How much to charge to sharpen knives?

[Woody's Workshop]

I figured about $1 per inch on straight edged blades if you don't need to remove chip, dents (like someone used it as a screw driver) and other defects.
That would include angle setting with my 220 Grit. working my way to 3000 grit on the diamond stones.
Then move to the Norton wet stone and pick up with the 4000 grit, working it to 8000 grit and finish up with strop on a board with blue jewler's rouge.
As for serrated blades, I figured $0.50 per inch, considering that you can only sharpen the back side.
Later on, I plan to invest in round diamond picks and wet stone to do the front side as well, but for now, just the back side.
Does this sound about right to you guys?

[Colonel26]

Just my opinion, and it’s worth exactly what you’re paying for it, but that sounds like an awful lot of sharpening for $1.00 per inch. You’ll have to sharpen a whole lot of knives to pay for just one of the stones you mentioned.

And for normal using knives I don’t really see the need to go through that many of the finer polishing grits, imo. Unless it’s some kind of specialized knife for cutting very delicate things a coarse, medium, and fine stone followed by a strop sounds like more than enough to me. I sharpen mine on a medium natural stone, then an extra fine diamond bench stone, and use an old German steel to finish it off. Touch ups are just the steel or the diamond hone. YMMV.

[OLDE CUTLER]

I figured about $1 per inch on straight edged blades if you don't need to remove chip, dents (like someone used it as a screw driver) and other defects.
That would include angle setting with my 220 Grit. working my way to 3000 grit on the diamond stones.
Then move to the Norton wet stone and pick up with the 4000 grit, working it to 8000 grit and finish up with strop on a board with blue jewler's rouge.
As for serrated blades, I figured $0.50 per inch, considering that you can only sharpen the back side.
Later on, I plan to invest in round diamond picks and wet stone to do the front side as well, but for now, just the back side.
Does this sound about right to you guys?

I was just trying to figure out for myself, if I was doing it and had a pocket knife with a blade that measured 2 inches, and went through the steps you listed, what would I be making per hour that way? If it took one half hour to do all the steps, then I would be making $4 per hour. If I could do all those steps in 15 minutes, then I would be making $8 per hour, 10 minutes would be $12 per hour, 5 minutes would be $24 per hour. I wouldn't think that I could do all of those steps in less than 10 minutes, so the max. I would be making would be $12 per hour. Then there is the wear and tear on the stones that would need to be replaced eventually, and consumables such as oil for the stones if used, and rouge. And are you going to advertise your services? For me anyway, these things always take longer than what I think they would. So I would be making less than what I would consider ideal, but probably would have a lot of work. So what would your time guestimate be for sharpening my pocket knife with a 2 inch blade? And if my knife was a three blade stockman, you would sharpen the whole thing for $6, correct? And are you going to charge fractional inches, that is if my knife has a 2 1/2" blade, then you will charge $2.50? It really does come down to one big math problem, based on how much time is involved. But, and it is a big but, you would be competing with sharpeners that are doing it with electric powered equipment, so that gives them a time advantage over you doing it by hand. Wow, this is getting to be a big can of worms!!!

[Railsplitter]

Most of my blades are 3 inches or less. I sharpen my own knives but if I could get an 8000 grit stropped edge for $3 I'd be all over it.

Awhile back I wanted to treat myself to a professional sharpening so I sent a three blade knife out to a guy with a great reputation. He put a mirror edge on all three blades and all the work was done by hand. I don't remember how high he went with grits but the blades came out great. Took him about 10 days to do the work and get the knife back to me which was agreed on from the start.

That cost me $85 plus shipping both ways. About $28 per blade and none of them were over 3 inches long.

I can't recommend a fair price to charge for your work but I think it should be more than $1 per inch. Your time is worth more than that and if you're good at it, people won't mind paying more.

Either that or just put a single grit edge on them to keep the price down. Many people won't mind that either as long as it's sharp.

[Doc B]

Definitely sounded cheap, to me...for the work involved. Good breakdown OC.

[jerryd6818]

You just gotta love, love, love sharpening knives to get into the business and especially doing it by hand. You know, be Coo-Coo for Cocoa Puffs. If you love it that much and have that low of an opinion of your work, you might as well be doing it for free.

