Sharpening

Most knives are sharpened using the wet stone system.

This method is gentle on knives. It takes as little metal as possible away from the blades.

The water that envelops the fine grit stone is an excellent way to keep the stone clean and it prevents the steel from over-heating during the sharpening process.

Another advantage is that we have an excellent control over the angle of the cutting edge.

The second step...

Using the paper wheels

After getting a new edge with the wet stone, we need to polish the cutting edge.

The paper wheel system is an awesome way to hone those new edges.

The first paper wheel is coated with a finer grit than what the wet stone produced. After polishing the cutting edge with that fist wheel, we take it to the final paper wheel.

That last step is a paper wheel with rouge. This is a compound that leaves the cutting edge very close to a mirror finish.

If necessary (when requested)...

We can push the polishing steps to the next level

Usually, the first two steps are sufficient for most kitchen knives. It is up to the customer to maintain them by honing them regularly.

But there is always an exception the rule. That is when we pull out our Wicked edge sharpening system.

It enables us to polish that edge to an extremely fine grit rendering the cutting edge crazy sharp.

But that is a rare request because it is very time consuming endeavor. This process is expensive and is usually only performed on some specialty knives...

Flat wet stone

When required for flat hone knives and professional hair shears

Some specialty knives and most professional hair stylists shears can't be sharpened with the regular techniques.

The flat wet stones are then required to have those tools sharpened the right way.

This sharpening technique is much more time consuming, therefore the price is also much higher.

Prices will be determined after assessing the condition of each blade brought in for sharpening.

Hira-to flat hone

For professional hollow-ground style hair shears

This is a specialty tool designed to sharpen very specific types of shears (scissors).

Even if someone bought that tool doesn't mean they are professionally trained to use it. The manufacturer awards diplomas only to those who have completed the specialty formation.

To achieve the desired results, this machine is used in combination with a very fine grit wet stone.

It is also a time consuming precision technique that requires extra attention to details.

Twice as sharp Scissors System

For most beveled scissors (home style), tailor scissors and pinking shears

The Twice-As-Sharp system has a long history of very satisfying results. In fact, this is the gold standard in the sharpening industry.

This machine allows us to duplicate the bevel exact angle. When sharpening pretenders managed to destroy your scissors rather than bringing them back to life for you, we can usually reset them back to the original state.

But sometimes the home remedy is so bad, it is better to buy a new pair of scissors.

That is when you learn to come to us first...

Keep your knives sharp

How to do it the right way (suggested video)

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Description & Sharpening Price

In kitchen usage, a utility knife is between a chef's knife and paring knife in size, about 10 cm and 18 cm (4 and 7 inches) in length. The utility knife has declined in popularity, and is at times derided as filler for knife sets.

This decline is attributed to the knife being neither fish nor fowl: compared to a chef's knife, it is too short for many food items, has insufficient clearance when used at a cutting board, and is too fragile for heavier cutting tasks, while compared to a paring knife, which is used when cutting between one's hands (e.g., carving a radish), the added length offers no benefit and indeed makes control harder in these fine tasks. Some designs have a serrated blade.

The Santoku has a straighter edge than a chef's knife, with a blunted sheepsfoot-tip blade and a thinner spine, particularly near the point. From 12 cm to 18 cm (5 to 7 inches) long, a Japanese Santoku is well-balanced, normally flat-ground, and generally lighter and thinner than its Western counterparts. This construction allows the knife to more easily slice thin-boned and boneless meats, fish, and vegetables. Many subsequent Western and Asian copies of the Japanese Santoku do not always incorporate these features, resulting in reduced cutting ability. Some Western Santoku-pattern knives are even fitted with kullen/kuhlen, scallops on the sides of the blade above the edge, in an attempt to reduce the sticking of foods and reduce cutting friction. A standard in Asian (especially Japanese) kitchens, the Santoku and its Western copies have become very popular in recent years with chefs in Europe and the United States.

Serrated knives are able to cut soft bread without crushing it; one was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago by the Friedrich Dick company (Esslingen, Germany).

One design was patented in the United States by Joseph E. Burns of Syracuse, New York. His knife had sections of grooves or serrations, inclined with respect to the axis of the blade, that form individual small cutting edges which were perpendicular to the blade and thus cut without the excessive normal pressure required of a scalloped blade and without the horizontal force required by positive-raked teeth that would dig into the bread like a wood saw. There were also sections of grooves with the opposite direction of inclination, separated by a section of smooth blade, and the knife thus cut cleanly in both directions in both hard and soft bread.

