A Love For Sharpening

I had the itch I’d assume a lot of knowledge workers have in today’s modern age - the desire to do something tangible. Having worked in tech since 2006, while grateful for all the opportunities that had come to me bringing me all over the world for work, I kept having the feeling that I should learn to do something tangible with my hands. Not just as a way to make extra money, but as a confidence building exercise to realize that I’m capable of learning new things. After listening to podcasts about people learning new skills and turning them into small side businesses, I stumbled upon Matt Rowell on the Side Hustle Nation podcast and I was hooked on the idea of knife sharpening instantly. 

Growing up I loved to help the elders in my family cook, but they always had dull knives. Many adults in my family tried sharpening with basic stones or fancy gadgets they’d see on tv and impulse buy, but still none of them had sharp knives. I tried to help by spending time with the sharpening tools they had and seeing what could possibly be wrong with them - I never figured it out. I also wasn’t terribly confident in my ability to figure it out as it was something not related to school subjects. But for some reason it stuck with me. 

Fast forward to 2018, I was a new father and a first time home buyer - we were working hard to get our “adulting” life started in earnest, my wife and I both working full time jobs - her in STEM, myself in tech. I heard the podcast with Matt and was enamored by his story. One thing I wasn’t afraid of was reaching out to people who I admired, as the worst they could do was tell me “leave me alone” or just not respond at all. Matt was incredibly gracious to offer to teach me to sharpen and help me get my ducks in a row to set up the business. Apparently I was the first person who’d ever asked him to be an apprentice of sorts, which he obviously ran with and built a successful training program for sharpeners. 

After a day of hanging out with Matt and his lovely family on his homestead in New Hampshire I felt confident to take the leap - I somehow got a Google Business listing and got calls on my first day! I steadily grew my customer base, many of which were repeat customers and I was quite satisfied with the growth trajectory I was on. I loved sharpening, I loved helping people and I was having tons of fun. 

In 2020, my day job got a bit stale and I decided to try my hand at founding a tech startup, which I successfully managed to bootstrap and eventually attracted investors. As you can imagine, things got quite hectic and I lost the time freedom to reliability sharpen. Additionally, I moved from Worcester to the Pioneer Valley, which made it impractical for me to drive to my old customers like I used to. Time passed and I missed sharpening, often thinking about it while I was super stressed out with my business. In late 2023, I decided to sell and shut down my company after having a rough couple of years with getting traction and sharpening came back into my mind quickly. 

Unlike in 2018, I wasn’t able to get a Google Business listing this time around as I don’t (yet) have a shop with a store front. After handing out flyers and trying to grow a local customer base with limited success with friends and neighbors, I decided to give farmers markets a try this summer.

I have to say, working at farmers markets has made the fun of sharpening even more fun. I love meeting people, talking about their needs whether kitchen cuts, snipping and pruning trees, shaving, etc. Being outside in the fresh air, setting up my gear and surprising people with new cutting edges that they doubted were possible continues to be rewarding week after week. Not to mention the other vendors and the volunteers have been great to get to know as well! 

Whether I stay out of the tech world for good or not remains to be seen, but I am committed this time around to keeping my relationships from my sharpening business strong and reliable and I hope to keep doing farmers markets for years to come!