I began sharpening knives about 60 years ago when my father brought home two new Swiss Army knives. He kept one and gave me one, along with a small Arkansas oil stone. I still have that stone, although my early forays into knife sharpening were abysmal failures! I carried and used that knife almost daily for over 20 years, until I lost it on a job site. Fortunately, though, I now have my father’s matching knife, which has been heavily used - as you may be able to tell from the picture above.

In my early 20s I began working as a carpenter. It turns out that edged carpentry tools, like knife blades, don’t stay sharp forever, so I began freehand sharpening chisels and plane blades on an old Norton oil stone. Soon I was also sharpening tools for my friends. Although I no longer have that Norton stone, I still have several chisels and planes, including the old block plane in the picture above which I recently re-sharpened on diamond plates and a ceramic stone.

Eventually, I left carpentry work, returned to college, became a university professor (teaching modern East Asian History) and administrator. More than a decade ago, while working in Asia, I developed an interest in Japanese kitchen cutlery. This quickly led to a fascination with traditional Japanese sharpening methods using both natural and synthetic water stones. For the past decade I have been acquiring various water stones and other sharpening equipment, refining my sharpening skills, and learning more about knife and tool steels. I consider sharpening to be a skill, a craft that requires continuous improvement, and an ongoing intellectual pursuit. I retired from my academic position several years ago, and now focus full-time on developing this home-based sharpening business.