Knives Out of Bombshells

In 1949, when the Chinese Na-tionalist government retreated to Taiwan, it made the islands of Kinmen and Matsu the front line in the struggle to ward off the Communists and regain the mainland. It was for this reason that the Kinmen area, separated from Xiamen by a short stretch of water, found itself pounded by artillery. During a 44-day stretch beginning on August 23, 1958, China pounded Kinmen with more than 379,000 bombs. And up until 1978, more than half a million alternate-day leaflet bombs were launched at the island (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays), leaving scars of war visible all over the island. But the people of Kinmen have turned these ruinous bombs into everyday appliances-kitchen knives-demonstrating their tenacity and resourcefulness in life.

The Chin Ho Li Knife Factory was the first to develop the Kinmen kitchen knife, and it is the oldest name in "bomb knife" manufacture. As proprietor Wu Tseng-tung relates, knife-making has been in the Wu family for three generations. Early on, most Kinmen residents were farmers, and metal was in short supply. Most metalworks specialized in farming implements. During the era of Japanese rule, materials became in even scarcer, and his father Wu Chao-hsi started casting bladed implements using bomb shells left behind by the allied forces. When the number of scrap bomb shells skyrocketed following the 1958 bombardment, the Wu family began manufacturing kitchen knives on a mass scale, for domestic use.

The steel used to make bombs is of extremely high quality, so that the knives made from it are especially sharp and durable. And because they are uniquely hard yet resilient, they do not easily change shape, even if they are used to cut through very hard objects. Taiwanese youths who came to Kinmen as soldiers in the early days would invariably take several back as souvenirs, and thus the "bomb knives" of Kinmen became famous all over the big island. The mere name Kinmen on the label was a virtual guarantee of quality.

Wu Tseng-tung says that at first they always made knives from the shrapnel of the bombs from the 1958 attack. The bombs used in that battle had deadly explosive charges, and the fragments they left behind saved the trouble of cutting apart larger pieces. The alternate-day bombs used later, on the other hand, carried propaganda leaflets, not explosives. But because they were remained relatively intact, even the metal bands on the shells could be used.

After Chin Ho Li started making knives from bombs, they bought bombs in mass quantities. Residents of Kinmen all knew that any bomb they picked up could be sold. "At first, one bomb would fetch a price of NT$20. Now there are fewer and fewer bombs around, and there are large-scale discoveries only if a whole building is dug up. A scarce commodity becomes expensive, and now the price has gone up to over NT$1000 for one bomb," Wu says.

A single bomb can be made into 40 to 60 kitchen knives, and with nearly a million bombs on the island, the knife industry can keep going on Kinmen for several more decades.

In the past, the bombs were mostly made into kitchen knives, which had only limited use, and furthermore could last for decades, "so the market demand was likely to fall in the long run," Wu says. Therefore, he developed a wide variety of products, such as meat cleavers, machetes, collectors' knives and pocket knives. The "August 23 Victory Commemorative Knives" made from copper bands are one of the more unique offerings. Says Wu: "You can only make three knives from the band from one bomb, so the quantities are more limited, and they're more highly treasured."

And Wu Tseng-tung has some avant-garde thoughts for the future of the artillery-shell knife market. "Right now, most of the Kinmen bomb-knife market is in Taiwan," he notes. "But after they allow direct travel between Kinmen and mainland China, I hope to sell them in the mainland. That would be a kick to sell them back the steel they dropped on us."