[kootenay joe]

You need to charge enough to give yourself a decent return which i think is at least $15-$20 per hour at a minimum. To be successful you have to be good at sharpening and fast as well. If i sent in a 1 blade folding knife i would expect to pay about $20 to have it sharpened. A 3 blade folder i would expect to pay $30-$40. For this amount of money i would expect to receive very sharp edges that are consistent along the entire edge including the very tip.
If you can do a 3 blade knife in 1 hour then i'd say it could be a successful business for you.
kj

[Mumbleypeg]

Not to be a wet blanket but you’re gonna have a hard time competing with guys who have automated sharpening equipment (belt sanders) and charge $2 a blade, $5 for a three-blade stockman. There’s a guy in a panel truck who comes to local trade days around here and sets up a workbench with three belt sanders, each a different grit, and a buffer. He will put a shaving edge on all three blades of a stockman knife, and lightly buff it if you want, in about 5 minutes, for $5. Since I sharpen my own, I don’t use his services myself but have talked with him and watched him work. Nice guy who knows his stuff.

I’ve seen guys (and a couple of women) doing the same at Cabalas, Bass Pro, at the stock show, etc.

Assuming you do it well your process sounds like it would be superior to his. But how many customers would care (or know) enough to pay the difference? JMO

Ken

[mrwatch]

We have an area kitchen goods store. Not seen what they use but they sharpens kitchen knives for $2. They Won't do serrated edge knives. I have a round tapered diamond file and after watching YouTube videos on serrated it does great. The ones I see in garage sales and thrift stores often have damaged or rolled over serrations.

[btrwtr]

I sharpen using a belt sander going to 400 grit until I can see the metal edge turning. This coarse folded wire edge can be both seen and felt. Then I finish using ceramic rods and a leather strop. The ceramic and leather is used to remove the turned wire edge created by the 400 belt. I don't normally find it necessary to go to anything past 400 grit before going to ceramic and leather.

I realize that not everyone has or wants to use a belt grinder to sharpen but the point is that regardless of method I don't think it is necessary to use much past a coarse 400 grit before finishing the edge in order to get a shaving sharp blade.

Lansky stone systems use a 600 grit (blue plastic mount) stone for their fine grit and 1000 grit (yellow plastic mount) for ultra fine. I think the 1000 is a bit of an overkill.

There is some school of thought that blades sharpened on courser abrasives create a coarser more biting edge than a finely honed super polished edge. I do think that there is something to be said for this.

[Dinadan]

Do not forget to factor in the cost of band-aids!

[Colonel26]

I sharpen using a belt sander going to 400 grit until I can see the metal edge turning. This coarse folded wire edge can be both seen and felt. Then I finish using ceramic rods and a leather strop. The ceramic and leather is used to remove the turned wire edge created by the 400 belt. I don't normally find it necessary to go to anything past 400 grit before going to ceramic and leather.

I realize that not everyone has or wants to use a belt grinder to sharpen but the point is that regardless of method I don't think it is necessary to use much past a coarse 400 grit before finishing the edge in order to get a shaving sharp blade.

Lansky stone systems use a 600 grit (blue plastic mount) stone for their fine grit and 1000 grit (yellow plastic mount) for ultra fine. I think the 1000 is a bit of an overkill.

There is some school of thought that blades sharpened on courser abrasives create a coarser more biting edge than a finely honed super polished edge. I do think that there is something to be said for this.

You summed up my point well. A “toothy” edge, to me cuts better than a highly polished edge for most every day cutting.

Case in point, slicing a tomato. A highly polished edge will mash it up before cutting. A toothy edge will bite into it a cut.

[philco]

I figured about $1 per inch on straight edged blades if you don't need to remove chip, dents (like someone used it as a screw driver) and other defects.
That would include angle setting with my 220 Grit. working my way to 3000 grit on the diamond stones.
Then move to the Norton wet stone and pick up with the 4000 grit, working it to 8000 grit and finish up with strop on a board with blue jewler's rouge.
As for serrated blades, I figured $0.50 per inch, considering that you can only sharpen the back side.
Later on, I plan to invest in round diamond picks and wet stone to do the front side as well, but for now, just the back side.
Does this sound about right to you guys?

I'd starve to death if I tried to make a living sharpening knives. For me, it's a labor of love but one I take far to long to complete for it to ever be profitable. I wish you all the best in your endeavors.

[mrwatch]

A lady recently told me to cut steaks only with a very smooth blade steak knife. don't tear it with a serrated edge. For wood lathe tools you need the wire edge from belt sanding. Watched one man sharpen a wood plane using the "scary sharp method." Time consuming and I'm not look for fine curls of wood. Haven't cut matters but wood probably buy a Kyocera ceramic Knife. an area kitchen store say's they sell and get repeat buyers.

