The Real Tools Behind a Successful Sharpening Business

What tools do you REALLY need to start a sharpening business?

In this episode of Tool Talk, Matt sits down with Grant Lauinger of Custom Edge Sharpening to discuss sharpening systems, tool philosophy, guided vs freehand sharpening, business growth, and the reality of building a sharpening business part-time.

Grant shares how he started with a simple 1x30 setup and gradually expanded into clipper blades, salon shears, garden tools, mower blades, and professional belt systems including CutterMaster, AmeriBrade, BuckTool, Tormek, and more.

Topics include:

• Beginner sharpening setups
• Guided vs freehand sharpening
• Edge trailing vs edge leading
• Sharpening business growth
• Marketplace tool deals
• Mobile sharpening setups
• Dust collection realities
• Tool recommendations
• Building a part-time sharpening business

Grant operates Custom Edge Sharpening in the Chicago area and is an active member of the Guild of Professional Sharpeners.

https://members.guildofsharpeners.org/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The Knife and Tool Sharpening Podcast is made possible by the Guild of Professional Sharpeners, a community of knife and tool sharpening business owners who help each other achieve success as each individual defines it. Learn more at guiltofsharpeners.org. All right. Well, I got Grant here, and we're going to get into all things about tools. It's been awesome working with Grant. I thought a cool place we could start would be your origin story and specifically the tool you started on, because I'm a little sensitive to the idea that when people see a full shop and hear all this conversation about tools, that they uh feel overwhelmed and like it's how can I get all this stuff like starting from the very beginning. So could I think it might be fun? Could we start on like what what tool you started out on and then we'll grow into the stuff you're working with?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Yeah, sure. Yeah. So first of all, just thanks for having me, Matt. I really appreciate it. I also really appreciate all you've done for me and through the guild. It's helped me out tremendously in starting my business and being where I'm at today. So thank you. Absolutely, man. So yeah, for me, my I do have kind of a passion for tools and for quality tools, and especially for certain things. And I think I was thinking about that, and I think it comes from that I come from a family of engineers, and so I think in my blood is like that desire for problem solving. Um, but I think where I learned my, I think where it came across to me the importance of having quality tools was from woodworking. And um just I was thinking of this, and just kind of a quick story uh is when I the first like hand tool I bought for woodworking was like a block plane. And so I was looking at some different options and the premier planes, you know, like the Veritas, the Wee Nielsen. I mean, I I was thinking, how could anybody spend $150, $200 on a block plane? And so I bought the $20, $20 Stanley at Menard's and watched the videos on how to tune them up. I had my sandpaper, I flattened the sole, you know, did all the stuff that they tell you to do to make it a a good working tool. And I think it took me eight hours. And so then I realized there's a reason why those other planes are more expensive. So that was one thing. So, but that said, I do think when you're starting out, it's important to have a budget and to work with finding where what you want because there's a lot of different styles, and if you just buy all the most expensive things off the bat, um, you'll end up spending way too much money and probably having a lot of things that you'll never use. So there is a balance there. But um so yeah, I just wanted to say that to start. But um, in terms of sharpening, that's my background came from woodworking. So I was just, and mostly the stuff I was sharpening were you know brand new cleaner blades and you know, just toning them up basically and then maintaining them. So what we do now is a lot different um once they get dull and damaged. But the first um, you know, so I the first time I sharpened my own knives, my kitchen knives, I mean, they were probably 12 years old. They had all the microchips in them. And I was like, well, I have whetstones, I'll just use those. And um, but the whetstones I had, I had shaft and glass stones, which are nice stones, but I had a thousand, a 8,000, and a 16,000 grit. And that's great for a new plain plane iron, but for a dull knife, uh, I think it took me like two hours each to do those, uh, trying to get past those chips on a thousand grit stone. And so I realized I was like, well, I'm never doing that again. There's gotta be a better way. And um so the the first thing I came up with not knowing, you know, there were no videos like Cliff Curry, like there were no sharpening videos that I was aware of dedicated towards knives at the time. Uh, maybe I just didn't see them, but I got myself a one by 30 um Rikon um from the woodworking store. And then I found I found the edge um weeding guide on Amazon. And again, I didn't see anybody using it before, but I thought, oh, that should work. And I tried it, I didn't like sharpening off of that guide. So what I did, which is not really recommended um today, but what I did was use that as a reference, and then I did edge leading on the slack belt, and I never had a problem, but I mean you can that can be dangerous. Um, it's not really recommended, but that's what I did to start. And then my my day job started. Um it had for many years, it had always kind of progressed, and I was, you know, I work on commission, so uh it was getting every year we'd get a little bit more work, and um, but anyway, number of circumstances happened, and I saw it start to decline around 2018, maybe. And so that that's when I started thinking about sharpening. I wouldn't say as a business, but that idea came into my mind um watching a video. Guy's channel was Stumpy Nubs, and he had a Tormec. And so I was kind of drilling over that tool at the time, and he made a comment that he even has friends that will sharpen knives on the side. And I thought, whoa, I could justify that tool if I could make some side money with it, and so that kind of planted it in my mind. So those are really the two, you know, I had the Worksharp 3000 for chisels, so I had those three tools were basically what I started with.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Okay, and then uh when you put your shingle out and started sharpening for higher, you had the one by 30, the WS3000. And did you have the Tormek at that time?

