Wusthof abuse

U

ustacood

Joined
Aug 5, 2006
Messages
3
I have a chef's knife that my wife used to separate frozen chicken. Problem is she used the point and bent it. How can this be fixed? I love this knife and it wasn't cheap.

Brent
 
Not much that can be done except to "bend it back". BUT, be advised the tip may snap / break off when you try this. Or, it may bend back just fine and be almost as good as new. It all depends on the steel and its hardness level. There is no way to really tell that I know of. You may just want to use it the way it is and not risk breaking it. If you do decide to bend it back be sure to do it in a safe area wearing eye protection. If you have a small vice or something similar, clamp the tip in where the bend is and bend it gently in the opposite direction a little at a time checking it after each attempt so as not over-correct. It should bend back to true without too much pressure.,,I hope this helps,,VWB.
 
Does your wife hang out with mine? We have a nice Wusthof set. Or at least it was nice once. The paring knife has a bent tip like you describe. The bread knife has a couple of damaged teeth because it was use to chop some frozen stuff (I guess the cleaver was too hard to reach for). Of course, a couple of the knives also have dull tips from being dropped on the floor.

And don't ask what the kitchen shears get used for . . . .
 
I've tried bending Wusthof tips back and it never worked very well for me.
If you don't mind your 8" chefs knife being a 7.5" or 7" depending on how bad it is, you could have someone sharpen it out maybe.

Helle
 
I've only had lesser kitchen knives, nothing as nice as your Wusthof.
When servicing my relatives' kitchen knives, usually just try to bend the tip back. If it snaps off then it's very easy to reshape a new tip on a stone. Working from the spine side of the blade, you grind it into the stone until it takes a new shape. It's actually kind of fun.
 
If it's bent any more than 15 degrees it'll probably snap when straightened. You may get lucky though.
On a related note:
A guy I work with who knows I'm into knives asked me if I could sharpen his SAK. He's had it for 20 years with no maintenance or cleaning. Needless to say it was a mess.
The small blade had a bent tip and I snapped it trying to bend it back. Oops! I figured I'd make the best of it and gave it a Razel-type tip and sharpened everything up real nice.
When I gave it back to him I apologized for the damage I caused and showed him what I did. He thought it was awesome :) .
 
Acourvil,

Are our wives sisters? Lol, maybe I'll just take my chances with the pliers. Thanks everyone for the input.

BS
 
It you do try to bend it, get it hot, put it in boiling water. Bend it a little at a time and do it carefully. It will be very weak after the bend and will naturally bend now far easier than before.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
It you do try to bend it, get it hot, put it in boiling water. Bend it a little at a time and do it carefully. It will be very weak after the bend and will naturally bend now far easier than before.

-Cliff
Click to expand...

Boiling water? Interesting. If 212F is good, is 300F better? Could he place it in an oven at 300F before trying to straighten it? Or is there too much risk of losing the temper?
 
My wife is a serial knife abuser. I almost cried when I first gave her a nifty little Case trapper (um, 35 years ago...), and she used it to dig potatoes. She does appreciate our nice Henckels set, but pity the poor paring knife that falls into her hands.
 
The lowest temper used is 275 F on L6, but uncommon, the lowest common one is 350F, but even then most will go higher. Yes, 300F is safe, for the metal anyway. I would have concerns about the handle depending on the construction.

-Cliff
 
Cliff, I'd be tempted to put the blade on a hardwood surface and try and straighten it with a nylon hammer. Is there any merit in this?
Greg
 
My wife is dangerous around the kitchen knives. When we were first married, 18 years ago, she decided to make me a nice dinner and have it ready before I got home. She ended up cutting the tip of her finger pretty bad. Instead of calling me at work to come home and take her to the ER she called her brother. Being a newlywed she was afraid that I would get mad.

Now years later and working a mere 4 miles from home she has no qualms about calling me to come home at lunch to swamp the bathroom when the son plugs the toilet, clean up the kitty mess, when she leaves her keys in my glove box. I need to work a bit farther away.

I recently purchased a sharpening system. I informed her that every knife in the block would be very sharp. I guess she forgot. She was cutting up strawberries for the kids. I asked her how she like the edge on the kitchen knives now. She replied that she noticed when she was cutting whil holding the berries in her palm basically using her palm as a cutting board. I told her to not do that again we have plenty of boards. I am not sure if she cut herself but she didn't tell me or show me.

I am going to get her a couple of these:

My Safe Cutter
 
The first few years of marriage, my wife would every once in while get a little nick or cut because she wasn't used to having sharp knives around. Now she and the kids always assume that the knives are sharp. The best part is that if they get dull, they let me know.

An a side note, when I go to my mother in law's house, I always bring my own knife. I usually end up helping in the kitchen and she has no sharp knives. Her favoites are some cheap serrated knives that you can abuse and still saw things to pretend that you are cutting it.
 
Phydeaux said:
An a side note, when I go to my mother in law's house, I always bring my own knife. I usually end up helping in the kitchen and she has no sharp knives. Her favoites are some cheap serrated knives that you can abuse and still saw things to pretend that you are cutting it.
Click to expand...

I can understand you there. We were staying a couple of nights at my brother-in-law's last weekend. The only knives were in a lasy susan type of set. Quite a bunch of knives. Looked nice all matching and such. Trouble was they were all like your Mom-in-laws. Cheap serrated SOBs. Do not get me started on his grilling tools.
 
Hard H2O said:
I guess she forgot. She was cutting up strawberries for the kids. I asked her how she like the edge on the kitchen knives now. She replied that she noticed when she was cutting whil holding the berries in her palm basically using her palm as a cutting board.
Click to expand...

Perhaps something like this might be in order? :)

chain.jpg
 
the possum said:
Perhaps something like this might be in order? :)

chain.jpg
Click to expand...

Let me be the first in line. A few days ago I was trying a new technique cubing onions but was not giving the task my full attention. I had the blade at the wrong angle and sure as the sun rises in the East I tried to fillet a finger. You know how the first time you cut yourself with a REALLY sharp edge you don't know you've done it until you see how much blood is streaming? And you know how the next time you don't even have to look???

I'm a lefty (Mollydooker in Aussie slang). Do they make a version of that glove for the right hand?

LOL

Buzz
 
those stainless steel gloves work on either right or left hand,
i use one at work everyday .
 
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