When shells rained down, Kinmen forged a legacy of kitchen knives

(Photos provided by Ng Kong Ling)

Turning artillery shells into kitchen knives is the most unique and legendary folk craft in Kinmen. During the war years, gunfire and bullets rained down on Kinmen. Shells fired from across the strait ended up in the hands of ordinary citizens, and the discarded shell casings and fragments were collected and repurposed into sharp and durable kitchen knives, becoming a local specialty that is truly one of a kind.

Calling this recycling would be an understatement. In today’s environmentally conscious era, “upcycling” has become a popular term, which goes beyond recycling. It involves elevating waste into more exquisite and high-end products, thus giving them new life. 

Long ago, in times of scarcity, the people of Kinmen well understood this principle. While the humble kitchen knife is by no means sophisticated, it embodies a profound significance drawn from the unique materials of a special era.

What kind of craftsmanship and dedication transforms the harsh smoke of battle into the warm smoke of home cooking? Heavy artillery shells are transformed into gleaming kitchen knives, turning threatening weapons into everyday tools in our kitchens.

During the standoff between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Kinmen endured frequent shelling — during the second Taiwan Strait crisis in 1958, 470,000 shells were fired over 44 days. Later, a policy of firing only on odd-numbered days was implemented to reduce the number of bombardments, with propaganda materials replacing explosives in some shells. By the time shelling ceased in 1979, over a million shells had landed in Kinmen, providing an inexhaustible source of raw materials.

Moving around Kinmen, and even across the strait in Xiamen, one can find specialty stores for tourists selling various types of Kinmen kitchen knives. And only in Kinmen kitchen knives is such an ordinary household item transformed into a uniquely significant local product. The knives combine Kinmen’s unique historical background, local characteristics, artisan ingenuity and ironworking techniques, while resonating with the contemporary trend of environmental sustainability.

There are several knife-making factories in Kinmen, all known for making knives out of artillery shells. One of the oldest brands is Maestro Wu by Chin Ho Li Knife Factory, founded in 1937 by Wu Chao-hsi, a craftsman with a family legacy in blacksmithing. 

Initially, the shop primarily produced farming tools. But during the Japanese occupation, when steel materials were scarce, the Wu family experimented with leftover artillery shells from Allied bombings to forge knives. They discovered that the finished blades were sharp and sturdy.

After the second Taiwan Strait crisis in 1958, the surplus of discarded shells led the Wu family to begin large-scale production of kitchen knives, gradually establishing the reputation of Kinmen kitchen knives.

Over time, Wu Chao-hsi’s son Wu Tseng-dong took over the blacksmith shop and turned it into a knife-making factory, which has now evolved into a tourist factory open for public visits. 

In the front is an exhibition area, while the back houses the actual knife-making factory. Information about the knife-making process is plastered on the walls, and the floor of the semi-open factory is strewn with shells. One can get a glimpse of workers hammering away as they forge knives by the furnace.

On the day of my visit, Master Wu Tseng-dong himself explains and demonstrates, and I witness firsthand the entire process of how artillery shells are made into kitchen knives.

First, suitable shell casings are selected. Initially, the steel for the knives came from artillery shell remnants of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. Later, propaganda shells, which contained propaganda materials and a small amount of gunpowder, were used. The gunpowder pushed out the steel plate protecting the materials, leaving the casing intact — ideal for forging knives.

Within the workshop, a mountain of collected shells awaits transformation. Each one is carefully cut, then heated in charcoal fire to forge a blank. This blank is then hammered into shape, quenched, and undergoes meticulous grinding and polishing, revealing the steel’s sharpness. Finally, a handle is added, completing the journey from shell to knife.

While it sounds simple, each step is done by hand, and it takes exquisite skills to fully utilise the high-quality bombshell steel. 

Hammer blows ring, sparks fly, and smoke and heat fill the air as the master demonstrates his craft. Each precise movement, each raise of the hand and stamp of the foot, speaks to decades of experience. In moments, scrap metal transforms into a sharp blade, a captivating performance embodying the proverb: “With enough effort, even iron can be ground to a needle.”

Artillery shells are made of very good quality steel, and the resulting kitchen knives are sharp, durable and not easily deformed. A single knife can last a lifetime and beyond, carrying the weight of its past experiences in wartime, giving it particular weight in the hand.

On average, one shell can be made into 40 to 60 kitchen knives; how many knives can a million shells yield? How many generations in tens of thousands of households could these knives serve? And imagine — without the ideas and effort of knifemakers, what would be the fate of all this scrap metal?

The question in my mind remained unspoken until a fellow companion asked, “What happens when the shells are all gone?”

The master’s response was insightful: “What we should really be worried about is what will happen if there are no successors to this craft. The fear is that there will be fewer and fewer people who know how to make kitchen knives before the shells run out!”

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “台湾最传奇民间工艺 炮弹变菜刀”.

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