Sharpening as a business

Hi Kenneth,

Sharpening knives to earn extra cash is a great idea! I have a small, part-time sharpening service in Santa Fe NM and I charge $8.00 per knife or $7.00 per knife when the customer gives me 5 or more knives to sharpen at a time. I don’t do any reprofiling on the knives I sharpen for my customers. I simply match the current angle on their knives by using the marker method, draw a burr with my 100 grit stone, and then progress up through my diamond stones and finish with 1000 grit. All my customers are very pleased with the 1000 grit finish, and using this technique my sharpening time is usually less than 4 minutes per knife. I use a Generation 3 Pro to do most of my sharpening, and I also have Wicked Edge GO which I keep in my car so I can sharpen when I’m out and about.

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MikeyWantsAnEdge, 1swm1, Russ, Dwight Glass, Brewbear

000Robert,

Yes, I’ve timed myself on many occasions. It takes me about 10 seconds to mount the knife in the sharpener, another 10-20 seconds to do the marker test to determine the sharpening angle, about 1-2 minutes to draw a burr from each side of the knife with my 100 grit stone, and then about 20 seconds to make 20 passes with each of the 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 grit diamond stones on each side of the blade. And finally, about 10-15 seconds to wipe the blade clean and remove it from the sharpener.

The knives I usually sharpen for my customers are kitchen knives. The highest quality knives I see frequently are Shun, Henkel, and Wusthof. They’re made from decent steel, but not like the super steels found in a lot of higher-end pocket knives and fixed blades, so it really doesn’t take too long to sharpen them, especially because I’m matching the current edge angles and not doing any reprofiling. If the knife has a bad chip or a broken tip, it does take me a bit longer and I will charge my customers extra for making those repairs on a case-by-case basis.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Kyle Kaplan.

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MikeyWantsAnEdge, Robert, Hogdog, Brewbear

Hi Kyle, wow. Impressive. I would like to learn how you do that to see if I could get even remotely close to those times for blades that don’t require reprofiling. Would you mind sending me a PM with some pointers? Or post pointers here if others are interested too.

Kyle Kaplan wrote:

000Robert, Yes, I’ve timed myself on many occasions. It takes me about 10 seconds to mount the knife in the sharpener, another 10-20 seconds to do the marker test to determine the sharpening angle, about 1-2 minutes to draw a burr from each side of the knife with my 100 grit stone, and then about 20 seconds to make 20 passes with each of the 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 grit diamond stones on each side of the blade. And finally, about 10-15 seconds to wipe the blade clean and remove it from the sharpener. The knives I usually sharpen for my customers are kitchen knives. The highest quality knives I see frequently are Shun, Henkel, and Wusthof. They’re made from decent steel, but not like the super steels found in a lot of higher-end pocket knives and fixed blades, so it really doesn’t take too long to sharpen them, especially because I’m matching the current edge angles and not doing any reprofiling. If the knife has a bad chip or a broken tip, it does take me a bit longer and I will charge my customers extra for making those repairs on a case-by-case basis.

There can be different goals when sharpening for a business.  This needs to be decided and defined up front.

Are you offering your sharpening services simply to produce a quickly and simply sharpened knife purely for utility sake.  This is what it appears Kyle has described he’s doing.

Or, are your sharpening services like those of Josh of Razor Edge Knives.

Or both?

This service you offer and the quality of your finished product will describe the way you use your Wicked Edge Sharpener, the time you’ll spend with each knife and your pricing structure.   The quality, precision and design of the W.E. sharpeners allow for both ends of the business spectrum.  Your sharpening knowledge, experience, and expertise may well determine which business model is right for you.

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wickededge, Brewbear

Hey guys,

As promised, here’s a link to the video I made earlier today about how I sharpen knives. It’s a long video, but I talk about the whole process, sharpen 4 knives, and then I talk about how/why I price my sharpening service. Cheers.

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MikeyWantsAnEdge, Robert, Richard, Rodger, Brewbear, 000Robert, NotSharpEnuff

No disrespect to Kyle.  He’s providing exactly the service his customers are asking for, or at least, paying for; “fast and cheap”.  That’s not to say they wouldn’t find they prefer a better finished product if that had been offered to them.

There’s fast, there’s good and there’s cheap…there’s not all three at once:

http://www.pyragraph.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/GOOD-FAST-CHEAP.jpg

Like I wrote above:

There can be different goals when sharpening for a business.  This needs to be decided and defined up front.

Are you offering your sharpening services simply to produce a quickly and simply sharpened knife purely for utility sake?  This is what it appears Kyle is doing in his video.  Does he do this well??  I’d place his finished knives dead centered in the overlap between the “cheap” and “fast” circles, in the “not the best quality” range.  (I think if I were using Kyle’s business model, I’d carry my W.E. sharpener and a folding work bench to sharpen “on site”.  Pick-up and drop-off is killing his profit potential).

Or, are your sharpening services more like those of Josh of Razor Edge Knives?  Josh’s customer base are the high end collectors and knife efficianados, or a knife user wanting simply a “good and well sharpened knife” and they’re willing to pay for this quality.

Or both?  ….The price you charge is commensurate with the quality of your finished products.  It’s up to you conducting this business to decide what price is fair for the value and quality of your finished product and for the time you needed to put into it.

This service you offer and the quality of your finished products will describe the way you use your Wicked Edge Sharpener, the time you’ll spend with each knife and your pricing structure.   The quality, precision and design of the W.E. sharpeners allow for both ends of the business spectrum.  Your sharpening knowledge, experience, and expertise may well determine which business model is right for you.

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wickededge, NotSharpEnuff, Mike, 000Robert, Brewbear

I also strive for speed. Attached is a link to my Jersey Double Stroke.

Also, I currently use the 50/80 stone which will reprofile in 1 minute. I watched your video and you mentioned angles up to 25 DPS I think which is probably appropriate for the cheaper steels because they dull real quick (crap steel) but I prefer 20 DPS.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FDfRsVZmncCVvPhm6