restaurant knife sharpening business

[artificialj]

Anyone here run, know anyone who runs, or use a restaurant knife sharpening business?

I have worked as a cook for many years, but never really spent much time dealing with the people who sharpened our knives. Recently, a manager of a restaurant I formerly worked at contacted me about sharpening their knives. It would be a mid scale operation (the business is a small local chain, with about 10 stores) and I'd like to do it to have some income for something I'm fairly good at doing. So...

I'm just not sure what sort of price to bid to him. I see knife sharpeners quoting various prices online, and have heard people talk about pricing at farmers markets, but want some info from people who might do this professionally.

Thanks much!

Jay

 

[rpttrsn]

I do it locally for homeowners and two deli's. It's not a full time business as I am retired. Just like sharpening knives. I believe my prices are low. I find using my Kalamazoo belt grinder and paper wheels make short work of sharpening.
Knives
up to 4" - $3.50
over 4" - $4.50
over 7" - $6.00
Scissors -$4.50
Pruning shears $3 - $4.
Other cutting tools: estimates given
Police / Military duty knives - free
These prices are for cutting tools with normal wear.

Just money to buy supplies and a bit extra for knives.

 

[Charlie Mike]

Nice to see another Kalamazoo owner operator!

[youtube]khsMQSU8Vzg[/youtube]

 

[fast14riot]

Most of the places I have used were between $1 and $2 per inch of blade for standard grinds. Chisel grinds maybe .50 more. Don't know about serrated so I can't help you there. My wife is a chef and when she was in school they had issues with a couple mobile sharpeners "not cutting it." So just be sure to be good at it. Also talk to the chefs about how they use and care for their knives. I had one of the mobile guys sharpen my edc pocket knife which is chisel ground and he reprofiled it to a V edge and a very fine edge as well. It didn't hold up at all. Not saying you aren't capable, jut some issues I have run into in the past.


-Xander

 

[artificialj]

Cool, thanks guys. Yeah, right now I really like the paper wheels, and feel that the convex edge is pretty appropriate for most kitchen utility and chefs knives. Might adjust that for slicers. They have no chisel blades, so I don't have to worry about that right now.

Mainly I'm just concerned with the balance of making my prices accessibly to them / making enough money for it to be reasonable for me to do. I think the plan would be for them to buy 1 extra set of knives (as far as I can tell, all 10 stores have the same number and types of knives), then I would be dropping off a fresh set as I picked up a dull set. All sharpening would be done in my home shop, which, unfortunately, is not centrally located. Maybe I should think about making my operation mobile?

 

[midnight flyer]

Just a couple of thoughts.

There is a guy that sharpens restaurant knives here in town, and he is mobile as well working out of an old mail truck. He has something like a Sears 2X42 belt sander/grinder in his truck as well as a 1X30 sander. He does some hand finishing, but has no wheels except as buffers. He makes appointments and comes by and sharpens on the spot. He says that the chefs that have a lot of money in their knives don't want them out of their sight.

I can see that as some of those knives are quite expensive. I have rarely seen a chef use very, very expensive knives for daily use, but they all seem to have them as gifts received for one reason or another. He charges most $1 and inch for most knives, but charges more for his downtown clients because he has to pay for parking.

The guy that cuts my hair uses a different service. He comes by on a schedule and picks up all the scissors in the shop and takes them to sharpen them off site. My barber says the guy picks up scissors all day from a lot of different shops, then comes back in the next 2 - 3 days to deliver and collect the bill.

Two different industries, two different methods. If it were me and I was having my knives sharpened, I wouldn't want them much farther away than i could throw them. They guy in the mail truck can sharpen a fantastically dull knife into a great edge in less then 5 minutes, probably 3, so it would take him well under an hour to sharpen 10 - 15 knives. I would expect him to do that right on the spot.

Robert