YouTuber, bladesmith, and Walter White-level chemist kiwami japan created a knife out of beach sand. And somehow, it perfectly captures the essence of the ocean. While the blade isn’t entirely made of beach sand, it’s still incredible to watch kiwami demonstrate his alchemist magic scientific understanding of matter.
For those unfamiliar, kiwami a.k.a. “Japanese Knife Man” is a Japan-based knife-maker who is able to turn just about any ordinary object into a legitimately dangerous blade. For example, he’s turned a bunch of potatoes and even Jell-O into knives in previous videos. (Incidentally, what kiwami can do with human fingernails will possibly make you rethink jewelry forever.)
In this video, we watch as kiwami takes silica sand from the beach and turns it into molten iron using tinfoil shavings and a microwave. The process, explained in more detail in this thermite sword-forging video, involves heating both the aluminum shavings and silica sand to very high temperatures. The heat causes the aluminum, which is more reactive, to take oxygen atoms from the silica sand. The result is molten iron and aluminum oxide.
砂をレンジでチンして作った包丁https://t.co/Qrzh61XSQi pic.twitter.com/uYbbuUAvAO
— 圧倒的不審者の極み (kiwami japan, Japanese Knife Man) (@Kiwamikouba) June 13, 2020
Along with extracting out the knife’s iron blade from beach sand, kiwami also pulls calcium carbonate from seashells, potassium carbonate from burnt wood ash, and copper shavings from… a big bar of copper. And to be fair, even though a bar of copper isn’t generally considered a household object, it probably is for kiwami.
After collecting all of his refined materials, kiwami assembles a knife that looks very much like a moving cross section of an ocean bed underneath rolling waves. Or maybe an ant farm submerged in water? Either way, the result is hypnotizing. Which is perhaps not the best intrinsic quality for a sharp kitchen tool to have. But still, who out there wouldn’t want something like this?
What do you think about kiwami japan’s beach-sand knife? Are you astounded at Japanese Knife Man’s mastery of matter manipulation? Or did the bladesmith use too much plastic to make the cut? Sharpen your thoughts in the comments, people!
Feature image: kiwami japan