pricing and set up questions for fares?
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What do you usually charge per knife and how do you determine angle to begin at or just stick to 18-20 degrees?
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Many people charge by the inch, some charge by the type of knife(pocket, kitchen, etc). Some charge also by the level of sharpness or finish i.e. standard 600 grit toothy edge vs 3000 grit mirror polish.
Changing the bevel angle(reprofiling) also can add much time to the job. Angle matching with a sharpie would be the quickest and least expensive for a customer.
Then you have damaged or chip blade repairs. They can take even more time then a simple angle reprofiling depending on how deep the damage is.
Many variables, and in my experience most people dont have the willingness to spend a fraction of what the knife cost to repair it…unless it was truly expensive and even then?
This beautiful $800 sushi knife came in last week. It has an 11″ single bevel blade and the chip out is massive and truly painful to look at.
The young chef is not wanting to spend “more then $20 or so…” to repair.
Even with a water cooled belt system there is hours n hours of work here to reprofile then entire bevel and keep it even. The backside will need reprofiled as well because the chip goes up under the softer cladding steel.To repair this would be a high water mark of skill in the art of sharpening(for me), but is it worth +5hrs of highly skilled labor? For $20-25 bucks? Ummm nope…not for me, not on this one. It would seem there is an invisible fine line between trying to make a name for yourself and also under valuing your own skills and time?
Agree totally, thanks for sharing Cliffcurry!
Eddie Kinlen
M1rror Edge Sharpening Service, LLC
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Cliff,
I totally agree as well. I might offer to buy it from him if he’ll sell it cheap and then rework it for myself.-Clay
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This posting is rather philosophical based on general observations – so please don’t take it as an insult on anyone!
First off, most people appears to seeing $$ signs after having acquiring WE or any sharpening tools for that matter – as witnessed on loads of postings among forums and rather piles of lackluster ytube vids.
Unfortunately, most people don’t appreciated the efforts or how sharp is sharp. Beside, knife sharpening and fine knife collection/appreciation is but a tiny minority.
Unlike the traditional cast system of Japan, even dwindle to modern day – where extreme appreciation into the minuscule is ever present, not saying its not present in other cultures but Japan takes it to another level….
Having much similarity to this thread – sharpening and cost; where in Japan, there exist a dedicated few of minority Togishi – where in old/modern Japan, only a few obtained that honored title, it is only through decades of apprenticeship when accepted, tutor under a reputable Togishi, as well as competitions with other up and coming talented hopefuls…..there in the competitive events, shown their craft….end results painstakingly by hand – then recognized with the honored elvsive 1st place title…..it is thru Togishi, as in the past, whom, Samurai warriors or today’s aficionado depend on to bring true meaning of life onto their blades……
Even today…when and if a Togishi, agrees for the undertaking of bringing life onto a blade….monetary will never be spoken, rather, a deep humble bow and asked humbly “do your best to bring life onto my blade!”….leave and join many others ahead of you, depends of these few notable Togishi…..waiting patiently….in many cases – years! But rest assure….when finally in hand…it will be work of art, done by a Master Togishi!
As an example, if the maker still exist in the future…since I don’t use these knives…I will only trust the maker to perform the resharpening task….
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The steel is so hard, it took more than 100 firm strokes with a relatively neww 400 grit stone, trying to flatten the 2″ of edge back to a workable profile. I spent about two hours on it last night and expect to spend another two today. If I was charging a paying customer, I’d have to make about $120 on the job.
I started out at 15 dps and proceeded with my 400s, going edge-leading. All was going well, but extremely slow and I momentarily lapsed into a scrubbing motion. I caught myself within a dozen strokes or so and on inspection with the ‘scope, found a dozen or more deep chips in the edge which I know had not been there before. Add another two hours and increase the angle to 17 dps. Still a chip here and there – where I know I’ve applied to much pressure. Cleaned it up as well as I could, then polished the 17 dps to 3mu, even with a few very small chips showing. Then applied a 20 dps microbevel using 1000 grit and 9 mu film. Then I found that I had removed enough edge that the concave at the heel had returned. The knife is still not done.
I’m concluding that the blade (Zwillig Henckels) which is labeled “ice hardened” stainless, has probably been hardened, but not tempered. It’s harder than hell and brittle as hell, too. Interesting, the dull edge showed no sign of chipping until I closed the included angle. The chipping seems to happen primarily with edge-trailing strokes and to some degree with high pressure. The clue for me should have been how hard it was to flatten the edge.
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The steel is so hard, it took more than 100 firm strokes with a relatively neww 400 grit stone, trying to flatten the 2″ of edge back to a workable profile. I spent about two hours on it last night and expect to spend another two today. If I was charging a paying customer, I’d have to make about $120 on the job.
I started out at 15 dps and proceeded with my 400s, going edge-leading. All was going well, but extremely slow and I momentarily lapsed into a scrubbing motion. I caught myself within a dozen strokes or so and on inspection with the ‘scope, found a dozen or more deep chips in the edge which I know had not been there before. Add another two hours and increase the angle to 17 dps. Still a chip here and there – where I know I’ve applied to much pressure. Cleaned it up as well as I could, then polished the 17 dps to 3mu, even with a few very small chips showing. Then applied a 20 dps microbevel using 1000 grit and 9 mu film. Then I found that I had removed enough edge that the concave at the heel had returned. The knife is still not done. I’m concluding that the blade (Zwillig Henckels) which is labeled “ice hardened” stainless, has probably been hardened, but not tempered. It’s harder than hell and brittle as hell, too. Interesting, the dull edge showed no sign of chipping until I closed the included angle. The chipping seems to happen primarily with edge-trailing strokes and to some degree with high pressure. The clue for me should have been how hard it was to flatten the edge.
Right on! Quality work takes efforts!
It was not a knife! Your effort reminded me on one particular job I was involved in back in my past life as a Journeyman ToolMaker!
Work involved 95% flatness restoration on an eight inch diameter stellite clad gate valve gate sealing surface…resulted warpage, after exposure to high cycle repeated super heated condition…work involved 3 Journeyman Toolmaker…three 8 hrs. shifts around the clock….first roughed out on surface grinder….then begin the tedious hand work…combination of carbide hand scrapper + assortment of w/d emery progression…blue check flatness % using calibrated surface plate…repeat…followed with repeat after repeats – got the point?….FIVE days later…independent Inspector verified, bought off 95% flatness verification – on one side of gate….then…same work needed to repeat on the other side of stellite clad gate…..
Quality not only take skill – it also takes time…..
On this particular example’s primary bevel, took me close to 40 hours getting to the mirror, but I prefer secondary toothy, little time getting there:
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$3.00 to $10.00 bucks for me, but i use several belt sanders……….
i charge $25.00 to $30.00 each if i use WE………..$25.00 for this one, few weeks back.
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about 10 mins. on this chip…..belt work.
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set ups
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