SPEAKER_00 6:29

And then I had the Tormek, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Okay, that's a pretty solid spread. Would this be? I feel like this might be a nice time to try to get some feedback from you on if for people trying to get into it now, do you have uh either a strategy or a direct recommendation on uh like tools they should consider and maybe identify. We find most people getting into it in the kitchen knife space, but it doesn't have to be that way. So um any thoughts around niche and tooling up for that niche would be cool.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Yeah. So I think as I thought about this, I think it's important to understand when you're new that there's different styles of sharpening and try to think about, you know, I've tried many styles and it's great to experiment, but start with one that you feel most comfortable with and seems to fit you, and then that will kind of lead you towards the tools. So, first of all, you got guided versus freehand, right? So a guided system could be a tormec. Um, there's there's belt guided systems, like you have the AMK, I have the bladesman, those both have jigs that it comes a tormec style clamp that you can use if you want. And then you also have like the Edge Pro TS Prof for like hand sharpening. So those are guided systems. Um, but the other option is freehand, and that doesn't mean you have to use, or that doesn't mean that you don't have any reference at all because you have like the Ken Onion, which has the flat reference point, and then you set the angle. And then the other thing you could do is instead of using the edge leading angle guide like most people use, you can use an edge trailing angle guide and then transfer that to the platinum. And that's a much safer way to do it if you want to do edge trailing sharpening freehand. So you still have a reference point, you can set your angle, and I've done that before. That's kind of how I started when I started doing edge trailing on the belt. I set uh I bought an edge trailing angle guide, I would set it to 15 degrees or whatever, and and then I could I had that reference point of okay, that's 15 degrees, and then I would move it up to the platen, and then and that's a way to get started if you if you're interested in doing freehand. And then another thing to understand is there's advantages and disadvantages to every system, you know, like the Ken Onion is a convex edge, which helps you blend in that edge really well, but it may be a little when you're talking about, you know, if you're worried at all about angles, you know, that does change the angle a little bit. So if you're how much how hard you press is gonna increase the angle. So if you're at 17 degrees and you're pushing into that slack pretty hard, you know, you might be at 22 or 25. I mean, so just that's something to be aware of. It's many people use that system and it works great, but it's just just knowing kind of what some of the differences are. Whereas if you're going off a low platen, in my experience, you tend to get a little bit quicker of an edge and it you get a crisper edge, and you're getting you're matching the angle much more closely. So those are advantages. And then the other option many people do is the edge leading on you know, one by 30 type machine, or it could be a one by 42, it doesn't really matter. And so then the difference there is just edge leading, then you are using a guide, an angle guide generally for safety reasons. And there's a pro to edge leading because you you can um it's not as difficult to remove that burr, but edge, it's been I don't know if people are familiar with the knife nerds guy. He's he uses electron microscope and he's it's not just a hypothesis hypothesis, he's proven that an edge trailing edge is a sharper edge because it's a thinner edge than an edge leading. So does that mean you can't get a sharp edge? Edge leading? No, you can, but so I mean, these are just all things you have to balance between what am I what end result am I looking for and what kind of suits my comfortability and my personality, I guess. And I that's so that's where I would start. So depending on which of those categories you kind of fit into is gonna kind of direct sort of the equipment you buy. And and again, I wouldn't recommend buying the most expensive equipment to start. Start with the most basic one you can find for that style, and then go from there and see if that that fits you. And if you want to try something else, then you have the resources to try something else.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Yeah, it's it's it's hard. Like I can definitely sympathize why it's an overwhelming place to be, because there's so many options. It's so hard to know, having not used the tools, which ones are gonna be the best. And then there's the uh like the belted systems, you know, we get speed and the trade-off is the dust, and you do have to be more careful about heating up the steel, the wet systems, you know, like great, but slow. So once you start doing volume, you're gonna get frustrated. And then the money, right? Like the some tools are you know cheap off Alibaba, and some tools are extremely expensive, American-made. So you generally do get what you pay for, but it's uh it's tough. Like each individual's kind of gotta kind of gotta figure it out for themselves. But I do sympathize with how hard that can be on the outside looking.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yeah. Yeah, I started with the tormek because the guy that I connected with on the internet, he had a sharpening school in Ohio, and in 2020 I was furloughed. So I had the money in my discover rewards to get the tormek. And so I contacted this guy, Steve Bodorf, and he had an online program. It came with like a book and a DVD, and he went through none of them were long videos, but there was a bunch of videos on how do you sharpen this, how do you, and so it was a good intro. It wasn't exhaustive, but and through him I bought the machines. He used he used a tormec, a veal, um, one by 42 garden tools and repair work, and then he used a buffer with the uh with the hard paper wheels to do the polishing or the deep burring, and um and a twice as sharp. And so I bought a twice as sharp from him eventually, and then I bought the uh Cormac from him, and so he's if you went through his schooling, you got him at a discount. So it was kind of paid for the the school part of it.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Yeah, that's cool. You've been uh you're good about seeking information, which is so there's several reasons why I'm stoked to have this conversation with you. Uh, one is because you have done so much research and you've proven that you're a really exceptional sharpener, and the other is that you have uh also invested heavily into your sharpening business in terms of tooling, and you've become very fluent on all the different offerings. Would it be fun to get into like what your setup right now is?

