Bent Blade

[Michael Blakley]

I bought a Shun Chef’s knife that is in rough shape.  I bought it to restore, maybe sell, maybe keep.

The blade is slightly bent.

The blade is about 8 inches long.  The bend is about 2 inches away from the point of the knife.  It’s not a dramatic bend, but it is enough that you can see it.

Any tips on straightening a blade?  Also, I do not have a forge, nor am I a blacksmith.

Michael

[Marc H]

Michael what kind of steel?  Can you post photograph?  Which model?

My Shun Classic 7” Santoku is VG10 Damascus.  It is hard, not very thin and not flexible at all.  I’d think mine would break/snap before it would bend straight.  If you heated it, it would probably disrupt the hardening.

If it’s a current model and not in too awful shape maybe contact the company for a warranty replacement.  You might get lucky.  It’s a good brand.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

[Michael Blakley]

The photo is a metal ruler on the left and a Shun 8 inch Premier knife.

I do not know the steel, there are 4 possibilities acccording to Shun.  It’s either VG10, VG Max, SG2 or High Carbon Blue Steel.

It’s Kasumi Style knife with a Tsuchime (hamered) finish.

I included the ruler because I think it’s straight and tried to give you a frame of reference of the bend.

Not sure that I’m helping

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[tcmeyer]

Generally speaking, if you can bend a knife, you ought to be able to bend it back.  Given that it’s hammer forged, I would go the route of using a hammer to straighten it.  I’d lay the blade flat on a wooden surface, ( tip pointing down into the table), then carefully tap it with a series of blows at the bend lines with a brass punch.  At first you won’t see any progress, so I’d increase the force of the blows in increments, until you can see a change.  If and when you see a change, continue tapping at that level of force until you’re happy with the results. This is much like auto body work, where they use a very large number of small hammer blows to smooth out dents in steel.

Or maybe not.  Remember that what you read here  is just one person’s opinion.  I might also take another route altogether, or deciding at some point  that cutting off the damaged section and reshaping the side profile of the blade is a more reasonable solution.

Any other ideas or cautions out there??

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wickededge

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