Adjusting the misting unit at my 1x30 belt sander.
Method
I use belts. I originally learned with whetstones but they're just too slow for my niche. Most of the work is on my 1x30 belt sander, starting with a 120 or 180 grit Cubitron, then moving to a Trizact A30, then onto my leather belt for polishing off the burr.
If your knife isn't too chipped and doesn't need any profile repair, they should take me about five minutes each.
Prices
It's roughly $2 an inch, which includes simple repairs like small broken tips, small chips, or a bolster that "stands proud" and needs to be ground down a bit. For kitchen knives I just bucket them into t-shirt sizes:
| S | Paring knives, most knives 4 inches or less | $8 |
|---|---|---|
| M | Smaller chef knives, mini santokus, utility knives, steak knives, 5 or 6 inches | $12 |
| L | Full sized knives such as chef, santoku, slicer, cleaver, etc. 7", 8" or 10" | $15 |
| XL | Big 12" chef knife as used in restaurants, heavy meat cleavers with a convexed edge | $20 |
Folding pocket knives are $10 (unless half the edge is serrated and I'm just doing the smooth part, then it's $5).
Payment by cash or credit card. Reach out on the contact page and I'll let you know when I can show up on your street.
My focus
There's a lot of aspects to knife sharpening beside just making a sharp edge. Fixing broken tips, grinding down the bolster, smoothing out the profile so your vegetables aren't all connected like paper dolls, straightening bends, conditioning the cheeks of the blade to remove scratches or take off rust, thinning, it goes on and on and that's not even getting to the handles. Much less to shears and scissors! It really does take a lifetime to learn this stuff.
At this point in my knife sharpening journey I'm focused on the sharp edge. I can do some of those other things to varying degrees, but as a mobile sharpener with a fast same-day turnaround, I'm selling sharpness and convenience.
As for what I sharpen, at this point in time I'm focused on knives. Occassionally I will take a stab at chisels or garden tools or hatchets or various other edged items, but those things are more of a 2026 goal for me. 2025 is all about knives.
