The story behind this traditional Japanese knife makes the dramatic restoration even more satisfying.

With a long history of blade-making that stretches back to the time of the samurai, Japan continues to be known as one of the best producers of quality knives.

Here to prove that point is a story from Jun, one half of well-known YouTube couple Rachel and Jun, who often shares cooking tips from his experience as a professional chef through his YouTube channel Jun’s Kitchen.

According to Jun, he recently purchased a rusty old knife from a man who was trying to sell it to a second-hand store. The man initially told the store he would sell it to them for 30 yen (US$0.30), but after they refused, and Jun offered to buy it, the man ended up charging him 300 yen for the knife instead.

Jun felt duped after paying the extra money for the blade, so he went home extra determined to make it as sharp, shiny, and beautiful as possible. He succeeded in his goal, with absolutely stunning results, so take a look at the video to see how he transformed the knife from a rusty old knife to one that looks brand new.

With close to 8 million views in just four days, the video is striking a chord with people everywhere, who have been amazed at the results. Surprisingly, Jun’s tricks of the trade include just a few steps, although a lot of time and effort was taken with each of them.

▼ Firstly, Jun cleaned the rust off the metal using a cream cleanser.

▼ He then used a variety of sharpening stones to grind and hone the edges of the steel.

The end result is a knife so sharp it can cut through paper, leaves and all sorts of vegetables with the greatest of ease.

Curious to find out what type of knife this was, Jun did a bit of research online and discovered it’s called a “Hakushi (White Paper) Steel 180 mm Thin Blade”. According to the producer, this is the highest-grade steel tool you can buy in its price range.

Given that the knife normally retails for 10,480 yen, Jun needn’t have worried about feeling ripped off by the blade’s previous owner. At 300 yen, Jun definitely walked away with a bargain!

Source, images: YouTube/JunsKitchen