Knife Lessons and Confessions
From a customer turned professional sharpener
By Cody H.
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Friends, I have a confession, before I became sharpener, I too was guilty of knife abuse. Now
don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to abuse my knives. In fact, my routine might've sounded a
little similar to your own.
It went little something like this; I would purchase a new knife, and it would seem relatively sharp. I would use it for a week or two tossing it in my dishwasher when it
was dirty, and putting it in an open drawer was clean. Inevitably it would go dull, so I would yank
it through my pull through sharpener hoping to get a little more life out of the blade, but the
results were never very satisfactory. That cycle will continue; buy a new knife, used for a while
and then it would be buried in the drawer when it seemed all but dead.
Little did I know how much this routine would change with one trip to the sharpeners at Moleta.
It started as a last-ditch effort to try and not waste more money buying a whole new set of
knives. I brought A few rusted, battered blades, full of chips and broken tips to the farmers
market. Less then 20 minutes later I was handed back a set of knives that were more finely
polished than when I got them out of the box! I was already impressed with how they looked! My
knives broken tips had been restored to a fine point, the chips, dings and scratches were
completely missing from my previously battered blades.
The real revelation came after I got them home to prepare dinner. I was astounded! My knives
hadn't cut this well fresh from the store. Immediately I was hooked. Luckily for my newly
sharpened knives while I was checking out the sharpeners on duty give me a little bit of
education.
First, no more dishwasher. It was easy yes, but the motion of the dishwasher was sure to ding
my knives together and lose that beautiful edge.
Second, I got a set of edge guards so my knives weren't sitting loose in the drawer, potentially
clattering together, dulling the edge I had just bought.
Most importantly- that pull through sharpener? Straight into the trash!
The results have been unbelievable ever since. I expected the sharpening to last no longer
than my knives had lasted out-of-the-box, but with a little more attention in the care of my knives
the edges stayed well past the few weeks I was used to!
It's funny how complete the conversion from a knife abuser to an educator has been. All it took
was that first sharpening and I was hooked. I don't mind putting a little extra care into my blades
with the knowledge that they'll cut better and make my dinner preparations so much easier. Now
I'm the one explaining to our customers what to do and how to care for their knives when they
receive them fresh and sharp from our shop and I couldn't be happier doing it.
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Cody brings to Moleta an artists eye (making them a fabulous sharpener) and brilliant solutions to life's little problems (making them a fabulous coworker). Cody loves to garden and craft when they aren't sharpening blades at Moleta.