I’ve got a set of knives that I bought about a year ago that have lost their edge. (FTR, they’re these Calphalon knives.) There’s no-one around here to sharpen them in this city of 10,000, and so I’d like to look at a mail-order service. Does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions?
I’d also accept an absolutely foolproof way to sharpen them at home, but I really don’t want to screw it up and destroy the knives.
I’m not sure where you live, but it drives me crazy that Austin, a city with over 1 million people, only has one knife sharpening business.
Have you checked with local (independently owned) hardware stores? If I recall correctly, one of ours has a traveling knife sharpener person who comes around every couple of weeks to a month. They’ll put up a sign on the door, and I’ve seen signs advertising it at other businesses, but you’d have to have seen one to know about it.
I remember when I was a kid every other week or so a guy pushing a little white cart would walk down the middle of the street ringing a bell. I’d hear it and think it was the ice cream man and go running out, only to be sorely disappointed when I saw the guy. I asked my mom once who he was, and she said he was a knife sharpener.
Anybody else ever see anything like this?
Forget the knife sharpening services, just get a Spyderco Sharpmaker and do it yourself
the Sharpmaker is dead easy to use, put the brass handguards in place, then put the ceramic rods in the holes, hold the knife blade vertically, and draw down the stone towards yourself on each side, start off with the more agressive brown rods for neglected edges, then swap in the white rods for the final polishing/touch-up
once your knives are sharp, never let them get dull again, it’s easier to maintain a sharp edge than it is to restore a neglected edge, the Sharpmaker can help you keep that Scary Sharp edge, after a couple days of use, simply swipe the knife down the rods a couple times to maintain the edge
whatever you do, do NOT use those horrible carbide blade “pull through” knife “sharpeners”, there’s no quicker way to ruin an edge, the only thing they’re useful for is to re-set an edge on a badly neglected knife, but don’t do more than two strokes through a pull-through, it actually peels a layer of metal off the blade
Screw mailorder, and the carbon whetstone – get yerself one of these. You’ll have a drawer full of sharp knives in a few minutes.
Check local sewing supply stores for who does their scissors-sharpening, and contact Calphalon - sometimes knife manufacturers will resharpen.
In my hometown, one of the local grocery store’s meat departments offers a free knife-sharpening service to customers.
Isn’t there a listing for Killers, Serial in your yellow pages?
Sailboat
You could also ask your local butcher shop.
I’m serious. It’s quite common here.
I have both a Lansky system and a Gatco system. (Loaned one out, didn’t get it back and then bought the other. Of course then I got the first back) :smack:
Anyway they are both about the same. the knife is locked into a clamp and the stone is held at an exact angle (choice of 3) You start with the coarse stone, go to medium, and finally fine. For a touch up start with just med or fine.
I can make all of the knives in my kitchen scary sharp in about 15-20 minutes. (I have lots of knives)
If you don’t own a steel you should get one and use it regularly to keep the edge between sharping.