Knives and Garden Tools Stacked Up in the Out Box!

Last Sunday at Gene's Fine Foods in Pleasanton was a busy knife sharpening day! I try to finish what is brought to me so that the knives or garden tools are sharpened and ready when the customer leaves the supermarket.

This last Sunday I was busy — and when I was all caught up I took a moment to stand up and stretch. Once I stood up and looked around I saw the full tray of finished knives and garden tools awaiting their owners and thought they made a nice photograph!

Sharpened Knives Awaiting Pickup

This picture shows two bundles of knifes. Once I sharpen a knife it is wrapped carefully, for two reasons — for safety, so nobody gets cut; and also to protect the sharpened edge of the knife. Knives are brought to me all manor of ways, these knives were wrapped in towels — and I wrapped them up in the same towels for the ride home.

Sharpened Hedge Clippers, Loppers, Pruners and Pole Pruners

One person brought all of her garden tools to be sharpened. This picture shows two pole pruners, two hedge clippers, one lopper, and there is a hand pruner or two under the pile.

When I sharpen a garden tool such as a pruner it is dissembled, sharpened, cleaned, oiled, reassembled and adjusted.

Also visible in this picture is a pair of scissors. These are owned by a 92 year old lady who inherited them from her mother! They were in great shape, and now freshly sharpened ready for many more years of service!

Sharpened Garden Tools

Here is another picture of the garden tools. Perhaps it does not add anything — but hey, I like the picture so might as use it! And it actually does show the pole pruners. The pole pruner closest is a Fiskars that is chain and belt actuated and I thought it a good design.

Solar Powered Knife Sharpening

And PS: All the above was done solar powered! Here is a view of the knife sharpening booth at Gene's Fine Foods in Pleasanton showing the solar panels and the equipment box.

The solar panels are one set of two hinged 40 watt panels — complete with stand and charge controller. The black box to the left has a deep cycle AGM battery, a inverter and also extra cables and supplies. The panels supply DC current to the battery, the charge controller controls how much current actually goes into the battery, and the inverter converts the DC to 120 AC which is used to power the knife sharpening equipment. The 40 watts from the panels has always been sufficient. The battery stores any energy that I am not using — and since even on a very busy day the equipment is not on constantly — I  have plenty of juice!

New Shipment of Folding Pocket Knives | Spyderco | Cold Steel | Timberline | SOG

Fun day — a box of knives came today! It's always fun to get stuff — and a box of really nice knives is really fun!

Boker Elegance

This first picture is a Boker Elegance. This folding knife has a plain satin finished stainless steel blade, and a handle with titanium.

Boker Epicenter

Boker Epicenter Clip Side View

The next two pictures show the Boker Epicenter. This knife is a big, strong, hefty folder! The handle material is solid titanium. It is a very nice heavy duty knife!

Timberline Ceramic Folder

Timberline Ceramic Folder

The two pictures show the Timberline ceramic bladed folder. This knife has a ceramic blade, and an aluminum handle. 

Spyderco Tenacious

Spyderco Tenacious Clip Side

This Spyderco seems to be my favorite knife of this batch — at least right now. This knife fits the hand, the opening hole makes opening the knife smooth and sweet.

Spyderco Atlantic Salt

This yellow knife is made for use around salt water. Most stainless steel will rust if exposed to harsh conditions such as salt water — this knife with not.

Cold Steel Mini Recon 1

This Cold Steel brand is a nice, well made folding knife.

New Knives Have Arrived!

Who doesn't like to get new stuff? 

I just received a shipment of knives!

Old Hickory, SOG, Condor, Boker Knife Shipment

Here is a picture of the opened box. A SOG rosewood handle Twitch XL folding knife, a set of Old Hickory knives, a Condor Throwing axe, and a Boker ceramic and carbon fiber folding knife are in there!

I will have all these with me as I setup my sharpening service.

This blog is about my knife business — and the primary focus is the mobile knife sharpening service. I setup my sharpening business at various supermarkets. Today is Friday — and Friday afternoons find me at Zanotto's Family Market in the Rose Garden area of San Jose.

Knife Sharpening at Zanotto's Family Markets Rose Garden Location

Here is my booth setup at Zanotto's. This picture shows me setup at the parking lot door — currently I am at the front of the parking lot near the front or patio door. I see that I need a new picture!

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Here is a description of my service at Zanotto's:

Zanotto's has a mobile knife service coming to Zanotto's every Friday, from 2pm to 6pm.

If you want your knives sharpened, you bring them with you when you go shopping, you leave them at the booth, you go into the supermarket and shop, and your knives, scissors and garden tools will be sharpened and ready to take home.

They sharpen knives, including serrated knives; scissors, pruners, loppers, and hedge trimmers:

• Knives are sharpened, chips are taken out, broken points are repaired, and after sharpening the knives are wrapped in newspaper for the ride home. 
• Garden tools are dissembled, cleaned, sharpened, oiled, reassembled and adjusted.
• Scissors are sharpened, cleaned and tested.
• Folding pocket knives are cleaned, sharpened, lubricated

Very reasonable prices. They accept cash, checks and credit cards (using Square on my smartphone).

