer inspection.

It’s a poorly designed carving knife, with a pronged tip, bottle opener bolster, rigged spine (not a bread knife option), and dull as it is old, but it is stamped as Japanese SS. My question is: how difficult is it to heat/cut/grind and reharden an older SS blade? Will reheating/rehardening totally FUBAR the existing blade?

Thanks!
 
Problem is you have no idea what stainless alloy it is made out of. It will most likely need a 1850°-2000° heat treat and possibility a liquid nitrogen cryo treatment. Also the blade will have to be wrapped in high temp stainless foil and sealed so thy oxygen does not destroy the blade when it’s at its 1850-2000° for 30min.

So with that all said, yes it has about a 99% chance that will come out FUBAR
 
Sure you can fix it. Just go slow and dip in water every few passes to keep it from getting burned. Shape it into something you like.

My favorite kitchen knife is one my wife had. It was a 2.5" wide 8" chef's blade in thin stainless. OK knife quality, but didn't hold an edge all that well. One day she was prying a stuck drawer open and … well you know what happened. 3" of the blade broke off. She felt terrible because it was her mothers originally.
I tossed it in the junk knife box in the shop to use as a belt slicing and utility blade. One day I was showing someone how to grind and grabbed it as a demo blade. I angled back the break and rounded it into the spine to make a sort-of Chinese cleaver. Then I put a very slight rocker to the edge. It became a santo-cleaver. I put a crazy low angle and sharp edge on it and tested it on veggies. It now gets set out by my wife whenever I cook (almost every night), and is used to prepare 95% of my dishes. I give it a few strokes on my kitchen white stone (Japanese igarashi-toishi stone around 1500 grit) and it cuts great for several meals.
I bought the stone at Blade about 15 years ago from one of those Japanese high-end makers. Can't remember his name - Kento, Kenyo, Keiko. ??? something like that. Never found another like it. It is on a wooden paddle like handle and the stone is about 6X1X1". Some type of medium hard natural stone that is chalk white.
 
As Stacy says, go slow, don't get it too hot. I've done this to a zillion knives with great success. As well as with my ex girlfriend... who I repurposed as a Uber driver. Worked out great for both of us. Ya just never know!
 
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