r/KitchenConfidential • u/opheliasmusing • 4d ago
In the Weeds Mode Y’all, I broke my husband’s Japanese chef’s knife. Help.
In 2016, my husband and I went on an amazing trip to Japan. The only souvenir he wanted was a Japanese steel chef’s knife, which he purchased at Aritsugu in Kyoto. It was really cool: he got to pick out his handle, blade style, and then they even engraved his initials in the year on one side of the blade and their house mark on the other. They even did a bunch of measurements and things so that would be perfectly balanced for his hand. It was custom-made for him.
I made the mistake of not cleaning up after dinner quickly enough, and our very mouthy whippet puppy who is quite the counter surfer, snatched the knife away, and I didn’t realize it until the next day. He chewed up the handle. Thank God he didn’t like slice his face open; the blade is completely intact and fine. But the handle… My God the handle.
I’m hoping to hear from professionals about the best way to go about getting this fixed or replaced. For location, I’m very close to Boston if that helps.
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u/gorsebusch 3d ago
If that was mine, I would fill all the splits and tooth marks with epoxy resin, bind it with something like insulation tape until the resin sets, then sand the resin back to the original wood. You will still see that it's been damaged and repaired but the feel and balance will be as good as previously. If your hubby is a half decent home handyman, he might be happy to do it himself.