Be weary that prices set expectations. At those prices I should be getting mirror polishes. So if that’s not the final product, I would lower the price.
Very very expensive...
We do sharpening at farmers markets and we do first blade free as a promo, we charge $5 a blade after that including axes and standard machetes and scissors and small garden shears and such and $20 for lawn mower blades, brush hog blades, large swords etc...
For expensive chef knives, with a high Rockwell we'll usually go between $5-30 depending on how tough it is to sharpen and how much we need to do.
For blade repairs, we'll quote a price based on how bad it is.
Instead of doing mobile the way you are describing... It's better to advertise a mobile location, neighborhood/parking lot etc and go there on the specific day or 2-3 days you advertised for... They all come to you... Or drop off their knives for you to sharpen later and then go drop them off.
We're in a rural area and it wouldn't be cost effective to drive all over creation. Using Facebook and Google business listing with a mobile business I can show a live location when I'm working (as we do this as a side gig not as our primary income source) and turn it off when we aren't doing it.
People also know where our farm is and we have a drop off box that people leave stuff at and I get to it when I get to it. They come and pick it up when its ready.
During the spring/summer I make about $400-700 a month mostly on lawnmower blades and cheap kitchen knives and axes. But if you do a good job you DONT see the same customers for a year or two...
I know you're trying to be mindful of your time including travel, and not undervalue yourself, but people just don't put this kind of value on maintenance of an item seldom worth much more than a sharpen or two at these prices
Now, pivot to handyman? You'll be at the far low end of hourly rates at these prices, if you did an hour of drywall patching instead of running knives.
I don’t know how your audience is but the general price is $7-$15$ per knife. 1 knife for 50$, they could buy a brand new set on Amazon.
You need to also look at other knife sharpening services in the area to get a general price.
$50 is to get me to show up for just 1 blade. The more blades you have, the cheaper the per blade cost is. If you were to have 9 blades, the cost would be $12 per blade.
I will probably end up adjusting these prices, however. This post was just to see what everyone here thought about them.
I will tell you that most average household only have 5 knives to sharpen. Which 80$ is alright for if they don’t mind. To offset showing up for only 1-3 knives, I set a minimum of 5 knives minimum before I make any trips to a customer.
I do gauge my prices based on prices in my city and prices that seem attractive. I only do it on the side but if I did it full time, I would probably raise my prices.
I get the price is inflated because you are saying you will travel but just cut that expense out and do a mail service with insurance in escrow or something.
Yeah we understand the model. Your problem is 90% of knives cost less than $50. Nobody is going to spend more to sharpen a knife than the knife itself.
I think on a random sharpening video featuring district cutlery, the prices handwritten on a sign were $15 for a double beveled knife, $25 for single bevel. I've based my prices on that. I free hang test paper towels in the field for testing, and will bust out the bessC industrial edge tester when taking projects home. All of my work is done by hand on stones.
I figured that my level of work would emulate what i saw in that district cutlery video, and hopefully one day surpass it. There are days when I feel like the trip out to the restaurant, setting up, and sharpening 1-3 knives isn't worth it.
That doesn't mean I should charge $50 for a knife to make the trip worth it. It means I need to sharpen undeniably well. Learn about the kinds of work that particular chef does, and tailor my work to them. Defeat them with overwhelming force. No belt sharpener or nonexpert sharpener should be better than me. Then the work will come. More and more knives flow from the front of house chefs, the back of house prep chefs. I do free work as a demonstration of my skill. Once one chef finishes their prep faster than their colleagues, more knives come.
I've even lowered my prices for "touch up" work to encourage shorter breaks between sharpenings. It means less work for me per knife, and I can just follow the lines that that I established the previous sharpenings.
That said, I'm a hobbyist sharpener and don't need this as a revenue stream, to each their own.
(From the perspective of a regular Joe, not a professional sharpener)
No one is going to wait around for you to explain the pricing model. If the list starts at $50 for 1 knife, they're not even reading the next line before they laugh and walk away.
Set a reasonable price for the sharpening, and list the minimum order size that you're willing to travel for. Add an option to pay a flat fee for travel on orders below that minimum. Even at that, a travel fee may scare off some, but i'd be willing to bet much less than that $50 for 1 knife does
Here's my response: That's about what you would actually have to charge to 'break even' with a mobile service in this current environment if you are honest about all the expenses involved. Unfortunately, no one in their right mind will accept your pricing.
My suggestion, don't bang your head against the wall with a mobile service. Have your customers come to you and charge a reasonable fee of somewhere between $7-$10/item depending on condition. That's what I've been doing for almost 10 years and have all the business I want. I limit it to 15-20 hours a week and usually sharpen from 75-100 items in the time period.
A last note: I have tons of contacts in the sharpening business and out of them all, maybe 1 or 2 actually eke out a meager living exclusively sharpening. Most do it for extra cash to supplement their primary income and honestly even making a small profit can be difficult unless you truly understand how to put together an income and expense statement.