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I bring all I need with me. I have a canopy, work and display tables, grinders, files and hand tools, knives and scissors for sale, and everything is solar powered.

New and Used Knives for Sale

Here is a picture of some of the knives I bring with me to my knife sharpening booth. I have kitchen cutlery, pocket and folding knives, and often some really cool estate sale finds!

Look me up, bring your knives or garden tools — and come by.

I am part of Sharpen While You Shop — and to visit my webpage on Sharpen While You Shop with all my locations click here.

Cutco Knives

I always have a eye out for knives while shopping at garage sales. Last Saturday I found these Cutco knives.

Vintage Cutco Knives and Cutco Knife Holders

The picture above shows two Cutco knife holders, a Cutco fork, Cutco butcher knife, Cutco paring knive and Cutco slicer knife. These are older knives, they seem to be the same as currently sold knives except for the handle material. Cutco has changed the handle material several times over the years.

Cutco Knife Handles

This picture shows the Cutco knife handles. This handle material resembles wood, it is a soft brown color with black swirls that mimics wood grain.

I think Cutco knife handles are quite comfortable.

Vintage Cutco Knives

This picture shows just the knives. The first is the fork. Next the butcher knife. A butcher knife has the rounded end — I image so the butcher can swing the knife through an arc as he is cutting. Next a paring knife, then a slicer. A slicer is a long thin knife. If you want to have nice looking slices of something you need a long slicer knife so you can pull the knife through just once for each slice.

Cutco Paring Knife

This is a close up of the Cutco paring knife. While the rest of the knives in this set are in excellent shape — this poor paring knife seems to have been sharpened to within a inch of it's life!

Cutco knives seem to have some kind of mystique about them. When I am set up in my knife sharpening booth people always approach me and ask if I sharpen Cutco knives. The answer is yes, I sharpen Cutco knives.

Cutco knives are sold by direct marketing in homes, so I assume that is why people seem to think that Cutco knives are somehow different — the salesperson (who is probably a relative or neighbor) operates off of a script.

A knife is a knife. There are different shapes, different sizes, different material and construction, but all are quite close to the original design that dates back some millions of years — and pretty much any knife is sharpened using the same tools and methods.

I decided to put these Cutco knives up on eBay.

Sharp is Fragile — Protect Your Knife Edge!

There is always 'knife talk' at my knife sharpening booth. When customers pick up their just sharpened knives, or if someone is just walking past — sometimes a particular knife will be noticed that triggers a memory and a discussion, or the person is interested in the knife sharpening procedure and we chat.

World War II Fighting Knife on Display

Two most frequent questions are: 'How do you use the sharpening steel?' and 'How long will my knives stay sharp?' I wish the latter question was 'How do I ensure that these knives stay as sharp as possible as long as possible?'

I already blogged about the sharpening steel — so I want to talk about keeping knives sharp.

I like to say 'Sharp is Fragile.' Because knives are made of steel people think that they are rough and tough and can take banging around in the kitchen. This is true of the knife — but not the knife edge!

Sure you can put the knife in the sink, cut on glass or other hard surfaces, throw it into a drawer — stuff like that. And soon enough the knife will be as sharp as a spoon!

A knife is made of steel (usually) and steel is strong, but the edge of steel is very fine and is easily distorted.

The best way to use a knife is to cut on a proper cutting board, after using it wash or rinse, wipe dry and put it back in the block or holder. Simple as that! Do not put into the sink (the edge will hit other objects or the sink), do not put into the dishwasher (the water movement will jostle the items banging them into each other), do not put into a drawer (again, edge will get damaged).

Again — protect the edge! Only let the knife edge touch what you are cutting, the cutting board, water and the dishcloth when washing it, and the storage block.

The care instructions above are enough to keep the knife pretty darn sharp as long as possible. Also use the proper knife for the job. A small, thin blade is used for delicate work, a thick heavy knife for the tough jobs.

Vintage Cleavers and Butcher Knives

This just in: a selection of old knives:

Machete and Vintage Cleavers, Butcher Knives

The machete was bought as a souvenir in Mexico, it has a leather handle, aluminum bolster, and the blade has words and designs engraved or stamped decorations. The blade is bent (someone tried to break it to throw it away) and some rust covers some of the words on the blade. I will work on it an see if I can get it into good condition.

Vintage Harris & Sons Meat Cleaver

Next up is a cleaver. My best guess is that it dates from the 1930s. It is stamped — right in the center of the blade — Harris & Sons. It is large, heavy and in very good condition!

Vintage L & I J. White Cleaver

This next picture shows another cleaver (from the same owner) — this is marked L&I J. White 1837 Buffalo. N. Y. This cleaver is also in good condition, really just some surface rust and a split in the wood handle.

Pictured with the White cleaver are two knives — both what I would call butcher knives. The smaller one has something printed on the blade, hard to read. The larger knife shows evidence of serrations down near the handle. 

Anyway — some interesting old knives. I don't know my plans with them. Perhaps I will clean them up a bit and put them on eBay...