Knife sharpening by mail?

[abadoozy]

I know I used to have a link to a place where you sent your knives to be sharpened. Pretty sure it came from eGullet, but heck if I can find it. Does anyone have a link?

If I recall correctly, it was about $50-$60 for 5 knives. You paid them, they sent you a mailer, you packed up your knives and sent them, and got them back a week or so later. They got great reviews for the edge they put on them.

Anyone?

[Mambwe]

I know I used to have a link to a place where you sent your knives to be sharpened. Pretty sure it came from eGullet, but heck if I can find it. Does anyone have a link?

If I recall correctly, it was about $50-$60 for 5 knives. You paid them, they sent you a mailer, you packed up your knives and sent them, and got them back a week or so later. They got great reviews for the edge they put on them.

Anyone?

←

This is probably who you were thinking of. Although I am not sure about those prices.

Japanese Knife Shapening

[abadoozy]

Nope, that's not it. It was a general-purpose place, not specifically Japanese or anything else.

[vice]

from Bob Kramer's site:

seattle knife sharpening

zen blades

[MaryMc]

from Bob Kramer's site:

seattle knife sharpening

zen blades

←

I've used Bob Tate (Seattle Knife Sharpening) and can recommend him highly.

[RobertCollins]

When I don't do my own sharpening, I use Epicurian Edge in Kirkland WA. I think for standard european knives he is around $1.95 per inch. Excellent work at a quite reasonable price.

[d+d]

I mailed my knives to Accurate, in AZ, a while ago and was very happy with their work.

http://www.accuratesharp.com/

It sounds like I've got some good local services now that I live in Seattle.

[quiet1]

Bumping this to see if anyone has current comments or recommendations - I have several knives that need TLC and would rather send them off to get them spiffy again than fiddle with them myself right now.

[Paul Fink]

I have a Chef's Choice M120 knife sharpener. I've used it for many years on my set of E Dehillerin knifes. They are as sharp as any commercial service can do and they are constantly sharp. No waiting for them to be dull enough to send to a service.

 

I used to be a carpenter. And like all carpenters I tried to maintain my own saw blades. I worked very hard at it but with mixed results.

One day my wife picked up a set of blades from a sharpener and he told her to convince me to stop trying to do it myself. I was just messing up the blades. So I had to face the fact that my skills do not extend to sharpening.

 

My point is that the Chef's Choice requires almost no skill. Just slide the blade through, slow and steady.

[gfron1]

@quiet1 Your profile doesn't say where you are, but odds are good that there is a local sharpener. The questions to ask are - Do you sharpen with stone, grinding wheel or some other contraption. How much per inch? What angle do you sharpen to or is it custom angle? I'm sure others would quibble with these but it's where I would start. I have a local knife shop that does wheel which is too aggressive for my knives, and I found that i was much sharper on my EdgePro than these pros were. Ultimately my point is that if you have a local sharpener you can talk with them about what you want, and not waste time mailing knives.

[daveb]

http://www.japaneseknifesharpening.com/

 

Dave will get them as sharp as they've ever been.  Website says only Japanese but could ask about any others.

[quiet1]

48 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

@quiet1 Your profile doesn't say where you are, but odds are good that there is a local sharpener. The questions to ask are - Do you sharpen with stone, grinding wheel or some other contraption. How much per inch? What angle do you sharpen to or is it custom angle? I'm sure others would quibble with these but it's where I would start. I have a local knife shop that does wheel which is too aggressive for my knives, and I found that i was much sharper on my EdgePro than these pros were. Ultimately my point is that if you have a local sharpener you can talk with them about what you want, and not waste time mailing knives.

 

True. Any tips on finding one? One of the local cooking stores had a sharpening event a while ago that I didn't make due to health issues, and they won't tell me who did the sharpening for some reason. (I was expecting they'd have a flyer or something for people who didn't make the event, you know?)

 

I'm in Pittsburgh, PA if anyone knows anyone good. 

 

I don't have good luck these days sharpening myself, although I used to do it just with a whetstone. My hands tend to shake due to arthritis which doesn't make for a good edge.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

6 hours ago, quiet1 said:

Any tips on finding one?

