Sharpening as a business

[Richard]

I personally just created a Google Business page and began getting hits immediately, they bugged the heck out of me for months wanting me to enhance it and spend money but I just kept ignoring them and the calls finally ceased. But my advice is to not bite off more than you can chew probably for the first year. Get really good at, for example, kitchen knives. Then create your business but only provide a service for those and nothing else. Then, in the meantime, be working at becoming proficient on, for example, pocket and sheath knives. I remember a couple of years ago, I was having my bathroom shower and floor re-tiled and asked the workers if they would bring in their folders or sheath knives so I could practice on them. They were thrilled and I did a pretty good job on them which built my confidence and soon after that, I began advertising it.

Your main objective should be providing quality service and not damage the product. Once the damage is done, it might not be able to be repaired and here you are, paying for a new knife instead of making money.

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Robert, Brewbear, Marc H (Wicked Edge Expert Corner)

[Marc H (Wicked Edge Expert Corner)]

Richard wrote:

Your main objective should be providing quality service and not damage the product. Once the damage is done, it might not be able to be repaired and here you are, paying for a new knife instead of making money.

IMO: For me, there would be no “and not damage” in the equation!  If there was any chance I lacked the skill, ability or confidence to sharpen any knives presented to me well, without inflicting damage to them, I’d stay out of the sharpening business, just then.  I’d keep practicing with family, friends and neighbors. Gratis.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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Brewbear

[Richard]

You know I said that because it happened to me, right? Taught me to use a lot of masking tape. Lesson learned.

[Richard]

Another point I wanted to make is that people don’t understand our craft and I’ll give you an example of what happened today. I get up this morning and some guy who I didn’t know had e-mailed me last night saying that he needed three kitchen knives he wanted sharpened so right away I’m in the dark regarding what kind of knife it is and how much blade am I looking at not to mention any damage to it. I requested a picture of the knives and pretty much immediately he responds. There are what appears to be two 10″ chef’s knives and one 8″ Sandoku. So I told him to let me know if he wanted to bring them to me or meet me somewhere today since I was headed out anyway. He wants to know how much I would charge and I said $45 for all three which I think is reasonable for the amount of time I was going to put into it but you know what? He never responded which surprised me because really, his only option is to send them back to the factory since I’m pretty much the only game in town.

So I’m not sure if people think that I’ve got a belt grinder where I can just knock these knives out in a matter of minutes and I’m making a killing at $15/knife for what. That’s the thing about e-mail and text, you can’t really discuss the conditions with the worst case scenario probably being the most expensive. I had a guy give me a chef’s knife about a year ago and had a huge chip in it which I explained right up front that to remove that chip and basically grind it completely out resulting in a new knife would be fairly expensive.

Then you have the trolls, those are weirdos who will arrange to drop off their knives and never show up. And I had a guy who said he had 125 knives to be sharpened but wanted me to create some sort of method so he could charge them on a credit card.

So this being my very first business venture has been interesting, that’s for sure. You never know the intent of the person on the other end of the phone line LOL

[Chester Simon]

When I first started sharpening knives, I began charging around $5 per knife, but as I gained more experience and invested in better equipment, I bumped it up to $10-$15, depending on the size and condition of the knife. Prices really depend on your location and the demand for such services.

Regarding getting the word out, I’d recommend starting with social media advertising. Most of my clients come from Facebook ads I run. I’ve been using the AdSpy software to peek at competitors’ ad campaigns that are currently live. It’s quite handy to grasp what strategies they’re implementing and to fine-tune my own campaigns accordingly.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by Chester Simon.

[MikeyWantsAnEdge]

Hi Kyle.
just watched your YouTube vid on sharpening in under four minutes. I’m new to sharpening… brand new.  I learned quite a bit in just that one video alone. I purchased a gen 3 pro and I’m waiting on it to be delivered so I’m looking for all the tips and knowledge I can get. I’m starting from scratch here. I subscribed to your channel as well. I look forward to watching more of your vids to gain more knowledge as my skill set is nada right now however, I will get to a level that I’m satisfied with my skills. Do you have a video explaining how much pressure to apply in a way you can convey  to the newest of sharpeners? Thanks for the vids.
-Mike

PS… I lived out in Santa Fe myself for a few years and moved back to NY where I’m from somewhat recently.

[Author]

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