Here’s the result of resurrecting the horrendously abused Wüsthof 10" chef’s knife I shared in this previous post. I try to repair and restore-to-use nice things rather than replacing them with new ones. This is a chance to show that you don’t have to throw out a nice thing (in this case, a $200 commercial knife) just because it’s been damaged from abuse.
Since I dislike full bolsters from both a user perspective and a sharpening perspective, I took advantage of the salvage opportunity to modify the knife’s bolster design. I also chose to ergonomically contour the handle for improved comfort and control. I used ironwood for the handle and fastened it with brass pins instead of the original stainless steel rivets. While cleaning up all the hammer marks on the spine, I also gently rounded the sharp spine edges for increased comfort. Repairing the dinged and bent cutting edge meant the “new” edge needed a bit of thinning for better cutting performance. I created a new edge bevel approximately 1/8"+ tall on both sides of the blade, then put the actual cutting edge (micro-bevel) onto that. The most fiddly part was fitting the front edges of the scales into the back sides of the bolster. Wüsthof’s stomping machines leave a slight draft angle at the bolster/tang junction to allow the forging dies to release from the whomped blades. (You can sorta see this in the “Damage” pic in the previous post.) This draft angle is easy to match when you’re machining pre-fabricated scales in a factory, but a bit more time-consuming when trying to restore the fit-up by hand.
Excellent job. Remind me. Did the original owner send in this knife to be fixed? Or the previous owner gave up on this knife and you took over the knife?
I found this knife at a local thrift store a few years ago. I don’t recall the exact price, but it was less than $5. You might be thinking of this cleaver I repaired a few years ago? The owner said she used the cleaver in her in-home-chef business, but that her daughter had damaged it “somehow.” She dropped it off to be repaired and then moved across the country! We exchanged a few emails about getting it back to her, but she eventually just stopped communications.
The best I can tell, the spine is about 0.050" thick 1" from the tip.
Charges? Hmmm…
A quick online search shows “starting” prices for re-handle services ranging from $85 to $125. (I didn’t see anyone saying what might increase the cost, other than subbing in “specialty” woods.)
Spine rounding/chamfering looks like maybe $30?
I found several “bolster reduction” services, but they were only to bring an existing bolster back in line with the blade. Then there’s the blade edge repair…
Maybe $100 for the re-handle and another $100 for full bolster removal and edge/spine repairs & mods?
And it feels better, too! I’m amazed at how many expensive knives have no thought put into the comfort of their handles!
On a totally unrelated note, I thought you’d be interested to hear that I just replaced the motor/gearbox/lower burr assembly on my Sette. The gears are plastic and have failed for a lot of folks. It’s a relatively inexpensive replacement part ($68, I think?), but after I produced my purchase receipt Baratza sent the replacement free of charge.
Oh my. This Chinese style knife was seriously damaged. I don’t know how she kept using it or that her daughter did most of the damages. What a great job repairing the knife. I have help repair a few knives for friends but none was bad as these. Often it is very satisfying to restore knives.
Mercifully, my Sette is holding up well. I changed beans last week, and tweaking it to perfection was easy peasy. I really like it. The now ancient Elektra is still a delight, too. My son in law, who is very fussy and discerning had a shot the other day and said “Wow. Not sour. Not bitter.”
Yeah, I pretty much did this as an, “I wonder what it would take to refurbish” project, without exactly knowing what I was going to do with it. Before I started I thought I’d sell it for maybe $50-$100 over the price of a new knife (taking into account that it’s a unique customization of a Wüsthof), but I have no idea if that’s reasonable. Since you’ve made knives, what do you think?
I recall that she had two of these cleavers, so she was using the other one. She claimed she didn’t know how her daughter damaged it. Maybe chopping rocks?
Yeah, I don’t know… Most people who would buy this knife new wouldn’t know what they’re looking at with your improvements. You might make more putting your own mark on it.
Good point. I think the folks looking for a new 10" Wüsthof wouldn’t be interested in a modified version anyway? It might appeal to someone who likes the brand but not all the design elements (eg, sharp spine, full bolster, blocky handle). And then there’s the uniqueness and visual departure of having an ironwood handle and brass pins.
Weight-wise, the restoration has a heavier, more dense wood handle and brass pins, but still ended up 24g lighter than a new Wüsthof (254g vs 278g), and the balance point is perfectly placed at the pinch grip location immediately in front of the bolster. (In comparison, my own 9.5" gyuto weighs in at 200g.)
I thought about stamping the blade with my logo (or even just adding my signature mosaic pin to the handle) but decided not to. The knife’s not my design (although I’ve added many changes) and it’s not the type of steel I would choose to use. So it lives with its original manufacturer branding intact for accurate provenance. I wouldn’t be looking to make a lot more on this particular restoration. This was really more of a learning exercise for me.
Very nice work, that wüsthof have never bin this good looking until you got to work on it. Iron wood is just so beautiful.
Did you do other work on the blade then thinning. Any change in geometry? The profile looks flatter and with much less belly then wüsthofs normally have. But that might just because it’s a 260?
How was it to work on it? My experience with X50CrMoV15 is that it can be a bit of a drag to sharpen on stones. I will go as far to say that its main strength is its rust resistance. And less it’s ability to sharpen and hold an edge.
Hej Soren, I needed to repair both the spine and the cutting edge, but I carefully removed as little steel as possible to maintain the original geometry. (You can see the original knife as I found it in this earlier post.)
I did all of the repair, modifications, and sharpening on my knife-making belt grinder, so the final sharpening was easy in comparison to the rest of the work. I would agree that the goal of most commercial stainless steel knives is rust resistance, which usually means softer steels relatively high in chromium. These types of steels can feel “sticky” or “gummy” compared to other knife steels. And I would also agree that edge-holding is less important than rust resistance in these types of knives.
BUT – this type of steel is a better choice if you’re going to pound your knives with a hammer to get through something that’s too hard to cut only using your hands. A friend recently sent me this picture of the knife his wife broke trying to hammer it through a large squash.
A friend recently sent me this picture of the knife his wife broke trying to hammer it through a large squash. 