 

Google "knife sharpening services" with your city/state/province added.

 

If you live in a small community, it may not do you much good. I live in the 7th largest city in NC, which is butted up contiguously to the second largest, Raleigh. Cary has a population of 150,000 and Raleigh has over 500,000. I only found two local sources for knife sharpening on line. One in Cary at a kitchen store for home cooks here in Cary, and one in the Raleigh farmers market. It's worth a try, though.

 

Several mail-in services popped up too. Wouldn't it be difficult to wrap knives for safe shipping? None of the sites that offered services for mail order offered advice on the Google results. Maybe they do when you click into them.

 

Edited to add:

I'm happy as a clam with home sharpening on my otherwise broken electric can-opener that I was gifted circa 1991. This sucker is heavy and does a great job with my knives. That's the only reason I keep this bulky thing around.

 

The can opener part has dulled and is no longer functional, but the abrasive wheel with guides works just fine for my needs to sharpen knives. The newer, more cheaply made can-opener I bought when I broke my right thumb saving my cat from a fall opens cans fine, but is a butcher of knife blades.

Edited December 28, 2016 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[gfron1]

Pittsburgh absolutely has more than one. Ask at In the Kitchen, Sur la Table, Williams Sonoma - all of them will know the best place to refer people so the knives they sell are well cared for. And better yet - go to your favorite decent restaurant and ask the server to ask the chef. Every chef in the universe will know who to go to and who to avoid.

 

Some random info that might prove helpful - A Pittsburgh bladesmith

A whole Reddit thread on the topic

Angie's List which is now free to join

A Story about Penn Ave.

[lindag]

Since I couldn't find a reputable knife sharpener in my local area, I mailed my knives (about 10) to Chicago Cutlery.  They did a nice job for a reasonable price.

That was a few years ago, however.

[weedy]

http://www.delseacutlery.com/sharpening---mail-in.html

Edited December 28, 2016 by weedy (log)

[kayb]

Based on @daveb's recommendation, I contacted Dave Martell and have arranged to send mine to him in January.

 

Thanks!

[scubadoo97]

On January 4, 2009 at 9:33 AM, Mambwe said:

This is probably who you were thinking of. Although I am not sure about those prices.

Japanese Knife Shapening

Dave does a great job.  Super nice guy.  Not long back a friend got a big chunk taken out of his nice Japanese knife when hitting some bone.  Dave got his knife looking like new.  A site worth keeping in your favorite places 

[paulraphael]

I'd be wary of local knife sharpeners. A lot of them are commercial services who sharpen the practically disposable knives used by butchers and low-end restaurant kitchens. They use a grinding wheel and will take off noticeable millimeters of metal each time. Your knives will get thinner and thinner, will have a very toothy, concave edge, and will disappear entirely after a couple of dozen sharpenings.

 

If you want your knives to be really sharp, you have to bite the bullet and learn to sharpen them yourself. Because a knife doesn't stay sharp for more than a few days of hard use. It doesn't stay exceptionally sharp for more than a couple of hours of use. Most of us learned how to cut with European knives of middling sharpness and brutish geometries, that could be whacked back into serviceability on a butcher's steel ... but these knives were never actually sharp. IF this level of sharpness is ok, then you can send your knives off every decade or so and just maintain on a steel. But it would still make sense to send them to someplace good. 

 

I'd recommend sending knives to a real pro (like Dave at Japanese Knife Sharpening or Jon at Japanese Knife Imports) if you have a major repair, or need a serious reprofiling, or just need a benchmark for what's possible. But unless you learn to sharpen, you'll spend most of your time using unsharp knives.

Edited December 29, 2016 by paulraphael (log)

[dcarch]

Are you a professional sushi chef?

 

No? then you don't need a razor sharp knife.

 

Do you need to have a relatively not so dull knife in your kitchen? 

 

Yes! Here is how you sharpen your knife if it gets dull:

 

Hold the knife more or less at the same angle relative to the sharpening stone. Push up, and push down. Repeat if necessary.

