How to Start a Knife Sharpening Business: Earn $30-60 an Hour From Home

Every house in the country is a potential repeat customer…
Matt Rowell set himself the goal of generating an extra $5k over 5 years to fund some passion projects, and he’s well on his way.
Matt runs AmericanEdgeSharpening.com on the side from his day job as captain of a research vessel. It’s a knife sharpening business, which makes $250-500 a month when we spoke and is earning him $30-60 per hour.
He saw an ad while posted abroad with the Navy that gave him the idea for his business.
And then he took action. Matt:
**Picked up a knife sharpening kit
**Taught himself how to sharpen knives by watching KZbin videos
**Offered to sharpen knives for family and friends for the practice
**Found paying customers
The best thing about the knife sharpening business?
“If you drive down the road, every house that you pass has a bunch of knives in it,” Matt said. That means an almost limitless number of potential customers.
Tune in to hear how Matt got started with this idea while he was deployed in Djibouti, Africa, including his equipment, how he learned how to do it, and how he’s marketed and priced his service.
Full the full notes, links, and resources mentioned, please visit:
www.sidehustle...
Cheers!

[@davestelling]

Cap'n Matt is a very good egg. Appreciate listening to this, thanks...

[@NickLoper]

The best! Thanks for tuning in, Dave!

[@ayyanrehman7912]

Im really trying to start a knife sharpening business and im grateful I came across this video. Im 15 and I use wet stones to sharpen. This video has great info.

[@NickLoper]

Thanks so much for tuning in!

[@XevilangleX]

I appreciate this information and video, I'm a 19 year old college student with a interest in many hobby from video games, cars, paintball, and knifes. I have a small collection of knifes but I feel right on board with your guest speaker. I'm new to this buisness and going through his steps to get started. I love having this level of assurance that I'm going down the right path of someone who's doing it successful! Thanks again!!

[@blainetanner5531]

Hey just wondering did you end up starting it?

[@GhostOfBigfoot]

Great interview! I'm looking into doing this and it answered questions I didn't know I had

[@vernkay.]

Great video, I'm starting my knife sharpening business soon.

[@NickLoper]

Thanks for watching, Vern!

[@dragan3290]

As an injured ex glazier and aluminum joiner! I'm looking for something to make into a business. I can sharpen chisels perfectly but I'm practicing polishing kitchen knives, axes, my Estwing hammer I polished to a mirror finish. Now the handle I need to restore but the hardness of the Estwing hammer took forever as it had a few dents but a lot of sanding. Then polish on a Buff. Different compound etc. I've ported throttle body and polish to mirror finish as well. I'm looking for a hands on skill as a small business! Love this vid. Very inspiring! Cheers from Australia 🙂👍👍👍

[@NickLoper]

Thanks for tuning in! Keep us posted :)

[@dragan3290]

@@NickLoper definitely will do. I'm sick of mechanical repairs for neighbors as my back puts me out of action for a day or 2!

[@paulromano5137]

Awesome! Love sharpening my knives with a sharpening stone but it wouldn’t be ideal for a side hustle… getting an apex pro for sure!!

[@stompnucustoms2616]

I needed this real bad today. Thanks

[@NickLoper]

Thanks for tuning in!

[@RoamingBardo]

Thanks for the podcast really informative Especially for younger audience with alot of free time

[@NickLoper]

Thanks for tuning in, Faris!

[@lindboknifeandtool]

100% going to run a sharpening business. Hopefully a knife business as well, but I’ll do that regardless of income😂

[@lindboknifeandtool]

Him explaining how steel can fatigue makes me very happy to see. Most people use a belt sander!!! Crazy.

[@NickLoper]

Nice!

[@redangrybird7564]

Matt's business ideas are very inspirational, thanks for uploading this podcast. 😁👍

[@NickLoper]

You bet! Loved Matt's story!

[@paulwin9036]

This is some really good information! All I would say is that when you start out, you don't need to get a 300 dollar system. If anything I would recommend something much cheaper to learn the basic skillset then move on to higher quality products A good start would be a Lansky or a worksharp, typically around 50 USD and you can build from there. My personal setup is a mix of different bench stones, three stones and 2 strops, each stone costing 70usd while the strops are diy.

[@NickLoper]

Thanks for the insight, Paul!

[@matthewg9205]

Thank you for sharing

[@NickLoper]

You bet! Thanks for tuning in!

[@atlasking6213]

Thank you soooo much for the video, am opening a sharpening business and doing researches for a while but with this video made everything much easier and very informative thank you so much for saving me lot of time. A question: from your experience do I need a partent to mail knives? Any special insurance for it?

[@drpoppyseed]

In America with the USPS, you can just mail knives. There’s no extra paperwork, but you should package them carefully. Standard insurance is $50 and you can purchase more insurance should the contents of the package be more valuable.

[@AmusedBouche]

This was super helpful!

[@NickLoper]

Thanks for tuning in!

[@ReelAnglerReviews]

I think I'm going to pull the trigger on the apex edge pro and work sharp system too. And maybe even join the guild. Thanks for the inspiration

[@NickLoper]

Nice! Thanks for sharing, Adam. Keep us posted :)

[@sexphisto]

i know this is old but why not electric wheels or band grinders?

[@Kumofan]

For regrinding the bevel on a knife or fixing chips, those are fine, but you'll never quite get as good an edge as you would using whetstones. Look at Burrfection Korin Japanese Tranding's videos on sharpening for more info on that .

[@drpoppyseed]

They can heat up the edge and thereby soften it, so the edge will not hold as long.

[@hollynejmanowski9232]

show me a knife maker that grinds the entire edge without a powered grinder?

[@blankspace3511]

They remove too much material and make the blade look "nasty"

[@blankspace3511]

@@hollynejmanowski9232 we arent talking about knife making we are talking about sharpening (maintaining a functional edge which requires removal of just a tiny bit of material)

[@pauleyedwin6056]

Good content. Slow getting getting content across. Too many ads. Lost interest.

[@redangrybird7564]

Move the video cursor close to the end of the video, let the video end and then reload the video. All the adds will disappear.

[@LCVBladesEdge]

Can I still get ahold of this man?

[@NickLoper]

I believe so! members.guildofsharpeners.org/