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Santa Monica Knife sharpening blog

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Santa Monica Knife sharpening, the best hand sharpening service in Los Angeles

Santa Monica Knife Sharpening just finished sharpening a slicing knife

A newly sharpened slicing knife

I’m a knife sharpener, my name is Magnus Pettersson, and I hand sharpen every knife on Japanese water stones. If you truly care about your knives and want them as sharp as possible, let me sharpen them for you. I work out of my home, and offer free pickup and deliver, with no minimum charge on the westside.

Here is how it works, email me at magnus@memagnus.com, or call/text me at 310-486-6068 and let me know how many knives you have and when it would be a good time to come by and pick them up. The turn around is usually a few hours, and at the latest the next day depending on how busy I’m.

Why you should have your knives hand sharpened?

Please check out my customers reviews on yelp!

My hand sharpening prices for knives are:

Knives less than 5 inches $7 each

Knives between 5” – 9” inches $9 each

Knives over 9”  $11 each

For other sharpening check my price list

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

Where to buy knives and sharpening supplies

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Where to buy knives and sharpening supplies

Customers always ask me if their knives are good and where to buy them and sharpening supplies. I covered the basic about buying knives in this post, in this Santa Monica Knife Sharpening post I will talk about where to buy your knives and sharpening supplies.

First buy your knives online, it will save you a lot of money. Second never buy your knife from someone that machine sharpens knives, they will definitely have a conflict interest, and they will not be able to give you a good advice. Because their business is to ruin knives, making a fast buck machine sharpening your knives, so I would say they are not qualified to give you a good advice. They will have arguments like, all knives are made on machines and are machine sharpened in the factory wish is a fact. The difference is that in the factories, all knives are grind and beveled with tons of cooling, and the final sharpening is done on machines that use even more cooling too so the heat treatment stays intact or they actually do the final sharpening by hand on water stones. If your local knife store or sharpening service uses a belt grinder and sparks fly when they sharpen, go somewhere else for sharpening and knife purchases. Here is a YouTube video that shows how knives are made in the factory.

For buying a knife I would recommend you to go to a place like “Sur La Table” or other place that actually let you test chop and dice with the knife, and not just holding it, to make sure if it works for you. When you find the knife that works for you, buy it there if you feel that you want to support them or buy something else to be fair, and buy the knives online when you get home. If it is common knife brand, Bed Bath & Beyond might be a good option they often have sales and they always honor their monthly 20% coupons, if not you might find it cheaper at Amazon or Ebay. I usually buy my knives from www.chefknivestogo.com that have a great selection of knives and have fair prices. If you are looking after amazing Japanese knives, I would recommend www.japaneseknifeimports.com or http://japanesechefsknife.com, and for rare Sabatier nogent carbon knives check out http://thebestthings.com/knives/sabatier.htm they selling some new nogent carbon knives that are made from 60year old forgings.

Personally I love Japanese knives and they are the best of knives, but old French chef’s knives like old carbon steel Sabatier is a true pleasure to work with too and much more affordable.

For sharpening supplies I would recommend the following places:

www.chefknivestogo.com

www.leevalley.com/US

www.toolsforworkingwood.com

www.bestsharpeningstones.com

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

Feel free to visit my site at santa monica knife sharpening for more about knives and sharpening

 



About Santa Monica hand sharpening

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Santa Monica knife sharpening is a blog about hand sharpening quality knives,
shears, scissors, tweezers and razors.

Why you should spend a little more and have your good knife hand sharpened

Never take your expensive knife to a so called “professional” knife sharpener, that doesn’t use water stones to sharpening it by hand or at least use water cooled rotary stones. Most often they will sharpen your knife on a machine that looks like a belt sander or on a grinder, and sparks will fly. These machines are very abrasive and will apply excessive heat to you knife, and ruin the tempering. This over heating of the
edge while sharpening it will actually “de temper” the steel of the edge and
make it softer, and the knife will go blunt very quickly.

Also avoid kitchen supply stores, mall shops and so on that use machines like “chefs choice to sharpen their knives. These machines also over heating the edge, and they seldom have the correct edge angles. Please don’t use these machines at home either, because you are ruining your knives! Anyone who has ever tried to put a decent edge on a kitchen knife with an electric grinder can attest to this, a grinder is the quickest way to ruin an expensive knife.

I have been fixing knives from people who have taken their global’s, mac’s, shun’s and other really expensive high quality knives to places that use these kind of machines. The only way for me to fix them is to grind the knives down past the “de tempered” and damage steel, until I get back to the hard steel.

