I took my 12 knives to Draeger's in Menlo Park about a year ago to have them sharpened. They have those forms at the butcher's case. I guess it was about $6 a knife. Seemed pretty convenient, took a couple of days iirc. So I get home and start chopping away, things aren't cutting cleanly down by the bolster. My 6" chef's knife had a visible "belly" or void where the edge doesn't meet the cutting board near the base of the blade. I check all my other knives. Every single knife had the same belly where the sharpener doesn't address the shoulder on the bolster properly. I was pissed. I didn't want these guys touching my knives ever again.

So yesterday I'm parking to go have a beer at the Left Bank in Menlo Park and I see what looks like a big yellow MAC TOOLS truck out back the restaurant but it has Wusthof decals all over it. I park and step into the truck and see knives, chef tools and this large sharpening/polishing device in the back(Steely Dan). I say " whoa . . . so this is like a tool truck for knives/restaurants?". I talk to the guy Terry Prater, and he explains the setup, shows me some $400 samurai knives and listens to my story. Sure enough, the truck was a MAC TOOLS truck in an earlier life. He suggested, since I didn't have my knives with me at the time ; ) that I go up to the San Mateo store and get them sharpened while I wait.

So today I head up to the store in San Mateo. WOW, what a store! Every sharp thing one could imagine. Knives, mandolins, razors, scissors, garnishing kits, band aids, Neosporin . . . Chef clothes, clogs, knife bags etc.

So I talk to the lady at the counter, show her my knives, tell her the story, she says this will take about 15 minutes. I was suprised. The quote was by the inch but she used my 8" chef's and just mulitplied by 12. $127. She said the price will actually be less. Great, do it. Somehow the bill gets adjusted to the actual length.

My 3" paring knife which I've had for years, regularly put in the dishwasher and been for a couple of turns in the disposal had a cracked handle and was missing a large chunk off the end. She said since we're an authorized Wusthof/Henckles facility we can warranty this for you. Well allright! New $56 (msrp) warranty replacement because I put it in the dishwasher. Sweet.
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So long story longer, I got my 12 knives restored for $76. I got a couple squeezie bottles for dressings/fancy garnish stuff, a set of measuring spoons and a killer egg slicer for $100. The sharpening took 15 minutes. I was looking around for another 15 minutes.

They took the bellies out of all of my knives. I am soooo happy . . .
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They stick the knife points into cutsom corks for packaging . . .
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The knives . . .
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They even restored and polished my Grampa Guido's steel knife that I somehow ended up with. As I was inspecting the fine work, the knife sharpener guy came out while I was admiring Grampa's old steel knife. He said, "that's a great knife, very good steel." I wish I had taken a before pic because it was pretty rough and no shine at all.
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They even sharpen and re-profile the Kyocera ceramic knives so you don't have to send them to Kyocera in LA . . !

I am so happy to have finally found a top notch sharpening shop with *thousands* of different knives and various other cooking "basics".

Did I mention I'm really happy?

and http://www.perfectedgesharpening.com/ with popup<ul><li><a href="http://www.perfectedgecutlery.com/">http://www.perfectedgecutlery.com/</a</li></ul>

I have a Henckels Four Star 8" chef's knife that is in dire need of a new edge... it's the "go-to" knife for almost everything for me... It's been about 10 years now without a sharpening.

I have a complete set of japanese chisels made by a man who family has been forging the so called "samurai steel" for generations, same with several japanese planes. All of these, you can do surgery with, they are scary sharp. I have japanese waterstones coming out the wazoo, diamond plates but for ease of sharpening just about everything you can think of get one of these.<ul><li><a href="http://www.tormek.us/">http://www.tormek.us/</a</li></ul>

interesting, the same knife has very different profiles

thought you got the dreager's problem taken care of long ago.

wondering if they do MP Draegers as well? Maybe it was a bad day for MP...

DD

lost in the fire... By far my fav...

Chris