submitted by Tom Linehan
If you ever need those kitchen knives sharpened and you live
in Allandale you’re in luck. The only knife sharpening and sales store in the
city is just a few blocks away on
I wanted to get my
lawnmower blade sharpened. Kitchen knives or lawnmower blades, it doesn’t make
a difference to Knife Sharpest, they can do them all. They sharpen garden
tools, paper cutters, pocket knives, chainsaws, saws - basically anything that
has a blade on it. And they do it with their own sharpening machine, one they
designed and built themselves. If you want to do it yourself, they sell knife sharpening equipment as well.
Part of my curiosity in Knife Sharpest is how it has been
able to stay in operation for so long just selling and sharpening knives? Turns
out there are a lot of dull knives in this town and not much competition in the sharpening business.
There are a total of 4 people employed at Knife Sharpest. Even though the internet has cut into knife sales, (excuse the pun), his sharpening business, which represents about 70 percent of the business, is doing quite well. A good portion of that is sharpening knives for restaurants. Thomas has a mobile service going from restaurant to restaurant sharpening knives. He tells me there are about 3,000 restaurants in this city and Knife Sharpest sharpens knives for about 150 of them.
When it comes to sales, Knife Sharpest has a broad range of
knives including: pocket knives, hunting knives, throwing knives, custom
knives, tactical knives, switchblades (their illegal to carry but not to own),
and kitchen knives. On the wall he has a rack of samurai swords. His most
expensive knife is a small custom knife – a William Henry stainless steel



