All About Pocket Knives

Just found my perfect Summer retirement job- sharpening knives at the beach, inspired by this guy. We have a dozen kitchen knives in our rental house and not one is qualified to cut anything more than butter. I figure charge $10 per knife with a 5 knife minimum for house calls. Between Duck and Corolla there's hundreds of rental houses and probably not one has a sharp kitchen knife in the drawer. Then it's all about marketing, one of those banner plane services?

WOW, what a great idea John! I'll bet while you are sharpening all those kitchen knives, you could also ask your customers it they have any old pocket knives they want to unload.

Great idea John!

I read a story a while back about a retired guy in Los Angeles that sets up shop near the beaches. A few weeks after he started, he had a waiting list a mile long. People also started to bring him scissors, gardening shears, hatchets, and axes as well.

He said he had two basic types of clients: Retired people that don't know how to sharpen knives, and young idiots that think they know how but only damaged their blades.

So it sounds like a good idea to me. Your motto should be: "If I can't fix it, You don't need it".

____________
Mike

I appreciate your encouragement, guys!

I have sharpened a "few" kitchen knives that have rattled around in drawers for years. I used stones. No more.
Ugg! They can be a lot of work up front but if you get repeat customers who haven't used them as garden cleavers
you could be in tall cotton.
I think your motto should be "I can't fix everything".
I hope you do well.

John - 2 thoughts:
- from April-September if your looking to make a hundred dollars each day, you better start with two hundred in your pocket
- from October-March make sure your pockets are loaded

Pretty cool idea. Wonder if he's using stones, or a grinder?

Defiantly has to be using some type of grinder. Don't think you could make any money using stones. Those little 1x18" belt grinders form Harbor Freight are what I see a lot of guys using.

Like your thinking, but i implore you to do your homework diligently before you invest any money. I used to have a knife sharpening business as a side venture, and finding your customer base is so important. This is not a criticism but just an observation, most of those people in rentals on the coast are just there for a vacation, either as renters or actually owning the property. As a rule they only have cheap cutlery and crockery, you may find that they will not pay to have a knife sharpened, it would be cheaper to but a new one. Maybe not, i don't know the area, but these are the sort of issues you have to work out. I don't want to see you invest into a business and lose your cash. I hope it works out well for you, just find out your customer base before you invest.

Thanks for your input, gents!

We have a guy with a booth at our weekly Farmer's Market that sharpens knives & scissors. He has a variety of tools including a small belt sander & a buffer running off a generator. He seems to do an OK business, the customers usually aren't queued-up, but he's not just sitting on his butt all day either. I have no idea if he makes enough to cover the cost of the booth.

TwoFlowersLuggage wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 5:08 pm We have a guy with a booth at our weekly Farmer's Market that sharpens knives & scissors. He has a variety of tools including a small belt sander & a buffer running off a generator. He seems to do an OK business, the customers usually aren't queued-up, but he's not just sitting on his butt all day either. I have no idea if he makes enough to cover the cost of the booth.

I think cheap advertising and house calls would be the way to go for the beach crowd.

Keep us updated on how you go, you have us all rooting for you.

A kitchen goods store near me charge $2.00 to sharpen cutlery and he may have said free if purchased there, and said they don't do serrated blades and don't know how. I have not seen what they use as it is in the basement. serrated blades may be a share of your requests. Many moons ago when I was little the street had a good size hill, in the summer we would hear a clanging bell as a step van mobile sharpening truck made it's way up hill. A man rolled out his push type reel mower and the driver would wait while a man sharpened the mower.

Thanks for your replies! I have a little over a year to figure out the next chapter.

I have a non active sharpening side business. Non active simply because the people who appreciate a good edge already have invested the time in learning how to do it themselves. The people who don't do their own sharpening just imitate the chefs on the cooking shows and whip the blade around on a steel and then wonder why this fantastic knife they bought won't stay sharp.

Done some research into a belt sander to sharpen on to lower the price to the customer and allow portability to start sharpening cosmetologist scissors. If I ever do it I would definitely go with a Ken Onion Worksharp with all the attachments for maximum flexibility.

Met a guy at the farmers market who does this. He charges $5 an inch. 2 inch blade is $10. 5 inch blade is $25. Do the math. I didn't think anyone would be interested in that kind of pricing but while I was there women kept coming up to him with kitchen knives and such and he took them and their money. And he said he has a week or more backlogue if you want to leave him your knives. No thanks, but the ladies like him and are willing to wait a week. There is some market space out there for a guy willing to sharpen for less money per blade. For sure.

Rotten wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 4:27 pm I have a non active sharpening side business. Non active simply because the people who appreciate a good edge already have invested the time in learning how to do it themselves. The people who don't do their own sharpening just imitate the chefs on the cooking shows and whip the blade around on a steel and then wonder why this fantastic knife they bought won't stay sharp.

Done some research into a belt sander to sharpen on to lower the price to the customer and allow portability to start sharpening cosmetologist scissors. If I ever do it I would definitely go with a Ken Onion Worksharp with all the attachments for maximum flexibility.

Some very good advise and observations Trace, the belt sander/Ken Onion advise with scissor attachment is most excellent advise. And i cringe and blame the explosion of TV cooking shows when i see someone with no idea or skill who think they are sharpening their knife on a steel in a few seconds. But your observation about the people who invest in quality cutlery learning to sharpen properly themselves is most interesting.

I know many, many non-knife people that buy either the "electric wheels of death" style of sharpeners or one of the V-notch style for their kitchen knives.

Thanks again for your replies.

I think operating in a rental resort area would work best because who takes a knife sharpener with them on vacation? I guess the question is, would someone pay to sharpen someone else's knives?

1967redrider wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 3:39 am Thanks again for your replies.

I think operating in a rental resort area would work best because who takes a knife sharpener with them on vacation? I guess the question is, would someone pay to sharpen someone else's knives?

My wife and I live in rentals two months of the year. I always sharpen the knives when we are there. (Of course, I make our living sharpening knives). Would someone pay to have the rental knives sharpened? Is this the kind of community that cooks their own meals or are there lots of restaurants?

We carry our own kitchen knives with us because we are rather fussy about our cutlery.

Good luck, if you have any questions, get in touch. 14 years full time sharpening, I don’t know all the answers but I have made most of the mistakes and learned!

Kevin

Eye Brand Man wrote: ↑Wed Aug 11, 2021 9:23 pm Defiantly has to be using some type of grinder. Don't think you could make any money using stones. Those little 1x18" belt grinders form Harbor Freight are what I see a lot of guys using.

Actually, with a good set of stones you can. I use DMT diamond stones, 12x3” or so. Nice and long so I get plenty of edge to surface contact. If it takes two minutes to get a sharp edge, I started with a really dull edge.

Kevin

Thanks again, Kevin!

1967redrider wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 1:31 pm Thanks again, Kevin!

Any updates?

Kevin