Looks like a batch of bad steel. You'd think this would have been caught in testing.

Submitter wasn't trying to cut lemon grass from across the room, right?

Does this knife say "Made in China" on it?? Because if it did, that would definately explain a few things...

A lot of hardened steel knives can snap if you torque them the wrong way. A little sideways force could snap a smaller knife. You'd be prying the tough lemongrass fibers apart lengthwise, after all.

That said, it's probably also due to bad (overzealous) heat treating at the factory. Or maybe Max has been using his knife to stir hot coals or something? :-)

Wow. I think I'm going to see if Nintendo can get my Farfetch'd an upgrade from Leek Slap. Lemongrass Slap ought to be a one-hit KO!

How old was the knife and what was the sharpening routine used?

I'd have to ask a mechanical or materials engineer, but to me it looks like the knife was bent and snapped at the handle, due to pulling the handle the wrong way. It does not look like the knife broke from proper usage.

Now the question is: is this a brand new knife, and did he handle it properly? Alternatively, is this an old knife that he has abused over the years?

The OP is lucky. I usually have to pay extra to have the bones removed from my lemon grass.

Shit!! I just bought a KitchenAid fridge!

Pretty obvious it wasn't a Ginsu!

I use a serrated blade for lemongrass, plus you have to strip some of the tough outer bark off the stalks anyway so when you put it in your soup you're not spitting out inedible pieces of lemongrass that never get cooked.

Also KitchenAid makes great kitchen appliances but terrible knives.

At least KitchenAid has great mixers. I got one for Christmas and use it all the time.

Kitchen Aid Customer Care: (800) 541-6390 (8-8 est)

From: [www.kitchenaid.com]

If the knife was under 1 year old, you can get a new one free of charge. If not, I suggest playing on their hatred of lemon grass.

Perhaps he shouldn't be using such a small knife. Get a 10' chef's knife.

@nicemarmot617: This definitely isn't enough to make me think that KitchenAid is a lousy brand. Sure, they might not be perfect, but they're better than average (Maytag, Whirlpool, Frigidaire, Kenmore, Amana, etc...). I have had several years of flawless functionality out of my KithcenAid stand mixer.

@Bakkster_Man: Without further info like age and looking closeup at the fracture surface it's hard to say what happened. Could have been a fatigue crack, and inclusion in the metal, anything.

I'm no expert, but isn't that knife a bit on the small side for cutting up a batch of... anything? I wouldn't expect it to snap like that, but I still wouldn't use a paring knife, or anything smaller than a real chef's knife for that work, personally, just 'cause it'd be a pain in the ass.

yes, lemon grass

I have a Kitchen-aid knife about the same size but it has the bigger Japanese style blade. It has a hair line crack in the blade. I blamed it on other people in the house who insist on using it to cut blocks of cheese. The knife was probably not meant for that kind of use and torque.

I bought it because it was cheap and because other people in my house do stupid things with knives like trying to cut blocks of cheese with them. I don't want to spend a huge amount of money just to have it ruined.

Too small of a knife for lemongrass, and I would wager that you inadvertently torqued the blade while it was sunken it at the hilt. Usually, your should remove the tough outer husks, split the lemongrass lengthwise, and then use a large chef's knife or cleaver to chop them into the desired lengths.

I'm sorry to see that you broke a knife, but this happenstance is hardly a consumer issue.

Wow, Kitchen Aid's full-tang, triple rivet construction is no match for the Lemon Grass! Probably some freaky metal-stress related to the carbon steel being too brittle.

I'm just glad it didn't fly off at some odd angle and end up embedded in the OP's neck. Although, that might have made an even better photo.

@Rectilinear Propagation: It's pretty inedibly tough in the outer layers when raw. It's kind of like cutting through a less-brittle cinnamon stick with a soft center. Think trimming a slender tree branch rather than cutting a vegetable.

For one thing it looks like it wasn't being held correctly for chopping/slicing. You need to have your thumb and forefinger gripping the blade near the hilt. Don't just palm the whole handle. Too much pressure applied at the wrong point. (Not that the blade SHOULD snap, just saying the right grip helps.)