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And like I say, I like tools that are high quality, but no matter how much you spend on a tool, I think you always are gonna find something lacking or something that's so there is no perfect tool, is first of all. But what I currently use is the uh cutter master tradesman machine. So I have the tradesman apex and then the power strop. I actually use the power strop as my course grit um because that has the contact wheel on it and it has a little bit more speed, not a lot, but so I use that for my course grit. And then I have the other two belts, one's an A45. Usually I do switch belts, but that would be my typical progression, it'd be an 80 grit or 120, depending on the knife, and then uh an A45, and then I have uh felt belt with blue compound on the other one. And I I do use wheels as well, but those are the so it's a combination of those tradesmen, and then I have two um full speed, one horsepower Hercules grinders, which are I would say built off of the jet. They're meant to be sort of like a cheaper option to the jet, and uh eight-inch grinders, and so I have wheel four wheels total on those, and three I use mostly three of them.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

And you are all freehand, right? Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Yeah, I mean, if any if I get like a knife, there are knives where like especially if it's like a hunting knife or like kitchen knives, I pretty much can find my angle, but if it's like a higher angled knife, I'll I'll just march mark the edge, and then with the machine off, I'll I'll just push the belt and find my angle, and then it's like okay, I pretty much know where it's at, and then go from there.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Okay, yeah, that's a sweet spread. The uh I'm not I haven't tried out that cutter master tool yet, uh, or the power strop, but they definitely definitely do have some selling points, but a lot of a lot of different devices do. And then uh what about some different niches? So you you also expanded significantly beyond kitchen cutlery and carry knives. Uh, should we talk a little bit about what other niches fill your inbox and then kind of maybe some tooling around how you work on them?

