What & How We Sharpen

How do you sharpen?

We have a wide variety of tools in the shop and try to pick the one best suited to the blade. Most kitchen knives go through a progressive sharpening system that includes carefully selected abrasives, polishing wheels, and a final honing on a leather strop. For particularly dull or damaged blades, we regrind a new primary bevel before refining and polishing the edge to razor-sharp precision.

We also adjust our approach based on the knife's design, steel type, and condition—using everything from belt sanders and finishing wheels to hand sharpening when needed.

For a detailed, step-by-step breakdown of how we sharpen a typical kitchen knife, check out our full article: How We Sharpen Your Knives

How sharp will my knives be?

Sharpness will depend on the type of steel, blade geometry, and intended use. But for the vast majority of customers, they'll come back to you sharper than when they were new, and much sharper than you can achieve with pull-through devices commonly sold at retail.

We have an Edge-On-Up Edge Tester to quantify the sharpness of the blade. It is used for quality control and to benchmark our results against edges that are brand new from the factory.

We have a premium service in which we test your blade before and after we go to work on it. Customers receive a report that quantifies the sharpness of their knife and benchmarks it against industry standards for kitchen knives, razor blades, etc. Let us know if that is something you'd be interested in!

My knife is chipped/bent/damaged. Can it be sharpened?

We never know for certain without laying eyes on it, but customers are typically surprised at what we can repair. Feel free to add the damaged knife to your order, and if we decide it is beyond our capabilities, we will refund the item.

How long does this take?

Your knives are always sharpened in less than 24 hours, but often much quicker.

I need my knives to make dinner tonight.

We realize that most folks eat three times in a 24 hour span. We're experimenting with offering loaner knives, so if you'd like to borrow some while yours are in the shop, just let us know.

I have a small order and/or am coming from a long way away. Can you sharpen my knives while I wait?

Maybe! Call or text to coordinate a time that works for us both: 425-200-5222.