[Colonel26]

I figured about $1 per inch on straight edged blades if you don't need to remove chip, dents (like someone used it as a screw driver) and other defects.
That would include angle setting with my 220 Grit. working my way to 3000 grit on the diamond stones.
Then move to the Norton wet stone and pick up with the 4000 grit, working it to 8000 grit and finish up with strop on a board with blue jewler's rouge.
As for serrated blades, I figured $0.50 per inch, considering that you can only sharpen the back side.
Later on, I plan to invest in round diamond picks and wet stone to do the front side as well, but for now, just the back side.
Does this sound about right to you guys?

This is a Spyderco Military in S30V, a very hard steel that some folks have trouble sharpening. I had totally destroyed the edge stripping double coated wire and doing general farm chores. So today it was time for its first real sharpening. Three or four light passes on a 150 grit belt on my 1x30 belt sander followed by polishing it up for a few strokes on a DMT diamond hone 8k grit just to remove the wire edge and polish it up a might. It’s toothy, as in it’ll grab your finger when you test it, and it’ll shave hair with out pulling. No assorted series of complicated stones needed. And the total time including walking from my shop to the house to finish on the hone was about 10 minutes. If my hone were in the shop, maybe 5 if I hurried.

[cudgee]

Many eons ago i had a small boutique sharpening business. Looking at your figures, they do not work for me, but You may be comfortable with them. The first thing you have to do when starting any business is look at your market e.g. - where is your customer base. Then you can start to work out costings. Most people fail because they do not understand cash flow. You MUST have a consistent cash flow, firstly to stay afloat, secondly to be able to cover any unexpected draw downs on your cash bank e.g.- your car blows up, or your rent goes up, and thirdly to allow you to be able to expand your business. Another big failing is when people work out their costings, rent, electricity and other outgoings they forget to work out WHAT is MY TIME and EXPERTISE worth. This is one of the major flaws in their business model, they sell themselves short. If you can work out Costs versus your income with a decent margin for your self, that is the start, if the numbers don't add up, you will go broke. Sorry if i have depressed you, but i don't want to see you go through the grief of a failed business.

[Rotten]

I had cards made up and my fiance even put a nice website and FB page together for me a few years ago. Fast forward to today and the website is gone and I have gotten a grand total of 1 customer from the hundreds of business cards I've handed out. Most guys will pull out their knife and show me and I'll hand them whatever I'm carrying that day so they can see my work. Every one of them has been impressed but they all balk at a $20 per blade fee. Amazes me that they will pay $100 and up for a nice knife and then balk at a professional sharpening. At one point I was even offering to teach them how to maintain the edge after my work which would significantly reduce how often they would have to come to me. Except for very rare referrals from fellow knife guys my sharpening "business" is dead.

One untapped market for sharpening that I found was hairdressers. But that dried up when they found that they could replace their scissors for less than the cost of sharpening.

[cudgee]

I had cards made up and my fiance even put a nice website and FB page together for me a few years ago. Fast forward to today and the website is gone and I have gotten a grand total of 1 customer from the hundreds of business cards I've handed out. Most guys will pull out their knife and show me and I'll hand them whatever I'm carrying that day so they can see my work. Every one of them has been impressed but they all balk at a $20 per blade fee. Amazes me that they will pay $100 and up for a nice knife and then balk at a professional sharpening. At one point I was even offering to teach them how to maintain the edge after my work which would significantly reduce how often they would have to come to me. Except for very rare referrals from fellow knife guys my sharpening "business" is dead.

One untapped market for sharpening that I found was hairdressers. But that dried up when they found that they could replace their scissors for less than the cost of sharpening.

My friend that is what you were up against, the mindset of the human. It also amazes me that someone will pay good money for anything, does not necessarily have to be a knife, but then does not want to pay to keep it in pristine condition, or even bother to look after it themselves. I heard something the other day that absolutely staggered me and would make a very interesting thread. A professional chef has a weekly spot on radio over here, sounds smart, articulate and has a very successful business. He was talking about knives, what sort to buy for the home cook and how to keep them in top working order, he said for the average home cook they are better off buying a cheap mass produced knife from say Walmart, and when it goes blunt, throw it in the bin and buy a new one. This same person goes on and on about food production and wastage destroying the atmosphere and the planet with landfill. Where the hell does he think throw away knives go??? It should not surprise me because, human stupidity knows no bounds. Sorry to hear about your business, but do not over think it, people now are a throw away society.

[StrawHat]

I make a living sharpening things, knives, scissors, axes, mower blades, nearly anything with a dull edge.