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Sure. Yeah, I think one thing that I'm happy about how the business evolved for me was I'm glad that I got into uh clipper blades and salon shears when I did, which felt which to me felt a little early, but it was a good point to learn. So once I got comfortable with knives and you know, I had been doing them for a while, probably six months, six to eight months, I got the Kotoku uh clean, the single head machine for doing beauty shears. And um, it took me a while to to like get a few, but it gave me time because I was still just building, I wasn't like busy every day. So it gave me time to learn and and experiment with it. So I felt like that was a good for me at least was a good way to go about it because I feel like if I were to start something new right now, it's kind of hard to fit in the learning part of it and the ex and the practicing part of it, because it's just like I have work every, I have work every day. So it's like you know, trying to fit in learning a new thing is is a lot more challenging now than it was earlier on. And like you, you know, all those things are overwhelming, but it's like I think once you're comfortable with one thing, if you feel like you're um excited about or if you're interested in a new niche, then I think that's a good time to just kind of go for it and um give it a try.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Yeah, so you got the you got a flat hone for beauty shears, grooming shears. You have a what what clipper machine are you working on?

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Nebraska blades, yeah. Just the 16 inch 16-inch yeah, yep, sweet machine.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

So and then for like you do a bunch of garden tools and stuff as well, you're doing those on one of your belted systems.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Yeah, I prefer I have two buck tool one by 42s that are dedicated for garden tools. The one thing I do use the edge leading guide for, I like it on pruners because I get a nice crisp edge that way. And I do do them freehand like at markets and stuff. If I you just don't always have time to take them apart, but especially like the Falco ones, I like to take those apart and then do them on the edge guide and just get a nice clean edge on those. But I like the Bucktool 1x42 dual speed machine, and I think people overlook that one. They they always just get the one by 30s, but that's a good one. It's dual speed, you can it's got half speed or full speed on it, and the thing I like about it is the plant is longer, and then there's also more slack portion, so that's why I like it for garden tools. It just gives you a lot of space to work with, and you can get your loppers in there and pruners, and you'll have to worry about hitting the frame of the machine. So that's what I use for garden tools, and then um yeah, was I'm sorry, was oh that was good.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

I think I've I've been kind of impressed with Buck Tool. I think they're paying attention to the sharpening space and trying to improve their tools to serve us. I don't know. Do you agree with that?

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Yeah, I think so. Like you can see how they make adjustments. So they've recently come out with the variable speed 2x42, and even the buffer. I'm interested in the buffer for I do use a buffer with my homemade uh cardboard wheels for polishing beauty shears, and that works pretty well. Yeah, I'm always I always keep an eye out on what they're doing because they yeah, they come out with new stuff, and it you're right, it does seem like they are paying attention to what sharpeners are looking for.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Yeah, that's great. And then uh you do mower blades as well.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Yeah. So depending on yeah, usually I usually use the American, I like to do those on like a vertical belt system sometimes. Yeah, and then if if they have a lot of damage, then I do take out the uh I always forget the all-American the clamp system. Yeah, I'll take that out. It's just uh for me, I have the big portable jaw vise, which is pretty heavy. And so, like if I'm doing a handful of mower blades, it's not a big deal. But if I have just one, especially if it's cold outside or something, you know, I usually just do it on the belt. But especially I do like I do still like that um all American though, especially if it it's got a lot of damage in it, because I'll I'll take that damage off first on the belt, and then you know, you're left with quite a bit of material to remove. So then I kind of prefer the all American. I removed most of that.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Okay. Yeah, you just mentioned the AmeriBraid for the first time. That's a pretty hefty machine.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Yeah, that's that's a 2x48. I used to have an OBM 2x48, so I had two machines with the same belt size, and I got that one a good deal on marketplace. That's why I ended up with that. But it's turned into a a good machine for me. I've kept it. I sold the OBM once I got the Cuttermaster machines to make room. But I use it for um like thinning, repair work, and then also like uh what I really like it for is fabric shears. I have the table that I came with, I drilled a hole in it, and then I just clamp the uh the uh twice as sharp long arm attachment to it, and then I use a A, usually an A100 belt, which is like a 220-ish, which is leaves a pretty nice finish. And then I can just put that on there. And then it keeps the you know, the fabric shears can sometimes have pretty wide bevels, so I just like keeping that bevel flat and it just is quick. And and then I just yeah, so anyway, I don't do I I have I use a felt belt usually to deburm, but uh I usually do the sharpening part on the marrow, so I like it for that.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Yeah, brilliant. That's uh that's definitely a pro tip. Putting that twice as sharp arm on a belted system, however you figure it out. That's uh that's a sweet move. Do you do any woodworking tools for do people bring you woodworking tools now?

