I regularly go to Goodwill (Thrift Store) on dollar day, but for items that are close to a dollar anyway, every other Saturday is better because its 50% off day. I was browsing kitchen utensils looking for Chinese cookware to go with a nice Chinese cuisine primer I bought for the twelve year old for 50% of $1.99. I found a strainer, and as I tend to do I browsed knives and found as per usual nothing but cheap stainless steel knives. Stainless is actually a great material for a knife from a metallurgical point of view. It resists oxidation and is pretty hard on the hardness scale so once sharpened (pretty much need a diamond wheel to do it) it holds an edge for longer than most other knives, hence the claims of "lifetime" knives. This works until the knife finally wears (actually the edge tends to fold over ever so slightly) and the owner has no diamond hone to true up the edge again. It occurs to me I should check the dumpster at Goodwill, since they undoubtedly throw away the better quality high-carbon steel blades because one of the characteristics of high carbon steel besides the ease of honing it to a fine edge is that it oxidizes easily if not used frequently. When they get them they probably appear rusty, which is why there are never any good chef's knives in the cutlery bin.
This time however I found two Santoku Knives. I should have taken a "before picture" but I forgot to. Some Nimrod had used these extremely high quality molybdenum vanadium steel implements of destruction to pry with and had snapped the tip off of both and bent one of them in a discernible curve. Being the last of a long line of blacksmiths, I reached for my trusty sledge. I couldn't find it. I found a hardened crankshaft from a bicycle. Since the harness scale for the heat treated crank exceeds CMV steel of the blade it would work. I dragged it over to my anvil. Wait I don;t own one of those..do you know they sell for $1 to $4 a pound???? and they are REALLLLY heavy. I went to the top of my 1950's era Sears Roebuck Table saw. The Cast iron top is heat treated so its fairly hard, the knife will likely dig in to the surface a little (It did) but, that will just add to the charm of the antique.
The blade now straight and work hardened was ready for the next step. I then broke out the 7" grinder, placed it on the floor..(mine has a backing collar that makes it ideal for this work this is an honest to goodness old made in America Ingersoll-Rand one. I laughed at the thief that stole my $100 Chinese made air compressor and left the several hundred dollar grinder behind.) I got a large tall vase and filled it with water. I needed that to quench the steel between passes. If I had overheated the blade it would have annealed (softened) the steel. It is a long and complicated process to heat temper a blade if you have to do it by hand. I reshaped the blade, following more or less the original lines. I ended up with knives maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 inch shorter but properly shaped. Balance wasn't particularly noticeable since these aren't throwing knives anyway.
I plan on gifting one of these to the 12 year old, and saving the other for the 8 year old for when I think he is ready to begin edged weapon...I mean kitchen prep training. She will love the time with Dad in the kitchen and she seems to be gifted in that way anyway. She isn't really old enough to fully appreciate the true value of this knife bought for $.98 and a couple of hours of my labor of love re-shaping it. In parts of Asia such knives are revered as the highest achievement of thousands of years of forearm-rippling, furnace-heat-bearing craftsmanship.
Oh, and completely off topic - the backdrop is finely woven virgin wool in a sport coat from a custom men's wear shop from Virginia. The price? $1
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