Some people take up woodworking. Others collect stamps. Ben Walker decided to mass-produce 4,658 forks out of Himalayan salt before Christmas—a decision that can only be described as ambitious, ill-advised, and strangely admirable.
What started as a joke—“what if every bite of steak was perfectly salted?”—quickly turned into a six-month odyssey of sawdust, CNC bit corrosion, and the growing possibility of explaining to thousands of customers why their novelty utensils wouldn’t be arriving before the holidays.
That’s when the WAZER Pro arrived.
From Rust to Redemption
Ben’s original production workhorse, a hobby CNC router, had been cutting salt forks at an unhurried pace. Then it succumbed to rust. Even a replacement would have needed to run twelve hours a day for two months just to meet the shipping deadlines.
“It’s Christmas or seppuku,” Ben joked, calculating the impossible daily quotas.
Desperation led to a Zoom call with WAZER, and a month later, a brand-new WAZER Pro waterjet was delivered with full knowledge it would be pushed to its limits in a salty, high-humidity environment.
The Laundry Room Factory
The machine was installed in Ben’s apartment laundry room, chosen for its 240-volt outlet, cold water supply, drain, and—perhaps most importantly—a door that could close on the chaos. With help from his father, Ben had the WAZER Pro assembled and running in no time.
Of course, water dissolves salt, so a “run the tank empty” strategy was implemented using a pump-out system. Ben had decided it would be a safer solution than what ChatGPT had suggested: filling the whole tank with kerosene. With no water in the tank, stainless steel deflectors kept the spray from damaging the machine, while the used abrasive was removed the old-fashioned way: by baling it out like a ship at sea.
As Ben put it, “Water was both the solution and the problem—so we just got rid of the water.”
Speed, Support, and Salty Success
“The WAZER is about seven times faster, producing 24 forks and around 30 minutes” Ben remarked. “the WAZER Pro waterjet is a very capable machine.”
When the abrasive valve began intermittently refusing to open, Ben undertook some questionable and panicked troubleshooting. He tried just about everything until he reached out to WAZER’s support team. They quickly identified the issue and shipped a fix the same day. That kind of responsiveness made all the difference when every hour mattered.
By the final stretch, production reached 150–200 forks per day, meeting both international and North American deadlines. Against all odds, WAZER Pro survived weeks of constant operation in a decidedly non-standard, salt-heavy setup—and still earned Ben’s recommendation.
Final Thoughts
The Great Salt Fork Project was equal parts absurdity and determination. Without WAZER Pro, it might have ended in 4,658 refund requests. Instead, it ended in a Christmas miracle—one made of Himalayan pink salt, a lot of grit, and a waterjet that refused to quit.
Or, as Ben summed it up: “I can’t believe I spent two years of my life on something so stupid.”
Check out the full Salt Fork Saga:
