I was joking. It's a reference to the fact that at times the difference in the time and effort required to get that additional 10%-15% of added sharpness can be frustrating. But when I get a Japanese kitchen knife in White #1 sharp enough to cut hanging paper towels it's worth it.

I've been considering this, too. My brother, who's pretty good at all things IT, rented a domain name for me with the intent of programming a web site for my sharpening services. I do a lot of sharpening, both for the guys I work with in a restaurant kitchen as well as for some customers (local and online). The main issue for me is time. I work FT and go to school FT. The sharpening is a hobby/sideline that I enjoy, but I'm not sure if I'd enjoy it if I had to do it 40+ hours per week.

I sure don't think I would ever consider sharpening as a business. It just has too many variables. I know many make a good living from this, it just isn't something I want to do.

I say that because I have been sharpening knives for 50 years and have a lot of sharpening tools that are normally great at sharpening. There are however, knives that just seem to not want to take an edge. There are many different steels and many different designs of blades and some are really tough to sharpen.

I have a SOG folder that a friend gave to me when I was deploying to Desert Storm. I like the knife, nice shape to the blade and it was sharp for a long time. When it first became dull I tried everything to get it sharp again. It is marginally sharp now, still nowhere near as sharp as I like a knife to be.
It has a stud on the blade, which can be unscrewed and removed for sharpening. Something about the steel makes it hard to sharpen. Very hard Japanese steel.

I am not a fan of serrated knives but they do have there place and are good cutters for many things. They are also hard to sharpen, especially partial serrated blades.

You would have to become proficient at all styles and types to make a decent wage sharpening. You couldn't pick and choose what you would take on, businesses can't work that way.

So, I try to keep my knives sharp, the way they should be to be useful and I do that at my leisure. I do sharpen for family and friends, if they ask. Sure don't want a career at it.

most of mine get no better edge than scrape shaving sharp...I use an old DMT diamond stone and a Gerber hand held small "V" ceramic unit you draw the blade through...I've never had to sharpen the Sebenza (kind of my formal knife, and would really have to be a serious occasion to use it) but routinely sharpen the Randall #10 (fishing fillet knife of very hard unknown stainless... the #4 Grohmann is not nearly that hard of steel) and EDC Benchmade's 154CM with it...along with the older Fiskars kitchen set...

This is an interesting thread. I am amazed that there could actually be commercial possibilities for knife sharpending. What is next - a shoe tieing service?

Putting an edge on a knife is so easy, although I am not all that great at it, compared to some who are really on the cutting edge of this activity. It is a nice relaxing activity to pursue when you have the ball game on the tube during a quiet winter evening....

I'm not sure whether I will, either. But I'm set up to sharpen just about everything except chain saw chains, and if there was a market I'd probably do that, too.

However, I disagree that you can't pick and choose what you sharpen. I have a friend in WI that does almost nothing but high end Japanese kitchen knives. He gets $20 per inch and turns people away! He's obviously an exceptional case but it shows what's possible. I could probably build a pretty nice cottage business doing just kitchen knives. Already it's been suggested by one of the corporate chefs that they should have me sharpen for the company, and I already do sharpen for many of the chefs. Heck, I still sharpen for our old Exec and Sous that left the company.





I think you're missing an important point. Not everyone is capable in sharpening their own stuff, and many are not interested in learning. I know a lot of home cooks that will never see a sharp knife except when they buy a new one. Even many pro cooks aren't very good at sharpening. Certainly a hunter or outdoors-person should learn to sharpen probably but not all do.

Time is another issue. On my belt grinder I take a couple dozen extremely dull knives and bring them up to shaving sharp less than half an hour. When I'm done with a good Japanese kitchen knive it will push cut TP and treetop hair. This takes time and a bit of gear that most people don't have. For instance, I have a Japanese natural polishing stone that's 2" x 4" yet cost me almost $200. It finishes to somewhere around 60,000 grit. Can you get a knife sharp without it? Yeah, of course. But having a good assortment of tools really helps. For instance, I have a 140 grit Japanese Atoma diamond plate for repairs and reprofiles. I'd estimate that it cuts perhaps 3X faster than a DMT XXC. The belt grinder is one of the biggest time savers, plus it allows me to do stuff I wouldn't even consider by hand. For instance, last winter a coworker brought in a cherished Winchester skinning knife for me to try to fix. Literally the last 1/2" of the knife was simply gone- I don't know how he managed it but it snapped right off. I explained that I could fix it but it would be different knife. Since it was useless without any type of point he asked me to try. My approach was to draw a new knife with a sharpie, then use a 60 grit ceramic belt to remove everything below the line. Then I sharpened it up for him. He was pretty amazed, and I'll admit it turned out pretty well.

Many people just want a sharp knife with no fuss. For those people a reliable sharpener is a good option.

Phaedrus, I must admit my jaw is dropping in amazement as I read your post. I know you are deeply into knives and sharpening, which makes sense for a pro chef, but spending $200 on a sharpening stone - why you could get a good climbing rope for that price!

I suppose it is a case of different strokes for different folks. Your post makes me think I must learn more about belt sanders. Oneof the things I do during my "July in south Dakota" every year is sharpen tools for our diggers (at considerably less than $20 an inch). They dull very quickly digging in the dirt and it sounds like I could do a quicker job even better than with the fairly coarse grinding wheel currently employed.

Haha! Yeah, well I would see the price tag for a set of skis and say, "Man! Think of the knives you could get for that!" Many of us have hobbies that probably look pretty whacky to those who don't share them. My most expensive kitchen knife, for instance, costs over $800. I have a $1,000 vacuum sealer on my kitchen counter. I have over a dozen Japanese natural water stones, some of them pretty rare, and another fifty or so synthetic water stones. If this seems over the top, then think about what people spend on cars, watches, sail boats, etc.

Some of us just don't wanna stop collecting toys just because we've grown up!

BTW, the only reason the stone was that cheap is because it's so small. The mines these stones were quarried from are pretty much all played out. Remember, some of them have been worked of over 1,000 years! And Japan isn't that large to begin with. The Hideryama Renge Suita I have would cost thousands of dollars in a "full size" chunk. Sword polishers snatch up many of the best J-nats. It's not unusual to see rare, high end stones sell for more than many cars...

Most of my J-nats, though, are a bit more common. Almost no other single stone in my collection was over $100 for small sections.

What a waste! Think of the gun you could get for $1800!