Bread knives are usually between 15 cm and 25 cm (6 and 10 inches).

A slicing knife serves a similar function to a carving knife, although it is generally longer and narrower. Slicers may have plain or serrated edges. Such knives often incorporate blunted or rounded tips, and feature kullenschliff (Swedish/German: "hill-sharpened") or Granton edge (scalloped blades) to improve meat separation.

Slicers are designed to precisely cut smaller and thinner slices of meat, and are normally more flexible to accomplish this task. As such, many cooks find them better suited to slicing ham, roasts, fish, or barbecued beef and pork and venison

A meat cleaver is a large, most often rectangular knife that is used for splitting or "cleaving" meat and bone. A cleaver may be distinguished from a kitchen knife of similar shape by the fact that it has a heavy blade that is thick from the spine to quite near the edge. The edge is sharply beveled and the bevel is typically convex. The knife is designed to cut with a swift stroke without cracking, splintering or bending the blade. Many cleavers have a hole in the end to allow them to be easily hung on a rack. Cleavers are an essential tool for any restaurant that prepares its own meat. The cleaver most often found in a home knife set is a light-duty cleaver about 6 in (15 cm) long. Heavy cleavers with much thicker blades are often found in the trade.

A "lobster splitter" is a light-duty cleaver used mainly for shellfish and fowl which has the profile of a chef's knife. The Chinese chef's knife is sometimes called a "Chinese cleaver", due to the rectangular blade, but it is unsuitable for cleaving, its thin blade instead designed for slicing; actual Chinese cleavers are heavier and similar to Western cleavers.

A cleaver is most popularly known as butcher knife which is the commonly used by chefs for cutting big slices of meat and poultry.

Scissors are hand-operated shearing tools. A pair of scissors consists of a pair of metal blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles (bows) opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutting various thin materials, such as paper, cardboard, metal foil, cloth, rope, and wire.

The cutting edge on this type of scissors is usually more blunt (less acute).

They are often made of a lighter weight high carbon steel. It is a very flexible steel but can be brittle. It sometimes happen that blades break during the sharpening process. It is a very rare occurrence but when that happens, this means you need to replace your scissors with a new pair. We are not responsible when this happens on that type of steel. The blade usually breaks along a hairline fracture in the metal that is undetectable to the naked eye.

The good news is that these scissors are usually not very expensive to replace. Another thing to know about high carbon steel is that it doesn't keep it's edge as long as higher quality steel. The metal is light weight which means that it is also very porous. The sharpening process tends to be quite aggressive on that type of metal. Sharpening these scissors are only possible five or six times. The blades get thinner each time and the precision required to cut properly diminishes accordingly. Most scissors made in China are made like that. Beware of light wight knives also printed "Made in China". It will cut nicely for a short period but will not keep its edge very long.

Pinking shears are scissors with saw toothed instead of straight blades. They produce a zigzag pattern instead of a straight edge.

Before pinking scissors were invented, a pinking punch or pinking iron was used to punch out a decorative hem on a garment. The punch would be hammered by a mallet against a hard surface and the punch would cut through the fabric.

Pinking shears are used for cutting woven cloth. Cloth edges that are unfinished will easily fray, the weave becoming undone and threads pulling out easily. The saw tooth pattern does not prevent the fraying but limits the length of the frayed thread and thus minimizes damage.

These scissors can also be used for decorative cuts and a number of patterns (arches, saw tooth of different aspect ratios, or asymmetric teeth) are available. True dressmaker's pinking shears, however, should not be used for paper decoration because paper dulls the cutting edge.

Hair-cutting shears are scissors that are specifically designed for cutting hair. They are also known as barber shears, hairdressing shears, or hair shears. They range in size from about 5 to 7 inches (13 to 18 cm) long and commonly have an appendage, known as a finger brace or tang, attached to one of the finger rings. This gives the user additional control when cutting. A swiveling thumb ring is new technology in shear design. The swivel shear offers increased flexibility and the ability to keep the wrist straight and the elbow down in all cutting positions, creating more comfort and control.