@nicemarmot617: I definitely wouldn't put any lemon grass in that new fridge, if I were you.

@Bakkster_Man: It looks pretty new to me. Probably a weaker bit of steel near the handle.

This kind of thing rarely happens, though. Now I'm worried CutCo will start showing these pics to people they're trying to swindle :(

@nicemarmot617:

Well, as long as you aren't going to use your fridge to cut lemon grass, you should be okay.

i just got that same knife for xmas free with a purchase of a meat slicer. Now i know why it was free.

I also own some kitchen aid knives...they start to trust in left in the sink overnight and get dull very easily

@sir_eccles: It also looks like part of the knife is a little thin to handle the stresses one would expect at that point.

@bohemian: I've actually broken a couple of knives cutting through cheese. it takes a lot of downward pressure, and most people don't put pressure on both sides (or use a knife too small to do so).

Also it could have been over-hardened during manufacturing resulting in weakness in the blade (but boy would it hold an edge forever).

I just want to take a second and point out that YOU PEOPLE KNOW WAY TOO MUCH ABOUT KNIVES!!!

Just kind of scary, that's all. And here I was hoping that maybe the blade would break, thus ending the impending knife attack, I'm sure to suffer.

I am periodically surprised by the things that snap: alternator shafts that turn freely after being reinstalled with new bearings, only to snap like a piece of celery hours later; camshafts in thoroughly broken-in engines; fanjet turbine shafts after swallowing a goose - OK, that one's not so surprising. Anyway, a cheap knife is not going to be X-rayed looking for metallurgical flaws before it's packaged up.

@albo: I dunno, seems like a ten foot knife would he hard to handle.

@Bakkster_Man: Was the original poster cutting or chopping? Chopping could lead to fatigue. As sir_eccles said, a closeup of the fracture will tell us.

@bohemian: i hope you have learned your lesson about having nice things in a shared household. if there is a way for someone to ruin something, it's almost certain that they will.

cheapo knives and pans! you don't get as mad at housemates...trust me

Who wants to be somewhere it says "Made in China" ?

@mythago:

Hahahaha. This comment made my day. <3

n wrd: FL!

You're lucky you didn't hurt yourself. I was chopping parsley with a big kitchen knife and the blade popped off and embedded itself in the wall behind me, some 6 feet away. In some alternate universe, I died then, several inches of cheap steel sticking out of my eye socket.

I'm not sure why this is on the consumerist. I just don't get it. Was he using it correctly and this happened during the first use? Did kitchenaid refuse his service request? I don't see what this has to do with the theme of the website. Should I send in a picture of my worn out sneakers?

freeze the lemongrass then grate on a microplane, it will turn into a fine powder. saves your knives and your fingers.

@puyro: Mine too. Now I know what vegetable to go for when Samurai attack my village.

Oh Snap!

I've had similar Kitchenaid knives, and there's nothing wrong with their design, assuming they haven't changed in the 5 years I've had mine. In fact, my wife and I have since acquired two other brands of knives (moved in together, got wedding presents) and I refuse to use the other knives.

In general, I've always been really happy with Kitchenaid products. If this is an even possible scenario (breaking a knife cross-plane on lemongrass), I'd be surprised if it was anything beyond an extreeemely isolated incident.

@Wormfather is Wormfather: Just arm yourself with some lemongrass.

@Rectilinear Propagation: It's sort of like those plastic-y bands that are sometimes wrapped around a shipping box. Very fibrous, very tough and pretty hard to cut through.

@BerniceMelbourne: I've been wondering since I started reading Consumerist a few weeks ago what exactly constitutes a consumer issue.

i had the same thing happen a few days ago with my chicago cutlery knife, only i was cutting cheddar freaking cheese!

@pegr:

Submitter wasn't trying to cut lemon grass from across the room, right?

Dammit, is that what I'm doing wrong?

How is anyone still using knives. Slap Chop?