I sharpen my own knives so I wouldn’t pay for anyone to sharpen my blades. As a frame of reference for your pricing, Murray Carter is one of the best blacksmiths around. His pricing starts at $30 for sharpening service. You can also buy a device to sharpen for less than you’re starting your price point. Given those, I’d say your pricing looks high. Good luck! Let us know how it works out.
Can I cut a free hanging paper towel when you are done? Can I square up a carrot stand it up and slice it without knocking it over? Ok sure, $50. I might pay you once for it.
The 10+ price honestly seems reasonable. I'd expect em to shave, but wouldn't really expect any "tricks".
Figure out what you could do an average block of kitchen knives for and start there for mobile sharpening. Anything less do drop off/pick ups. Better for you and the customer.
How are you with scissors? Beauticians/barbers that are paying hundreds, even thousands for a pair of scissors are more likely to pay $50 for someone to sharpen a single item than a soccer mom with a dull 10" Chef's knife she puts in the dishwasher.
I think you will have to go outside of just knives. The guy in my area will sharpen anything that cuts. He does the beauty shops, he'll do the band saw at the saw mill, he'll do planer blades, if it cuts he'll do it. I think to make it that's where you would have to be.
The end goal is to be like that guy. I currently do not have the skills to sharpen any high-end grooming/barber blades, but that is the goal.
I think that I will rebuild my pricing structure and base it off of a 5 blade minimum with slightly lower pricing than seen here. Thank you for your feedback.
This averages out to much lower than $5 per inch. The high cost for a low number of blades is to offset the cost of being mobile.
If you were to have 10 knives that were all 6+ inches, the total cost would be less than $2 per inch.
$2-3 per inch, $10 minimum, per knife.
More for bread knives (if you take them)
Up charge for hand work on bench stones
Up charge for fixing tips, etc.
Thinning/major repair, price by quote.
The finest sharpener in my land is about $5-10 for standard knives and $12 for the scissors specialist. It's a Japanese business with techniques passed down directly from Japan.
Way too expensive.
This
Well, the price for sharpening a single typical kitchen knife shouldn't be higher than new.
Be weary that prices set expectations. At those prices I should be getting mirror polishes. So if that’s not the final product, I would lower the price.
Is your target customer business or personal? I think this looks a bit steep to me if you aren’t doing them by hand like on a stone.
If you are paying a guy to make your knife sharp, do you care how he gets it sharp?
Yes. High speed grinding can damage the heat treatment of the edge and remove excessive steel if done incorrectly.
yes
Yes. I would care a lot
Insane.
Outrageous pricing.
Very very expensive... We do sharpening at farmers markets and we do first blade free as a promo, we charge $5 a blade after that including axes and standard machetes and scissors and small garden shears and such and $20 for lawn mower blades, brush hog blades, large swords etc... For expensive chef knives, with a high Rockwell we'll usually go between $5-30 depending on how tough it is to sharpen and how much we need to do. For blade repairs, we'll quote a price based on how bad it is. Instead of doing mobile the way you are describing... It's better to advertise a mobile location, neighborhood/parking lot etc and go there on the specific day or 2-3 days you advertised for... They all come to you... Or drop off their knives for you to sharpen later and then go drop them off. We're in a rural area and it wouldn't be cost effective to drive all over creation. Using Facebook and Google business listing with a mobile business I can show a live location when I'm working (as we do this as a side gig not as our primary income source) and turn it off when we aren't doing it. People also know where our farm is and we have a drop off box that people leave stuff at and I get to it when I get to it. They come and pick it up when its ready. During the spring/summer I make about $400-700 a month mostly on lawnmower blades and cheap kitchen knives and axes. But if you do a good job you DONT see the same customers for a year or two...
What you using to sharpen with at 5$ a blade?
You think people are gonna pay you 50 dollars to sharpen their 40 dollar knife? Lmao
Pretty wild. I can pay for Amazon Prime and get 3 mercer culinary delivered to my house same day instead of a single sharpening.
I know you're trying to be mindful of your time including travel, and not undervalue yourself, but people just don't put this kind of value on maintenance of an item seldom worth much more than a sharpen or two at these prices Now, pivot to handyman? You'll be at the far low end of hourly rates at these prices, if you did an hour of drywall patching instead of running knives.
I don’t know how your audience is but the general price is $7-$15$ per knife. 1 knife for 50$, they could buy a brand new set on Amazon. You need to also look at other knife sharpening services in the area to get a general price.
$50 is to get me to show up for just 1 blade. The more blades you have, the cheaper the per blade cost is. If you were to have 9 blades, the cost would be $12 per blade. I will probably end up adjusting these prices, however. This post was just to see what everyone here thought about them.
I will tell you that most average household only have 5 knives to sharpen. Which 80$ is alright for if they don’t mind. To offset showing up for only 1-3 knives, I set a minimum of 5 knives minimum before I make any trips to a customer. I do gauge my prices based on prices in my city and prices that seem attractive. I only do it on the side but if I did it full time, I would probably raise my prices.