SPEAKER_00 23:45

It's pretty rare. You know, I get the occasional chisel or somebody will send me in a few hand planes, but yeah, that's I rarely get woodworking tools because usually people do the hand tools by the if they're into woodworking, they usually do them themselves. So more often than not, if I do get chisels, it's usually from more of the carpent carpentry part, and then they're usually all chipped up, and then it's like, yeah, so but I don't do a lot. I would say that's probably of the things that I do, that's one of the lower quantity-wise that I things that I do.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Okay, yeah, and then when you get those, uh like if you get a really nice chisel set, you're gonna be compelled to try to do them in a very nice way. At least I did I do. Uh, but for those like contractor style chisels, I I am more likely to just kind of freehand them and get an edge on them. And I don't know, are you you the same way, like going for speed on those?

SPEAKER_00 24:52

I've I usually use the Worksharp 3000, but I know it's yeah, I feel like those take me longer than they should, but I haven't found the most efficient way to do those for production quality, but it's yeah, I don't see them that often, so it's not something I've invested too much time figuring out yet.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Yeah, and so another good way to do them is using the you have multiple machines that have the Tormec style guide arm and the Tormec uh jig for plane irons and chisels is the best jig that I know for that tool, uh for those tools, and uh rigging up that jig on a belted system can be a pretty nice uh fast and efficient way to get a high quality edge on them.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Yeah, next time I'll do that, like because I have I I can put that jig on the cutter master. Yeah. Last time I had some chisels, I used the uh diamond wheels, but those resin, the resin diamond wheels and plates that I've used, they don't cut nearly as fast as like a regular diamond plate. So it took really long, it took a really long time to get get them sharp with the diamond wheel, actually. So I would I'd probably try using that jig on the belt next time.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Yeah, so you could do belt over on that machine, and then with the guide arm with the guide arm on that machine, are you constrained to sharpening on the wheel or is there a way to jig out on the platen part of the belt over system? This is the cutter master machine.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Yeah, I don't know. You can't really it's pretty much just limited to the wheel.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

I'm racking my head here. I can't think of uh any other things that make up uh a mainstay of your business as far as work that comes in. Can you think of any?

SPEAKER_00 27:05

So yeah, so well currently I I started out with the single hone for uh Kotoku. I do have the triple head now, so I like that machine. Again, it's not really necessary. It has the water cooling, but it's a mist. I would say more it it helps with cooling a little bit, but it helps keep the dust down. Uh so it's not it does the blades will still heat up, but I do like that machine, and I still use the single head for like the curved shears. I keep the donut on there. I like the ride line maker. Uh anyone, if anyone's interested in shears, I will I do recommend getting one of those. It seems expensive, but I do think it's worth it for doing curved shears because it does keep your ride line in plane. What tends to happen is if you freehand on a round stone, you will hit the the ride line, but you are also hitting the spine, which is putting a slight back bevel on the on the flat side. So I don't, I'm sure you can still get it to work, but I think it is probably it probably will be easier in the long run and work better if you're using one of those setups. And then yeah. And then I'm currently using the buffer with to to polish them. Yeah, I'm just yeah, other than that, clipper blades, garden tools, that's pretty much the majority of what I do.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

So you're using the did I catch you right? You're using the buffer to polish the beauty and grooming shears.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Yeah, the convex shears.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

So you yeah, so this is like free hand on a buffing wheel.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

But I use I experimented with a bunch of different wheels and I got the best results, and it also feels much safer using the cardboard wheels, which are a little cardboard. I just cut up, you know, Amazon boxes or whatever, a little bit oversized, so maybe like eight and a half inches, glue them all together. You leave the last inch or two without glue because you don't want that hard glue line to be hitting your whatever you're using it on. I think I have a video in the guild somewhere, and that Ken probably does too. And but anyway, I I have a buffing compound on one and then a diamond emulsion on the other, and it does a pretty good job keeping them cool. I guess the thing I didn't like about using the felt wheel for polishing shears is it it just always seems to get so hot so quickly, and these keeps them pretty cool relatively. So that's what I've been doing for the last year.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Oh, that's great. I want to check that out. We can I can maybe get you on the side and dive a little more into exactly your system there, but I am interested. That sounds pretty good. That's what I love about you, man. Like, you got a lot of cool stuff. Um and uh yo, one thing you mentioned, there's two things that you mentioned uh in passing that I wanted to make sure to highlight. One was that you found uh several tools from Marketplace and you got a good deal on them, and that's just a worthy plug. Like always, well, not always, but period I love recommending periodically just get on the marketplace and search sharpening or belt sander or something like that, and every now and then you'll be surprised about what pops up.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

