Over at the Quarter to Three forums, one of the posters, Brian Hook, had a rather disturbing experience with his W

sthof butcher knife.

I was chopping onions today, getting ready to make a nice beef rigatoni, and whilst gently slicing the onions…the knife separated. Like, the metal in the tang simply separated abruptly, and thankfully the blade went flying into the trash can next to me instead of into my foot (or one of my kids).

Upon closer inspection it looks like the steel itself was rusting internally and it finally just separated cleanly. That’s a helluva thing, since you really don’t expect a full tang knife to just snap like that, particularly by a reputable company such as Wusthof.

To Wusthof’s credit, they’re replacing it for free after I called them and explained what the hell happened. I have to guess this was just a manufacturing defect that slipped through the cracks.

What’s interesting about this story is that, in this case, the defect almost seems to be the very thing that proves the quality of the product: a knife with a serious factory defect still lasts over ten years. And, better yet, W

sthof is willing to replace it for free.

A quality company resolves a serious issue with one of their problems with courtesy and aplomb. Excellent! Of course, Hook might have thought differently if the detached W

sthof had detached and rocketed directly into the face of one of his on-looking children.

Broken Wusthof knife [Quarter to Three Forums]

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