Knife Sharpening Truck!

scarlett

A knife sharpening truck was just on my street, ringing a bell for people to bring out their dull knives! I thought they only existed in Canada. How funny!

eggcream

He's been around a long time. Love the little truck. I brought a bunch of my knives to him and he did a good job.

jamzer

There is actually more than one truck. A grey and a red truck. I used the red truck and he spent half the time bad-mouthing the other guy. Don't be shocked by the prices, it is not cheap. I spent about $50 to sharpen 4 or 5 knives. He does give those old knives a new life and it is a lot cheaper than buying new ones.

scarlett

There must be three then, because this truck was green!

supreme_ian

ahahahah so funny... i just took a photo of this thing a few days ago ahahahah

ljnd

Yes, there's Bob's. There's also Del Re's. I don't know the grey truck.

squindar

the red truck has been coming around on irregular Saturdays for as long as I can remember. I've only used him once, for a serrated blade that he did free-hand on a grinding wheel (not the correct way to sharpen that blade, I asked him if he had the sharpening rods and the response was something like "I dont' need no stinkin rods" -- I was unhappy with the result. If you have serrated blades to be sharpened, I wouldn't let him do them).

I bought a wustof sharpener for the kitchen, about $20, I immediately wished I'd bought it a decade earlier: http://tinyurl.com/qufnyo

vidro3

saw him last week, or maybe two weeks ago.

of course when I saw him i completely forgot all of the things I had wanted to get sharpened.

this guy appears about as often as brigadoon.

che

Hmm. My understanding has always been that you should use a sharpening steel (i.e. "rod") pretty much every time you use the knife, to keep the microscopic tines curled right, and that if you do that, you need to get a knife professionally sharpened maybe once a decade or so. I was under the impression that home sharpeners -- beyond what you can/should do with a steel -- aren't very helpful.

squindar

I am a rank amateur in the kitchen, so the wustof is exactly my speed. And the difference of a freshly sharpened knife is very noticeable, particularly on the lame tomatoes I've been having this summer.

opossumqueen

Load 'em up and take them to Cook's Companion on Atlantic. I've taken a block full twice and they've done a great job each time.

I totally lost my skill with sharpening stones and have had some luck with the product below. Works at least well enough to keep things sharp in between professional sharpenings since I use my knives a lot.
http://www.amazon.com/Lansky-4-rod-Crock-Sharpener-LCD5D/dp/B000B8FW0E/ref=pd_bxgy_sg_img_b

mpmav1

OpossumQueen wrote: Load 'em up and take them to Cook's Companion on Atlantic. I've taken a block full twice and they've done a great job each time.

how much?

opossumqueen

I don't remember exactly but it was very reasonable and I'm pretty sure cheaper than the trucks. Maybe less than $5 per blade for the regular straight knives I took in, I'm think $3.50 each but it's been at least a year and prices could have changed.

It was $.50 or $1 cheaper/knife since I took them in the knife block. I just tie a bag around it to hold them all in which is a lot easier than wrapping them all up individually.

bkchickie

OpossumQueen wrote: Load 'em up and take them to Cook's Companion on Atlantic. I've taken a block full twice and they've done a great job each time.

I really like the woman who owns that store, and go there whenever I need something kitchen-y. Good to know she sharpens knives, too.

opossumqueen

Once when I did it the guy who actually does it was in and not too busy, so he actually did it while I went to another store (Sahadi's is great for killing a few minutes). I came back 20-30 minutes later and they were ready. The next time I went during the holidays and had to leave them for a couple of days due to high demand for his services.

whyfi

CHE wrote: Hmm. My understanding has always been that you should use a sharpening steel (i.e. "rod") pretty much every time you use the knife, to keep the microscopic tines curled right, and that if you do that, you need to get a knife professionally sharpened maybe once a decade or so. I was under the impression that home sharpeners -- beyond what you can/should do with a steel -- aren't very helpful.

A honing steel aligns the edge, but you still need to sharpen more than once a year, depending upon use and the angle at which your edge is sharpened; the edge of most western blades have a pretty fat 'v' cross section, which means that they don't dull too quickly, but that they're also never very sharp. Japanese blades, on the other hand, are single-sided (one side of the blade is actually slightly concave) and they have a much keener edge that needs more regular maintenance (you shouldn't use a honing steel on a blades like this).

whyfi

Oh, a two-sided stone, one side medium grit, the other fine, will run you $50-ish and last years. I take about an hour to sharpen my knives a couple/few times per year.

http://korin.com/Mizuyama-1000-6000-Two-side-Stone?sc=7&category=17374

pastoralia

I went to the guy in the green truck when he was on my block. I gave him two 10-inch blades to sharpen. The entire time he bitched to me about Cook's Companion and the Red Truck guy and how they will fuck up your knives. Then he charged me $30. Frankly, I don't think he did that good of a job. The blades didn't seem that much sharper but he took off a lot of the steel. I won't go back.

dailyheights

so... very interesting. about the green vs red truck thing. board admin here. make of this what you will. we got a whole spate of attempted posts about a year ago, all with similar messages to this:

"i use the gut name mikes hes the best not delray he is a thief and flirts with all the ladys even my wife bob is good but if you ever see any one of the green trucks use them insted of the red truck there honest and prices nobody can beat them"

can you imagine? Flirts with all the ladys??

pastoralia

I swear those two are in a battle with each other. The green truck guy was complaining to me about how people say bad things about him on the internet so I wonder if he reads this board. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he wrote that post above...his english was not all that.

whatchuwant

dailyheights wrote:
"i use the gut name mikes hes the best not delray he is a thief and flirts with all the ladys even my wife bob is good but if you ever see any one of the green trucks use them insted of the red truck there honest and prices nobody can beat them"

His wife's name is bob?!?! :shock: