This YouTube scientist makes knives out of random stuff and it’s mesmerizing

Do you know how knives are made? Do you know how knives are made of milk?

Unless you’ve seen this video — or any others on YouTube channel kiwami japan — you don’t. The channel is dedicated to the art of knifemaking, but most of the videos are detailed step-by-steps of the creator’s successful attempts to craft real, usable knives out of materials like UV resin, tofu, bismuth, and yes, milk.

The craftsmanship itself is mesmerizing and impressive, but it’s the enigmatic bladesmith that makes the videos so fun to watch. The creator themself — who only pours water out of a vase shaped like a cow and who often goes on lengthy, experimental side quests that have little to do with the knife being made in the video — has never revealed their name online. But their expertise when it comes to material science is clear, and the breadth and specificity of the equipment they use leaves you wondering why this person owns so much professional lab equipment.

It’s all intrigue and no answers, but that’s not the point. It was sometime around 2018, on the floor of my then-group house with my roommates (because we didn’t have enough couch to fit us all at once), that I saw what we lovingly call “milk knife” for the first time. We were getting bored of watching Vine compilations over and over. In some twist of fate (no, that’s not hyperbolic), someone put this video on, and we’d end up watching it thrice more together before moving out. It’s become my go-to weird YouTube video to throw on at the proverbial end of the night. To adjust for 2024 attention spans, I usually crank kiwami japan’s videos up to 1.5x speed, since they can be quite long. The channel hasn’t posted any new knives in the last couple of years, but there are plenty to make your way through in the backlog.