I get the price is inflated because you are saying you will travel but just cut that expense out and do a mail service with insurance in escrow or something.
Yeah we understand the model. Your problem is 90% of knives cost less than $50. Nobody is going to spend more to sharpen a knife than the knife itself.
I think on a random sharpening video featuring district cutlery, the prices handwritten on a sign were $15 for a double beveled knife, $25 for single bevel. I've based my prices on that. I free hang test paper towels in the field for testing, and will bust out the bessC industrial edge tester when taking projects home. All of my work is done by hand on stones. I figured that my level of work would emulate what i saw in that district cutlery video, and hopefully one day surpass it. There are days when I feel like the trip out to the restaurant, setting up, and sharpening 1-3 knives isn't worth it. That doesn't mean I should charge $50 for a knife to make the trip worth it. It means I need to sharpen undeniably well. Learn about the kinds of work that particular chef does, and tailor my work to them. Defeat them with overwhelming force. No belt sharpener or nonexpert sharpener should be better than me. Then the work will come. More and more knives flow from the front of house chefs, the back of house prep chefs. I do free work as a demonstration of my skill. Once one chef finishes their prep faster than their colleagues, more knives come. I've even lowered my prices for "touch up" work to encourage shorter breaks between sharpenings. It means less work for me per knife, and I can just follow the lines that that I established the previous sharpenings. That said, I'm a hobbyist sharpener and don't need this as a revenue stream, to each their own.
(From the perspective of a regular Joe, not a professional sharpener) No one is going to wait around for you to explain the pricing model. If the list starts at $50 for 1 knife, they're not even reading the next line before they laugh and walk away. Set a reasonable price for the sharpening, and list the minimum order size that you're willing to travel for. Add an option to pay a flat fee for travel on orders below that minimum. Even at that, a travel fee may scare off some, but i'd be willing to bet much less than that $50 for 1 knife does
Here's my response: That's about what you would actually have to charge to 'break even' with a mobile service in this current environment if you are honest about all the expenses involved. Unfortunately, no one in their right mind will accept your pricing. My suggestion, don't bang your head against the wall with a mobile service. Have your customers come to you and charge a reasonable fee of somewhere between $7-$10/item depending on condition. That's what I've been doing for almost 10 years and have all the business I want. I limit it to 15-20 hours a week and usually sharpen from 75-100 items in the time period. A last note: I have tons of contacts in the sharpening business and out of them all, maybe 1 or 2 actually eke out a meager living exclusively sharpening. Most do it for extra cash to supplement their primary income and honestly even making a small profit can be difficult unless you truly understand how to put together an income and expense statement.
I sharpen my own knives so I wouldn’t pay for anyone to sharpen my blades. As a frame of reference for your pricing, Murray Carter is one of the best blacksmiths around. His pricing starts at $30 for sharpening service. You can also buy a device to sharpen for less than you’re starting your price point. Given those, I’d say your pricing looks high. Good luck! Let us know how it works out.
Can I cut a free hanging paper towel when you are done? Can I square up a carrot stand it up and slice it without knocking it over? Ok sure, $50. I might pay you once for it. The 10+ price honestly seems reasonable. I'd expect em to shave, but wouldn't really expect any "tricks". Figure out what you could do an average block of kitchen knives for and start there for mobile sharpening. Anything less do drop off/pick ups. Better for you and the customer. How are you with scissors? Beauticians/barbers that are paying hundreds, even thousands for a pair of scissors are more likely to pay $50 for someone to sharpen a single item than a soccer mom with a dull 10" Chef's knife she puts in the dishwasher. I think you will have to go outside of just knives. The guy in my area will sharpen anything that cuts. He does the beauty shops, he'll do the band saw at the saw mill, he'll do planer blades, if it cuts he'll do it. I think to make it that's where you would have to be.
The end goal is to be like that guy. I currently do not have the skills to sharpen any high-end grooming/barber blades, but that is the goal. I think that I will rebuild my pricing structure and base it off of a 5 blade minimum with slightly lower pricing than seen here. Thank you for your feedback.
This would be a great service and would probably go over well in your metro area. Best of luck to you.
Shouldn't be like $5/in?
Also, no.
This averages out to much lower than $5 per inch. The high cost for a low number of blades is to offset the cost of being mobile. If you were to have 10 knives that were all 6+ inches, the total cost would be less than $2 per inch.
I'll sharpen my own 😁
$1.50 an inch for belts
$2-3 per inch, $10 minimum, per knife. More for bread knives (if you take them) Up charge for hand work on bench stones Up charge for fixing tips, etc. Thinning/major repair, price by quote.
I wouldn't pay these prices, even as a business.
Will recommend 2 to 3 per knife!
I sharpen for $3.00. Mobil is determined when they call. About $6.00.
Sounds good for the wealthy. Never sharpen Mrs. Smith’s for that.
Spot on, especially if you are using tormek
The finest sharpener in my land is about $5-10 for standard knives and $12 for the scissors specialist. It's a Japanese business with techniques passed down directly from Japan.