 

I hate it when people make sharpening a knife such a mysterious high art and you must have a surgeon's scalpel in your kitchen.

 

dcarch .

 

 

[quiet1]

9 minutes ago, dcarch said:

Are you a professional sushi chef?

 

No? then you don't need a razor sharp knife.

 

Do you need to have a relatively not so dull knife in your kitchen? 

 

Yes! Here is how you sharpen your knife if it gets dull:

 

Hold the knife more or less at the same angle relative to the sharpening stone. Push up, and push down. Repeat if necessary.

 

I hate it when people make sharpening a knife such a mysterious high art and you must have a surgeon's scalpel in your kitchen.

 

dcarch .

 

 

 

I do think people make more fuss out of it than necessary, but not everyone can do home sharpening freehand, either. I have grip issues due to arthritis and would have trouble maintaining the right angle and would probably end up chewing up the edge of my knife, which would suck. That's a big part of why I'm hesitant to try myself, when I used to sharpen at home fine - I don't want to end up with a mess I have to pay someone else to fix anyway.

 

I think the EdgePro fixes the angles for you, so probably I could manage with one of them, but that isn't a cheap set up to get started with, and I have enough other stuff going on that I'd rather just hand them off to someone and get them back in a much better state and be done with it for now. That said, perhaps my housemate has an interest - he doesn't have the same grip issues so if he is willing to try he might do a respectable job - but he also has stuff going on so may not want to mess with knife sharpening supplies right now.

 

I know there are sharpeners you can get where you just pull the knife through, but I haven't had good luck with them in the past and there is also something about them I irrationally dislike, so I'm not prepared to give up and get one just yet.

[MelissaH]

On 12/27/2016 at 7:58 PM, quiet1 said:

 

True. Any tips on finding one? One of the local cooking stores had a sharpening event a while ago that I didn't make due to health issues, and they won't tell me who did the sharpening for some reason. (I was expecting they'd have a flyer or something for people who didn't make the event, you know?)

 

I'm in Pittsburgh, PA if anyone knows anyone good. 

 

I don't have good luck these days sharpening myself, although I used to do it just with a whetstone. My hands tend to shake due to arthritis which doesn't make for a good edge.

Do you ever go to the Strip District? I'd probably stop at one of the stores there, such as perhaps Wholey's or Strip District Meats, and ask where they get theirs sharpened.

[lindag]

I bought this sharpener a few years ago as I needed something to keep my Asian blades in shape.

It has worked amazingly well; it's easy to use and with a few strokes my knives are super sharp.

[Paul Fink]

10 hours ago, dcarch said:

Are you a professional sushi chef?

No? then you don't need a razor sharp knife.

I would take exception to this. If you have decent knife skill you need sharp knifes

I keep all my knifes "razor" sharp. Unless you are very skilled you will just mess up the edge using a stone.

Having consistently sharp knifes is easy. You just need to invest in a quality sharpener.

[dcarch]

22 minutes ago, Paul Fink said:

I would take exception to this. If you have decent knife skill you need sharp knifes

I keep all my knifes "razor" sharp. Unless you are very skilled you will just mess up the edge using a stone.

Having consistently sharp knifes is easy. You just need to invest in a quality sharpener.

 

A matter of definition.

I said, "not a dull knife". To me that means relatively sharp for most non-sushi chefs.

" If you have decent knife skill you need sharp knifes" If you have decent knife skill, sharpening knifes is generally not an issue.

"Unless you are very skilled you will just mess up the edge using a stone." Not really, unless you try to sharpen a $1,000 Japanese knife. 

"Having consistently sharp knifes is easy." Exactly what I am trying to say. Don't let all the fancy talks from knife nuts scare you.

" You just need to invest in a quality sharpener."  Quality is good, but quality may not mean effectiveness. Read reviews before buying is important. 

You can buy a few sheets of wet/dry silicon sandpaper of varying fine grit. They last a long time, take no room to store, they are wonderful for sharpening knives quickly.

 

dcarch