Knife sharpening in Potchefstroom
Bring us the blunt ones. Kitchen knives, pocket knives, hunting knives, the good ones and the sentimental ones. We sharpen on the Wicked Edge precision system, or by hand on traditional stones when the steel or the knife calls for it, at 74 Smit Street, and every knife gets a basic service and clean at no extra charge.
Prices
Straightforward prices per knife. High-value and exclusive knives, and any repair work, are quoted after we have seen the knife, so that you know the figure before we touch it.
- A basic service is included with every sharpening, free: we clean the blade and handle, oil the blade, and check and tighten the pivot, lock and screws.
- Serrated blades are R50 more than the price for that type of knife. Bread knives we do not sharpen.
- Chips, broken tips, thinning and reprofiling are quoted on inspection.
- No VAT is added; we are not a VAT vendor.
| Type of knife | Price per knife |
|---|---|
| Kitchen knives Chef's knives, paring knives, carving knives and the rest of the kitchen drawer. We do not sharpen bread knives. | R50 |
| Folding knives Pocket knives and folders of every kind, including lock-backs, liner locks and slip joints. | R100 |
| Hunting knives Fixed-blade hunting, skinning and bushcraft knives. | R120 |
| High-value and exclusive knives Custom, collectable and premium knives are quoted once we have seen the knife. | By quotation |
| Serrated blades Added to the price for the knife type above. | R50 extra |
| Repairs Chipped edges, broken tips, thinning and reprofiling are quoted once we have inspected the knife. | By quotation |
How it works
Send a WhatsApp
Tell us what you have, or send a photo. We will confirm the price and when to bring the knives in.
Drop them off
74 Smit Street, Potchefstroom, Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 16:30. It's a STEEL has its own office in the same building as Willie Jordaan Attorneys. When you hand the knives in, we tell you when they will be ready.
We sharpen
We look at the steel and the blade, then sharpen on the Wicked Edge or by hand on stones, whichever the knife calls for, at the correct angle for the blade. Then it is serviced and cleaned.
Collect
We let you know when they are ready. Pay when you collect, by EFT or in cash; Willie gives you the banking details by phone or WhatsApp.
Sharpening is an art
Sharpening is an art, not a chore to be rushed. Done well, it gives a knife an edge that is keen, even and lasting. Done without the know-how, plenty can go wrong, and a knife can end up worse off than before.
Before we sharpen, we look at the knife: the steel, the way the blade is ground and the work it does. That decides the method, the stones and the angle. After that it is a matter of holding the angle on every stroke, raising a burr along the whole edge and taking it off cleanly, and removing no more steel than the edge needs.
Willie sharpening five knives from dull to razor sharp, in under nine minutes each. More on our YouTube channel.
The Wicked Edge, and stones by hand
We sharpen on the Wicked Edge precision system. The blade is held in a vice, and diamond stones on guide rods work both sides of the edge at a fixed, repeatable angle, so the two bevels meet at a clean apex, at the same angle stroke after stroke.
Not every knife goes on the Wicked Edge. Depending on the type of steel and the type of knife, some call for traditional sharpening by hand on stones. Some blades, for instance, cannot be clamped in the vice at all, and on some small knives the vice leaves too little room to reach a low angle.
The steel also decides the stone. In steels rich in vanadium carbide, the carbides are harder than aluminium oxide, the most common abrasive, and diamond or CBN cuts them better. Whatever the method, we match the angle to the knife: thinner for a kitchen slicer, more robust for a hunting or bushcraft blade. On the Wicked Edge we finish with fine grits and leather strops for a polished edge that cuts cleanly instead of tearing.
Our short film: the six faults, in drawings, and how we sharpen on the Wicked Edge. More on our YouTube channel.
Why a freshly sharpened knife goes blunt so soon
A burr left on, a rolled edge, a carbide pull-through, an angle that wanders, heat from a powered grinder, and a hollow ground near the heel: six things that go wrong when a knife is sharpened badly, and why the edge does not last. Then the way we do it: the knife clamped, the stones on guide rods, the angle held on every stroke, and a burr raised and taken off cleanly.
What can go wrong
Cheap sharpeners can do more harm than good
Many cheap pull-through sharpeners scrape steel off the edge with a V of tungsten-carbide blades instead of grinding it. Seen under a microscope, the result can be a torn, deformed edge, and they can take steel off very quickly. They also work at one fixed angle, whatever the knife. Electric sharpeners can strip steel fast and overheat a thin edge. If your knives have been through one, let us have a look.
Heat, a wandering angle and a burr left on
Knife edges overheat easily on powered grinders, and steel heated past the temperature it was tempered at goes soft. An angle that wanders from stroke to stroke rounds the edge instead of forming two flat bevels. A burr that is not taken off leaves the edge less keen than it should be. There is more on all of this, with our sources, in The art of knife sharpening.
A steel does not replace sharpening
A honing steel touches up an edge that is still fairly sharp and keeps it cutting for longer. Once the edge is genuinely blunt, only a stone will bring it back.
Blunt gets expensive
A knife that is touched up while it is still fairly sharp takes minutes. Every sharpening takes some steel off, and as the edge moves back into the thicker part of the blade, a knife that has been sharpened back a long way, or run through a pull-through many times, can need thinning behind the edge before it cuts well again. That is why thinning is quoted separately.
Glass boards, dishwashers and drawers
Glass, granite and ceramic cutting boards blunt a knife faster than anything you cut on them. Dishwashers batter edges against everything else in the rack and attack the handles. Loose in a drawer, knives blunt each other. Wood or plastic boards, hand washing and a block or a sheath will make an edge last longer between sharpenings.
Prices are in South African rand. We are not registered for VAT, so no VAT is charged. Every knife is different, so anything unusual is quoted after we have seen it. Nothing on this page is legal advice; see our terms.
Where to bring your knives
- 74 Smit Street, Potchefstroom, 2531
Same building as Willie Jordaan Attorneys - 082 457 3499 phone and WhatsApp
- itsasteel100@gmail.com
- Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 16:30
- It's a STEEL on Facebook
- It's a STEEL on Instagram
- Our YouTube channel