Machines have a few advantages like; Perfect angles, uniformity, and speed. But the downside is that; it could over heat the edge, it can’t adjust for minor variations and imperfection and grid down way more material than needed, wish shortens the life of your knife. If the blade doesn’t need it, grinding off excessive material is just throwing
money away.

I hand sharpening all knives on Japanese water stones, because I think a good hand sharpened edge beats a machines sharpened edge. The blade bevels come out smooth polished without rough grinding marks, and the hand sharpening also allows just the right amount to be taken off to provide a superior edge. Blades with sweeping curves, such as kitchen or restaurant knives, really shine with a good hand sharpening job. The edge is certainly less mechanically precise, but the sharper edge and polished bevels more than compensate, requiring less effort to get through the same material.

Why you need a sharp knife:

1. A sharp knife is important in order to
preserve the true flavors and beauty of fresh ingredients. Cutting with a dull
knife will damage food on a cellular level and alter its taste and appearance.

2. A sharp knife is also important for
safety. A dull knife is more prone to slip on food and may result in bodily
injury.

3. A Sharp knives are also important for
kitchen efficiency. It will take more time and effort to cut with a dull knife
than a sharp knife.

4. Using a sharp knife is also undoubtedly
much more enjoyable to work with.

Santa Monica knife sharpening recommend

If you like your knives sharp, I recommend you buy a few water stones and learn how to sharpen your knives yourself. If you are not able to or not having the time to sharpen your knives yourself let a professional hand sharpener sharpen your knives for you.

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.




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Knife sharpening

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Santa Monica Knife Sharpening

Sins I was a little boy I have had a fascination with sharp objects. If it slices, dices, cuts, guts, shaves etc, it fascinates me and I get the urge to sharpen it. For me sharpening isn’t a chore, it’s a passion, it makes me concentrate and forget everything else. The
feeling and rhythmic sound of the blade against the sharpening stone, gives me bliss
and the satisfaction of putting a new edge on the blade, makes me feel that I have treated everyone involved the process of making the knife from the beginning with respect.

I have sharpen knives and tools as long as I could remember, as a teenager I was working with a Swedish “Skärslipare” (wish translated to Edge grinder) during the summers, I learned a lot, but mostly about sharpening scandi knifes wish isn’t that hard. I for sure learned to recognize extremely sharp, seeing truly hair popping sharp straight razors.

After this I spent time with sharpening woodworking tools, and worked fulltime sharpening butcher knives at a commercial meat processing plant, many times I was sharpening several hundred knifes a day, but the passion was gone. I love knives, and I knew all the machines that were used was ruining the knives, even if it was mass
manufactured knives, they did deserve a better treatment. I stayed away from sharpening, finished college with a degree in fine arts, and realized how hard it was to make a living as an artist, so I started an art gallery instead. Running an art gallery gave me a lot of extra time, so I also started a little hand sharpening business in the back everything was good and I loved it.

As everything good it doesn’t last for ever, hard economic times lead till that I had to close the gallery doors. I ended up in the consulting business; wish meant a lot of travel and no time for my beloved edges.

In 2001 I moved from Sweden to Santa Monica, and got introduced to some heirloom Japanese kitchen knives that made a great impression on me. Never
before I had seen knives that well made, the blades were talking to me, I got
possessed, and an old passion was reborn. Before I even researched it, I called
my brother in Sweden to have him send me all my sharpening stones that I had in storage in his garage. I researched and read everything I could lay my hands on about Japanese knifes. I couldn’t wait for my sharpening supplies to arrive from Sweden, so I
bought a few Japanese water stones and started to sharpen the knives I had at
home. Once again I had the feeling of bliss, hearing and feeling the rhythmic shh, shh sound of the blades date with the stone.

The result shocked me, never ever had I thought, it was possible to get this kind of edge on a kitchen knife, we talking scary sharp right away. The steep angel was challenging, and I did get some small scratches between the bevels, and I realized that getting the
perfect texture on all surfaces would take me a while. These knives still humbles me, getting them razor sharp, with mirror polished flat, straight even line between flat and primary bevel, perfect mist on the soft steel, and an even straight cutting bevel all at once takes time and patience, practice and more practice. I doubt I ever fully will master it in a fast efficient way, and anyone that says they do is not doing it right.

Anyway I’m a painter and photographer with a big passion for knife sharpening, even if I do sharpen knives regularly, I do not always have the time to help. If you have knives that needs hand sharpening and are local and can’t find anyone, don’t hesitate to ask me.

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.




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Santa Monica Knife Sharpening

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Super sharp japanese knife

A beautiful sharp knife


Santa Monica Knife Sharpening, is a blog about hand sharpening knives.

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

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