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.”
