Starting a sharpening service

H

Hazelaar

Joined
Jan 9, 2014
Messages
24
Good day to each and everyone of you,
most of you wouldn't know me, as I normally sit around the porch in the traditional forum.

I'm from Belgium and I' m sorry to say that knives here aren't a very big thing. Sure everyone has a kitchen knife and some pocket knives, but it's a small country and the guys using and enjoying knives outside of the kithcen is an even smaller club.

So I have been sharpening knives ( and axes, chisels, shears, scissors, garden tools,...) for friends and family. I use hand tools, as I don't have an electric circuit in the big garden shed where I do all my thinkering. I use a bastard file for heavy grinding ( lawnmower blades with nicks or axes), diamond files from extra course up to extra fine (eze lap) for gardenshears and scissors, and oil and waterstones for knives. I have a coarse norton and fine norton oil stone ( sic), japanese waterstones from grit 1000 , 3000 and 5000 for polishing and a natural Belgium coticule around 8000 grit for straightrazors and final polishing if required.

Stropping is done on leather or Balsa with flexcut gold, with which I can mirror polish every edge and steel I've encountered and still keep some bite.

So in my country there are allmost no sharpening services left except some cutlery stores and places for chef knives.
I'm thinking of starting up a 'one man' business besides me being a teacher.

Are there any tips or pointers you would give me. I'm not thinking too big, just something I can do and make a buck with it to spend on the hobby ;-)

Thanks for every input!
Bert
 
You will need a powered option for sure... A small belt grinder will be invaluable!
 
Gauge your market, price, and time -
Enjoy the socializing!
Approach it in the first stage as a hobby. Have contacts cards printed up, and tell your friends and family to spread the word.
Get a table, sign up sheet for sharpening, and 2 sided sign that can be read from street or sidewalk. Set up at a local flea market, swap meet, organized garage sale, fair, park, or wherever local people gather. Keep a notebook of your activities, and bring grading work with you when it is slow;)
Make a short video demonstrating sharpening those "knives ( and axes, chisels, shears, scissors, garden tools,...)", and throw it on a portable device for folks to watch while your busy.

Certainly Josh's advise is sound if you see there is enough customers. You could save the proceeds of a few weekends. You could use leg or arm muscle power and costume to add fun
https://www.baryonyxknife.com/anbmagrwh.html
 
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I do some sharpening on the side. The kitchen knives are fast. I use a small grinder. Other people’s garden tools take longer cause they are so beat up or old & weird!
 
Rough business if you ask me. There are guys at fairs that will sharpen any knife for 2 bucks.
 
Sounds like you have sharpening down on stones but for a business you need speed. Taking the principles on stone to powered equipment takes a little learning.

While there are people that sharpen on the cheap, like any business you have to be better than the competition. Reduce bolsters, round spines, fix broken tips, reprofile after chips, repair handles, etc.

Hair salons are a good thing to target, hair shears are a whole different animal and a specialty thing. Imagine 2 tiny yanagibas that have to rub against each other. Good hair shears are far more expensive than a good chef knife.

The sharpening world is far bigger than just knives.
 
Thanks for alle the tips. The problem here in our country is that there aren't anymore Guys around on fairs or markets.

I rehandle, resheath, reprofile,... Anything that requires thinkering on a knife, I've done in the past.

I'm going to look at Hair shears.. I know of a cutlery store who pride themselves in it and I'm on good footing with the owner.

When I make a little money I van look at a benchgrinder and paperwheels... Lots to think about
 
Look up the Hira To. Made by the same company that makes the Twice as Sharp scissors sharpener Wolfe industries. The Hira To is built strictly for hair shears. It is $$$$$ though. Ask hair stylist what they do for their shears.

Sounds like you have knives down now start the business on that and grow.

You could be the guy at the markets now if nobody is there
 
Hazelaar said:
When I make a little money I van look at a benchgrinder and paperwheels... Lots to think about
Click to expand...
i do draw enjoyment from freehand sharpening, the lil success of getting the job done, a useful skill which not everyone has or is good at. and i remember my phases of when i went to neighbors and asked if i could sharpen their knives in favor of them. but since they never asked me in the first place, they thought they were doing a favor to me by letting me have their knives. what an absurd situation. and actually, whenever i sharpen knives for friends or family, they take the renewed sharpness for granted, are happy about it but doht give it another thought. they continue to "abuse" the knives, doht take care to preserve the sharpness, don't treat the apex respectfully, etc. so i gave up on offering my friendly service. now i let them come to me and ask me if i could do them the favor of resharpening their kitchen knife. of course, i would then be willing and also motivated to do the favor. but guess what? none of them has come, has asked. they all know that i am all about knives and sharpening as a "hobby" but they doht care if their kitchen knives cut only so well; their thoughts and lives are about other stuff and topics in daily life, and rightly so. sorry for rambling, i doht know where i am going with this.

anyway, me enjoying doing favors once in a while and experience appreciation doesn't mean that i would also enjoy doing sharpening as a business, even if i had all the tools and grinders. but that's really just me the work-lazy dude. my enjoyment gets ruined as soon as some kind of external obligation enters. motivation has to come out of my innerself (yes it is a privilege), and it does so when there is freedom and voluntarism in my doings. genuine joy, enjoyment follows naturally. if you order your son to practice the piano 3.0hrs/day or to practice basketball every effing day, what effect will that order have on his mind and his love for the music or the sport? detrimental. If there is lotta money in play, then yes money can be a big motivator. but how sustainable will that prove to be? No money in the world could make me swim for 3.0km every effing day over the next 15 yrs. Not sure if my mind or my body would break first within the first two years!!

