Edges and Excellence: London’s Knife Sharpening Stories

I’m sure you know how it goes: You’re chopping onions, your eyes are tearing up, and your knife tears too-into the onion like a blunt spoon beating a stubborn spud. Welcome to the world of London knife sharping services, where dull blades come to shine and carve.

Let’s plunge in and hear first from Bob in Bayswater, who most enthusiastically related to me his first experience with one of those mobile sharpening wizards: “I didn’t even know me knives were dull until the chef at me local gastropub gave me the side-eye!” As would follow, after some sharpening service, the knives of Bob can slice through tomatoes softer than a gossip magazine on Sunday morning. Bob was overjoyed: “I almost wanted to frame that tomato slice, it was so perfect! ” Now, across to Wembley, where Rita is hosting a roast for the family. She found her carving knife was not quite what it once had been, so she rang-a friend having told her about them-for a same-day sharpening service. “I was skeptical,” admits Rita, “but when the chap showed up, he brought this old-world charm-like a knight errand for my kitchen tools.” And afterwards, Rita carved her roast chicken like it was butter, nearly giving her fingers a close shave.

Her guests were dumbfounded-and the chicken?

Well, it really was a star. The second story goes that young Tim, living in Hackney, knew that his culinary exploits needed an armory of sharpness; thus, he drops his knives off at some hipsterish shop in the area where hipsters make knife sharpening an art. “Yeah, it was like a sanctuary for blades,” he remembers, “these people speak ancient languages of steel.” His knives weren’t as sharp as his wit: Tim whipped up a storm that had even his most skeptical friends asking for seconds.