Kinmen knife

Republic of China. The knives were once made from the remains of artillery shells fired by the United States and Allied forces in World War II, when the island was occupied by the Empire of Japan

cleavers made from PRC artillery shells. Many of the shells in the later stages of the war were propaganda shells, with the high-explosive removed and replaced with stuffed leaflets, thus impacting on the island intact, rather than exploding into many tiny fragments. A blacksmith in Kinmen generally produces 10 to 60 cleavers from one artillery shell and tourists often purchase Kinmen knives as souvenirs together with other local specialties.^[1]