It can be done BUT you have to be mindful of the customer’s mindset. You also need to rethink what is sharp. If you are going to spend 30 or more minutes to sharpen one blade you will not make out in this business.

I sharpen using slow rpm wheels for knives and scissors, a slow belt sander for some scissors and garden tools and various hand tools for other things. I do not have a brick and mortar storefront but was fortunate enough to be invited into a local grocery chain after the owner saw me in a farmers’ market. I still do fm’s and other events. I also sharpen salon tools on a different machine specific to salon shears. My schedule in 2019 included about 480 events. Next year there are a few more.

To be successful in this business you need the right mindset and a steady flow of customers. I am constantly on the lookout for new venues.

It may be a labor of love but it is still a labor. We will celebrate 10 full time years on 31 October.

Kevin

[Case XX 6383]

I make a living sharpening things, knives, scissors, axes, mower blades, nearly anything with a dull edge.

It can be done BUT you have to be mindful of the customer’s mindset. You also need to rethink what is sharp. If you are going to spend 30 or more minutes to sharpen one blade you will not make out in this business.

I sharpen using slow rpm wheels for knives and scissors, a slow belt sander for some scissors and garden tools and various hand tools for other things. I do not have a brick and mortar storefront but was fortunate enough to be invited into a local grocery chain after the owner saw me in a farmers’ market. I still do fm’s and other events. I also sharpen salon tools on a different machine specific to salon shears. My schedule in 2019 included about 480 events. Next year there are a few more.

To be successful in this business you need the right mindset and a steady flow of customers. I am constantly on the lookout for new venues.

It may be a labor of love but it is still a labor. We will celebrate 10 full time years on 31 October.

Kevin

would you tell what you charge for Reference?

[StrawHat]

...would you tell what you charge for Reference?...

Sorry for the slow response. For kitchen knives, I charge $1.00 per inch for straight edges, $1.50 per inch for serrated edges. Each blade is tested before returning it to the customer, for sharpness, I use cash register tape. Flimsy and tough to get a cut started, it shows if the edge is sharp and if there are nicks present. There is also a visual inspection of the edge. Sharp is great, BUT customers expect pretty also. No wavy lines, no wheel excursions into the flat of the blade, you get the idea.

It rarely takes longer than 2 minutes to complete an edge.

Kevin

[Colonel26]

...would you tell what you charge for Reference?...

Sorry for the slow response. For kitchen knives, I charge $1.00 per inch for straight edges, $1.50 per inch for serrated edges. Each blade is tested before returning it to the customer, for sharpness, I use cash register tape. Flimsy and tough to get a cut started, it shows if the edge is sharp and if there are nicks present. There is also a visual inspection of the edge. Sharp is great, BUT customers expect pretty also. No wavy lines, no wheel excursions into the flat of the blade, you get the idea.

It rarely takes longer than 2 minutes to complete an edge.

Kevin

Thank you for that information Kevin. I’ve often thought of setting up a sharpening booth myself. You mentioned the slow wheel set up, is that a Tormek or similar set up?

As to the serrated blades I’ve done my own by hand, but are you using the wheels for that too?

Thanks again for the info!

[StrawHat]

[quote=Colonel26 post_id=849169 time=1600266739 user_id=14441 in
Thank you for that information Kevin. I’ve often thought of setting up a sharpening booth myself. You mentioned the slow wheel set up, is that a Tormek or similar set up?

As to the serrated blades I’ve done my own by hand, but are you using the wheels for that too?

Thanks again for the info!
[/quote]

Well, let say it is an Amish Tormek. I took an old (1913) Singer sewing machine base and adapted an old belt driven pedestal to it. My wheels turn about 85-90 rpm.

Kevin

[edge213]

[quote=Colonel26 post_id=849169 time=1600266739 user_id=14441 in
Thank you for that information Kevin. I’ve often thought of setting up a sharpening booth myself. You mentioned the slow wheel set up, is that a Tormek or similar set up?

As to the serrated blades I’ve done my own by hand, but are you using the wheels for that too?

Thanks again for the info!

Well, let say it is an Amish Tormek. I took an old (1913) Singer sewing machine base and adapted an old belt driven pedestal to it. My wheels turn about 85-90 rpm.

Kevin
[/quote]


Pictures??

[StrawHat]

Well, let say it is an Amish Tormek. I took an old (1913) Singer sewing machine base and adapted an old belt driven pedestal to it. My wheels turn about 85-90 rpm.

Kevin

Pictures??
[/quote]

Here is an old one but it will give you an idea of what I devised and use.

Kevin