Rouxbe

I have several knives at home, ranging from 4 star Henkels (8" chef, a 6" all purpose/meat, 3" paring), to a Shun 7" wide Santuko (which has a small nick), plus a few other odds and ends that are of varying quality, but pretty decent knives overall. I do all of the cooking at home and am in the kitchen as much as possible when I have time to spare (these days its been about 6-8 hours per day). I have a metal honer that I use to perk up the blades before I go to work, but am afraid of trying anything else to bring them back to a crazy sharp edge that I want when I work.

Fairly recently, I made the mistake of taking my chef's blade to House of Knives and well quite frankly, I was lucky to get it back in 1/2 the working condition as the blade was sharpened past the bolster and the rocker was gone. They did their best to repair it, but sadly it just isn't the same knife anymore...

That all said, was/is there any professional services in the downtown Vancouver that anyone in the industry would trust their knives to?

Timothy

Timothy -- I feel your pain.

I've been sending my knives to http://www.holleyknives.com/ . I know it is the other side of the continent, but Theodore does a wonderful job. You can slice time and space once he is done with them. Unfortunately, it looks like he is in the process of being bought out by someone else and it not taking in new business. Drop him a line anyway.

Bolsters are very much a problem though. I think he has a rant about them at his web site above. Buy knives with no bolsters.

I think you pretty much have only two choices, find a true guru of THE EDGE like Theodore at Holley or learn to do it yourself. I don't know from House of Knives, but I'm just guessing they'd rather sell you new knives than make your old ones work as they should.

My woodworking friends tell me that anyone can learn to put the perfect edge on any tool from axe to paring knife. It just takes patience and practice. I, myself, don't have the time or patience.

Find a pro. Consumer machines won't do it. Go to a very nice restaurant. Ask your server to ask the chef who sharpens his or her knives - that might be a start.

Let me know if you find someone. It Theodore doesn't come back online soon, I may be ready to ship my knives off to Vancouver.

Chris W -- NH USA