I'd question my plan/choice to open a sharpening business, only because i knew the craft, were time-effective at it, and enjoyed the sharpening process in my amateur setting on my calm Sunday mornings. on a side note, when doing a favor, i doht accept blades with chips/dents or in other poor conditions; as a pro, you cannot turn down such commissions. have phun with that! i remember all the Burrfection videos where he received hundreds of abused/chipped Like New Japanese chef knives for FREE from partner-sponsoring knife retailers and he promised he'd repair them all and then auction them off on ebay. and what happened? nothing. he gave up on the chips-fixing project because that was the only sensible way to go about his promise.

if you're really sure that you would enjoy and keep doing the sharpening business for years to come (if you had enough customers and that's a big if) because you doht mind the work and the obligational aspect, then good luck on that path! just doht start it with money as incentive in mind. imho there isn't much money to be made in the Europes with repairing shoes, sharpening knives, baking breads traditionally, walking dawx, babysitting infants, fixing bikes, etc.

if money is your veritable and original incentive to start a side hussle, then my advice: doht use it on spending, on buying consumables and then it's gone. better use it to grow it (or to learn how to grow it, or to try to learn how to grow it). maybe in 2 yrs i'll think differently but if coruna hadn't happened, i'd still be wasting time in front of the screen watching sportsTV (without placing bets) and throwing money at online retailers all over the globe for a bigger and better tool or knife or booking a trip on a cruise ship where i'd keep spending and then it's gone. 2020 taught me and millions others around the world to grow money. once you have gathered a sum $$$, doht spend it! use it to grow it. it'll become $$$$ (depending on how good of a learner of a new field you are; as a teacher in RL, you'll pick up the fundamentals fast and securely and be more confident than other beginners), and it'll be $$$$$ by 2021. then you could deduct your $$$ to afford the best grinder, but at that point you'll ask yourself, if you still want to pursue the sharpening business idea, and probably come to the conclusion that growing money was the better idea.

well, to each his own. i stopped spending money (and sorry for bladehq, knifecenter, urbansupply, goinggear, etc who keep sending out their weekly sales emails to my inbox, and i am so over it!). i still like sharpening a blade or knife here and there (maybe 2 short sessions per month) and posting on this forum, because these two are indeed enjoyable and relaxing voluntary simple "freedom activities" which i happily come back to whenever i feel like doing them (like on some boring weekends haha) but i basically moved on to (trying to) grow money, a new thing which i felt naturally attracted to due to greed and #stayathome because i didn't want to miss out in 2020. being an active market participant is the most honest, directest, and fastest way to make money. it's a craft, almost art, but we knife fans managed to learn the craft of sharpening (took me 2yrs to really step up my improvements!), so we can be confident that we could learn and succeed at The Game Of Games too! btw most business owners, online retailers (especially in the US) are in the game too, without telling you. they take your hard-earned money (which you spent on a product they sold/didn't manufacture) and try to grow it too because it's the clever thing to do when you have $$$ cash in your bank account. it's actually from youtubes where i learned the financial concept ("spending one's money on consumerware is dumb/unacceptable — protecting one's money and making it grow is smart/sensible") and i agree.

ah never mind. do what you believe will benefit you in terms of joy and financials. today is a Sat, financials are closed on weekends, so i am having time to dump my thoughts here and you might find my speech even useful/reasonable. if my post is out of line or too offtopic, then please excuse me.

i am in gemani btw, living right at the border of benelux, anheuser busch was among my first roundturn trades, 331 cheers! :thumbsup:
 
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OP, Some dental equipment needs sharpening. Talk to your dentist or dental hygienist. From memory, Sal mentioned using his Sharpmaker for this task and scissors.

kreisler, your post reminds me to get a copy of a book I received as a gift fresh out of college, "The Richest Man in Babylon", for one of my boys. It's time.

In beginning each new enterprise or relationship, no matter how big or how small-
I'm simultaneously reminded of Jesus teaching about how not to be anxious and putting first things first.
Matt 6:33 ESV But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. And the parable of the rich young ruler in Matt 19:16ff. He ask how to earn / inherit eternal life, self reported keeping the 5 interpersonal commandments, but his inner man is laid bare when he was told to leave his wealth for the kingdom of heaven, and could not. He had neglected his relationship with God.
 
you seem to be talking about god bible religion,
kreisler was talking about the "new" money machine in 2020. millions of Robinhood people are new (incl myself the newbie) to the game since March.

i set my knives'n sharpening "hobby" aside for it. 2020 is the time to study and learn the new thing, cheers!
 
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