Should a Restaurant Sharpen Its Own Knives? (The Honest Pros and Cons)

Let's get the short answer out of the way, because you have a lunch rush.

Yes, a restaurant can sharpen its own knives. It works when one skilled person has time for it every single week. Most busy kitchens don't have that person, so they pay a service and hone in between.

That's it. That's the post.

Okay, fine, here's the rest of it.

Can a restaurant sharpen its own knives?

Absolutely. Plenty of great kitchens do. A whetstone, some water and a patient human can put a beautiful edge on a chef's knife.

The catch is the word "patient." And the other word, "human."

Sharpening by hand is a real skill. It takes practice to hold the same angle stroke after stroke, raise a burr, and take it off cleanly. Done well, it's lovely. Done by someone who watched one video, it's a knife that cuts great on the left side and like a spoon on the right.

And even a pro needs time. Not once. Every week, forever, for every knife on the line.

The pros of sharpening in-house

Let's be fair to the stone. It has real upsides:

• Total control. You pick the angle, the stones and the finish. If your chef has strong opinions about bevels (they do), this is their dream.
• No schedule. A knife goes dull at 4 PM, someone sharpens it at 4:10.
• Knives never leave the building. Some chefs don't let anyone touch their personal knives. Fair.
• It's a great skill to teach. A cook who can sharpen understands their knife better.

If your kitchen runs a handful of knives and has one person who loves sharpening, honestly, keep doing it. You might not need us.

The cons nobody puts on the whetstone box

Here's where it gets real.

• It eats paid hours. Sharpening one dull chef's knife well on stones can easily take 10 to 15 minutes. Multiply by every knife on your line, every week.
• It happens at the worst time. Nobody sharpens during service. So it happens after close, before open, or not at all. Usually "not at all."
• The skill walks out the door. Your best sharpener gets a better job. Congratulations, your knives just went back to being dull.
• Edges come out uneven. Five people sharpening means five different angles. Some of them are creative.
• It gets skipped when you're busy. Which is exactly when your knives get the most use.

And here's the big one. The person who's good at sharpening and the person with free time are almost never the same person.

Pros and cons of outsourcing knife sharpening

Now the other side. Paying a service has its own trade-offs, and we're going to tell you them even though we are, technically, the service.

The pros:

• Nobody on your payroll does it. Your cooks cook.
• It happens on a schedule. Same day every week, whether you remembered or not.
• The edges are consistent. Same equipment, same angle, every knife.
• The hard blades get handled too. Meat slicer blades and food processor S-blades are tough to do on a bench stone.

The cons:

• It costs money every week. Obviously.
• You're trusting someone else with your knives. Picking a good service matters. (Here's how to choose one.)
• Some services lock you in. Long contracts, rental-only knife programs and prices you can't see until a sales call. Ask before you sign.
• A knife that dies mid-week waits for the next visit. Unless you hone it, which we'll get to.

The math (bring a calculator, or don't)

Here's a simple way to compare. Use your own numbers. We'll use made-up round ones.

Say your line runs 10 knives. Say each one takes 12 minutes to sharpen well on stones. That's 2 hours a week of somebody's paid time, plus stones, plus flattening the stones, plus the weeks it doesn't happen because two people called in.

Now put that next to a weekly visit:

• 10 knives$45
• 15 knives$55
• 20 knives$65
• Each knife past 20+$3
• Fuel, per visit$5

New-customer route prices, per visit. Knife swap and multi-location groups are quoted.

For most kitchens, two hours of a skilled cook's time costs more than the visit. And the visit doesn't call in sick.

The answer most kitchens land on: both

Here's the secret. It's not really either-or.

Honing is the daily part. A few strokes on a steel straighten an edge that's bent over from use. It takes seconds, any cook can learn it, and it makes an edge last longer between sharpenings. (Here's how to hone a knife properly.)

Sharpening is the weekly part. It removes a little metal and makes a brand-new edge. That's the skilled, slow part, and it's the part worth handing off.

Hone every day. Sharpen every week. Let someone else do the slow part.

Not sure how often your line needs it? Here's our guide to how often restaurants should sharpen knives. (Short version: weekly.)

When you should keep doing it yourself

We promised honesty, so here's when we'd tell you to skip us:

• You run very few knives and someone on staff is genuinely good at stones.
• Your chef treats sharpening like meditation and would be sad if we took it away.
• Your knives are personal, and nobody else is allowed to touch them. Ever.

For everyone else (the kitchens where knives get sharpened "when somebody gets to it"), a schedule beats good intentions every time.

How our restaurant service works

We've been sharpening for kitchens across Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin since 2008. Our restaurant knife sharpening route comes to your back door on the same day each week, with the same driver. Our prices are on our website, so you don't have to sit through a sales call to find out.

You keep your own knives. Or, if you'd rather never be without a sharp one, our knife swap service leaves sharp knives and takes the dull ones. The same truck can bring gloves, film, foil and other kitchen supplies on the same stop. And if an edge isn't right, we re-do it.

Want to see if it fits your kitchen? Have us call you, or call or text (214) 701-5564.

Questions chefs ask

Restaurants: get startedHome cooks: book sharpening