Sharpening Cost
$10 – Kitchen Knives 5″ and under
$15 – Kitchen Knives 6″-9″
$20 – Kitchen Knives 10″ and over
$30 – Yanagiba
$20 – Hunting and Folding Knives
If you find the pricing to high, with the average price being $15.00, consider this: It has taken me years, literally, of practice to gain the skills that I have now, the skills that I use on every knife. If I am lucky, I will have the knife done in 15 minutes but that is often not the case. It takes me 15 minutes sometimes to get the knife ready to sharpen, to reset the bevels, repair nicks in the edge. Everything I do is by hand, no machines. If the cost of sharpening is your main concern and you’re not too worried about my skills, I suggest you find another sharpener, I’m not your man. On the other hand, if you respect the art and of course, enjoy truly sharp knives, I will do my absolute best to make you happy and have you enjoy using your knife again, ( My prices are also in line with other freehand sharpening services across the country)
Keep in mind that if you have a $10.00 knife and don’t want to spend more than $5.00 to sharpen it you’ll find willing sharpeners at Farmers Markets who use a belt sander and can do the knives in a jiffy. Think of that as fast food where I’m fine dining.
I encourage you to shop around, I respect that .
Other Services
THINNING: $20.00 – Thinning is a must for knives, there are different types but the most aggressive, the type that will have the most dramatic impact/improvement on knife performance is a lot of work. Passive thinning, i.e. thinning directly behind the edge during sharpening is something I do anyway but if your knife is thick behind the edge, ask me about “thinning”.
( Most of the time I’ll thin as necessary with no charge to most knives)
Repairs
$5 – $10 – Damaged Edge
$5.00 – Tip Repair
Notes About Repairs: When a knife edge is chipped, when there is a nick in the edge, the edge is repaired by removing metal along the length of the entire blade until the chip/nick disappears. Basically, I have to get to the bottom of that hole in the edge. So I am moving upward from the edge towards the spine. The deeper the hole, the more I am moving the edge up into the thicker part of the blade. The blade tapers from the spine to the edge. So it isn’t just a matter of fixing the hole but to make the knife work the way it did before it was damaged, I have to re-establish the geometry of the blade behind the edge. I do this by thinning the knife, if I didn’t do this, the knife would be sharp but performance would suffer, the worse the damage, the more thinning is required. It is a lot of work and it is all done by hand.
Refinishing – Free, but I need your permission
Refinishing is when I remove the scratches and nicks from the softer, shiny part of the blade. I use abrasives to do this and will restore the blade to an exciting shine.
PAYMENT
Cash, Cheque or E-Transfer only please. If you absolutely need to pay with a credit card it can be done. I’m just a small businessman who loves what he does and is driven towards keeping my prices fair and reasonable to both me and you. Invoices and receipts will be provided upon request, just ask, it is absolutely no problem.
Restaurants
Please contact me if interested. I have a lot experience dealing with restaurant owners, Executive Chef’s and the knives that are used. The most important thing to note is that I cannot keep the “house knives” sharp in a professional setting for more than a few weeks. If you need to know why, please ask but it’s important to manage expectations. The best solution is to establish a sharpening plan with a flat fee worked out.
I say this with much confidence based on years of experimentation with knives and levels of refinement to optimize edge retention.
What To Expect
I expect that you will have your knives returned in a condition that is at the very least as sharp as when it was new. I will do my utmost to create an edge that is best for the steel used to make the knife and of course it will be sharp, very sharp, and if this is your first sharpening experience from me, it may be the sharpest knife you have used. I’ll do my best to make you very happy with the knife.
Now, this is difficult with some very worn serrated knives, I’m not going to lie to you, I can make improvements but I have had some bread knives that are very old, 15-30 years old that the serrations are almost worn down. I can’t do a lot with those. (Except re-profile the knife completely, remove the serrations and turn it into a normal edged knife.) Apart from this, you should and must expect to be completely satisfied with your knives. If you are not, you need to let me know and I will treat treat the matter with urgency. (This has never happened but I’ll look after things)
