July 4, 2022 / by Mark Evereklian
I am Mark and I am the Owner of Carlsbad Repair Center. I have always loved cooking and have always loved owning and using great knives. As such, I have had to learn how to keep my various knives sharp. The only tools that I use are Whet Stones and a honing rod, however I have learned to sharpen my Japanese Shun differently from my German Henckels. While we offer a wide variety of services at the shop, knife sharpening is the one that I truly love and brings me a great sense of satisfaction. There is just nothing quite like starting with a good knife that has been neglected and being able to restore its former glory.
My ideal knife is an expensive name brand such as : Shun, Miyabi, Globale, Zwilling J.A. Henckels and Wusthof that is good condition to pretty badly neglected. If you bring in a brand new Shun Premier Santoku knife, I am not going to be able to improve it much! I typically go up to 2000 grit for German knives and at least 5000 grit for Japanese Knives. Conversely, you can actually see a big improvement in a less expensive knife, but our service is not cheap, so you may be better off buying a better knife instead of sharpening a low end knife. That being said, I have gotten a great edge on a $25 Mercer.
I am able to get a very good edge from tip to heel. Any knife you bring to me will be able to slice a thin strip off a sheet of printer paper, however some knives simply have a higher potential because they are made with harder steel. Please note that the results will vary depending on the quality of the knife. Prices also vary depending on the condition of the knives as well as the size and quantity of knives. Most of the time I can sharpen your knives in a few hours. I can also teach you how to hone your knife so that you will not need to have your knives professionally sharpened as often.
I consider this to be an art and I hope that you like my style, please let me know what you think of the results when you pick up your knife. We charge $69.99 an hour for knife sharpening, and the best way to get an estimate is please text message me before you come to the shop. Let me know how many knives you have, what brand, how sharp they are now, and what level of sharpness you hope to achieve. This information will help me provide an estimate. Once service is complete, I suggest that you either do not maintain the knife at all, or us a ceramic honing rod. The safest strategy is to start of at about 14 degrees and gradually increase the angle until the knife is razor sharp again. Please allow several days for service.
