The
focus of
this class is learning how to sharpen household knives, scissors
and garden tools with the goal of establishing a full or part time
business. Stress is on efficient methods so you can make a
reasonable profit for your time and investment and, in most cases,
sharpen while the customer waits.
Each class
session is taught one-on-one and is customized to the needs of the
student. It may or may not include all of the following
items.
Textbooks:
Sharpening Made Easy by Steve
Bottorff and How to Start Your Own
Knife Sharpening Business by Robert Young.
Additional reading material is provided in class.
Introduction:
We will discuss the student’s particular background, interests and
goals and relate them to our own experience. Discussion of
potential business models.
Promotion and
Pricing: Discussion of where to find
customers, how to promote your business and how to price your
services. What items you could
sell. Where to offer your
services. Handouts provided.
Sharpening 101:
A discussion of basic sharpening theory – different edge profiles
and angles and their applications. What
is the importance of blade shape?
Equipment: A
review of the equipment that may be needed in a sharpening business
and where to purchase that equipment.
Equipment lists and manufacturer’s brochures are
provided.
Use of the
Tormek Wet Grinder: Sharpening of a
small knife and a large knife using the Tormek jigs.
Freehand sharpening of knives. Practice.
Use of Paper
Wheels: Freehand sharpening of knives
using the Razor Sharp Edgemaking paper wheel system.
The setup and maintenance of this
system.
Hybridizing:
How to
combine the Tormek method and the paper wheel method into a faster
3 step method that utilizes the best features of both.
Practice
Other
Sharpening Methods: Depending on the
student’s interest we will look at low volume manual sharpening
systems, low and medium priced electric sharpeners and a high
volume sharpening system. We will
discuss their benefits and limitations with relationship to the
student’s business model.
Serrated
knives: Discussion of serrated knives,
cheap and good, and how to sharpen each type.
Which knives not to sharpen and why. When
and how to re-serrate a blade.
Advanced Knife
Sharpening: Correcting blade shape,
repairing broken tips, reducing high bolsters.
Asian single bevel knives.
Scissors:
The basic
theory of scissor design. Which
scissors are worth sharpening and which are not.
Scissor bevel angles.
The importance and maintenance of the ride.
Use of the Tormek as a scissor sharpener and the
Twice As Sharp dedicated scissor sharpener.
Practice.
Advanced
Scissor Sharpening: Discussion of
pinking shears, left hand shears and salon shears.
You will learn how salon shears and clipper blades
are different
from the above and why they require different machinery and training.
Garden And
Other Tools: How to sharpen various
pruning and lopping shears, grass clippers, hatchets & axes,
machetes, cleavers, hedge trimmers, paper cutters, chisels and
plane irons, woodworking tools.
Belt
Sander: The many uses of this versatile
sharpening tool.
Day One is
about 6 hours and is mainly devoted to knife
sharpening. Day Two is about 4 hours
and continues with knives and also covers scissors and garden tools
and offers more practice time. A one
day class is offered with less topics (selected for the student’s
interests) and less practice time. One
day is suitable for hobbyists.
Updated September 10, 2009
Copyright 2009
e-mail steve at bottorff dot com
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