A specialized type of hair-cutting shears known as texturizing shears are used to reduce hair thickness, to create texturizing effects, or to blend layered hair. Texturizing shears have a pair of pivoted blades in the same way as normal shears, but one or both blades have teeth on the edge like a comb. These teeth allow for only some of the hair in a section to be cut in an even fashion, while other parts of that section to be left alone. There are also texturizing shears that can come in a range of numbers in teeth, varying how much hair can be thinned out. Texturizing shears may also be called thinning shears or chunking shears.

These shears are very expensive tools that should only be sharpened by properly equipped and knowledgeable experts. They need to be sharpened on a flat hone machine designed specifically for that type of scissors.

The exact price for sharpening those shears can only be confirmed after an assessment of each blade by our expert.

Cuticle Nippers are an ideal manicure and pedicure tool used by professionals to trim tough cuticles and hangnails. Cuticle Nippers are great for trimming thin fingernails and toenails in tight places. The small, stainless steel head on the Cuticle Nippers is designed for precision when trimming ingrown nails.

Our experience leads us to recommend that you buy them cheap and replace them when they become dull. Some companies will make it a selling point of offering the sharpening service on their nippers. But customers who have used this service from the manufacturer often told me that they are never as good as when you buy them new.

We tried many times to bring back an edge on these in the past but the results were always very unsatisfactory. The reason is quite simple. The simple design of that tool requires for the blades to meet at a very specific point where they both come together and align perfectly.

The sharpening process always involves removal of a minimal amount of material from the blades. Because the tool design doesn't allow for the blades to cross each other, the removal of that infinite amount of metal from each blades inevitably creates a gap between them. The presence of that gap prevents a sharp clean cut. The more you sharpen them the bigger the gap will become between the two blades...

Pruning shears, also called hand pruners (in American English), or secateurs (in British English), are a type of scissors for use on plants. They are strong enough to prune hard branches of trees and shrubs, sometimes up to two centimeters thick.

Most times, it is cheaper to buy them new whenever needed. The price of sharpening is high because we need to take them apart in order to have access to the cutting edge. After the sharpening process, we need to put them back together. Some styles are quite intricate and difficult to reassemble. Some others can't even be dismantled (Many manufacturers have designed all kinds of obstacles to force you to buy a new pair rather than having them repaired...)

Another thing that may influence the sharpening price to go up is the the fact that many times these garden tools tend to rust if they are not cleaned properly after each usage. If we do not clean the rust away, the new sharpened edge will be attacked in no time by that rust. For all these reasons, people have a tendency to opt out of the sharpening option.

Hedge shears look a lot like giant scissors with their long pair of straight blades. Their design lends itself to cutting as much of a plant as possible in one single sweep. When you use hedge shears to trim your bushes, they will create long sharp edges on anything you cut.

Much like the pruners described above, it is often cheaper to buy them new rather than having them sharpened. The price of sharpening is high because, many times, we need to take them apart in order to have access to the full cutting edge. They do not always open wide enough for us to sharpen the beginning of each blade.

Another thing that may influence the sharpening price to go up is the the fact that many times these garden tools tend to rust if they are not cleaned properly after each usage. If we do not clean the rust away, the new sharpened edge will be attacked in no time by that rust. For all these reasons, people have a tendency to opt out of the sharpening option.

Understanding Sharpening

Interesting Facts

If you think:
"A knife is a knife is a knife..."
Think again!

Curious to know more...

We would like you to discover this other amazing and very detailed website:

https://scienceofsharp.com/

This is a real good source of information to understand why a knife doesn’t cut properly.
Images of cutting edges shown at the microscopic level makes you realize the importance of proper sharpening and honing.

Hem Over Heels

(561) 739-6000

Regular Business Hours

Lena: Main Seamstress

Cida: Second Main Seamstress

Sharpening

Types of Knifes & Scissors

Paring Knives

Utility Knives

Steak Knives

Santoku 5"-6.5" Knives

Santoku 7"-8" Knives

Chef Knives 6"-8"

Chef Knives 8"-10"

Chef Knives 10.5"+

Bread Knives

Boning Knives

Fillet Knives

Carving Knives

Slicing Knives

Cleaver Knives

Kitchen Shears

Multi-utility Scissors

Tailor Scissors (Shears) Up to 6"

Tailor Scissors (Shears) Up to 8"

Tailor Scissors (Shears) 10" +

Pinking Shears

Professional Hair Stylist Shears

Cuticle Scissors

Cuticle Nippers

Garden Pruners

Garden Hedge Shears

Our Sharpening Methods

The first step...