Yeah, yeah. Early on, I got a I think the same week I bought a Veal 1x42 and a Kelamazoo one by 42, and I think I got them both for like $125 combined. So for $125, I got those two machines, which they're both probably over $300 brand new. So, and then that Ameribraid, yeah, was a good deal as well. It was probably about a third of the price of what they paid.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Did you find these local to you, or did you have to get them mailed?

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Um, I drove. One was one was about an hour. The Ameribraid was about an hour away, but we made a family trip of it. We just did like a day trip and uh probably hour and a half, and then the other two were more local, but yeah, it's probably with within an hour drive both ways.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Cool. Okay, brilliant. Yo, the other thing that you mentioned is that now you are busy enough so that if you wanted to delve into like a new tool or new thing, like it would be a little bit harder to carve out the time to do that. And I just love harping on how much opportunity there is in the sharpening space. Yeah, could we talk about that a little bit? Like maybe uh like thinking back, like how long it took you to generate a steady workflow, and this is still something you do on the side to your day job as well as uh your committed family man. So, but still, you get a lot of work in, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Uh, I'd say a decent amount, yeah, especially for being part-time. And it's all for me, almost all of it is through my locker system. So they almost all my customers come to me and drop off. I do offer pickup and delivery, but within certain parameters, it's pretty much along my driving route to work, and then I basically within a mile of the main road in either direction. So if it ends up being more than that, then I I tell them I could, if I want to do it, I said I could do it, but it'll be this since it's further away, the delivery charge will be this amount. And the it's actually pretty rare, maybe a handful of times a year that I that I even get asked to do that. Most people still just come to my place and drop them off.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Yeah, brilliant. I that's my model too. I love it. Like it's it's hard to design a different model when people uh you know are doing all of that work for you. Um I've also seen like you do uh you do setup. Well, you've done some markets, right? And uh I have seen some pictures of your setup in the back of your truck, maybe. So you'll do some on-site stuff every now and then.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Or yeah, yeah, it's I think last year, I mean, I probably did probably only two or three on-site, either at a restaurant or somebody's house. And then I have a comp a business that I work with, it's a non-for-profit, but they do three repair fairs a year where they people come in, they have several vendors. Somebody's fixing lamps, somebody's fixing electronics, somebody's fixing jewelry, and then there's two sharpeners there. And so we do three of those, and then they have a big garden market in May. So that's coming up. I do two garden markets in May, but I don't do any markets that are weekly. My work, my day job, the busiest season summer, so I can't really commit to any kind of weekly market.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Yeah. But that's great, man. The work's still coming in.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

And um, yeah, it's grown pretty organically, really. Through I I everybody fills out a form, either a written form in one of my lockers, or they fill out my online form. And I have the question is required there that you know how they found out about me. And it's I mean, almost all of it's Google, probably number two is reference, and then probably three is a Facebook group. Some of them I'm not even a part of is like, oh, the mom's group in this town, or you know, so which I still consider a reference. Somebody use me and then they refer it to their group.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Are you doing any follow-ups?

SPEAKER_00 35:03

I don't, I have not done that yet. So I just um yeah, it's definitely if I were to go full time, or there's a lot of things that I could put into place that could help ramp it up, but I I just right now I feel like I get enough. Um I I mean, there's still slow times. There's usually seems like there's always one slower week in the month, but it's just like overall, my my busy days have gotten busier and my slower days have gotten busier. So it's like there's just everything is gradually increased. So it's right now it's I mean, I could handle more work, but I just I guess I'm uh on autopilot right now the last year for a number of reasons, but I haven't put a lot into intentionally growing, but it has grown. So if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think it's uh a tribute to the work that you've done, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:07

It's the building that foundation.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Yeah, the wheels spinning, so work just keeps coming in, even if you take your foot off the gas.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

Um, I think uh you've mentioned a few times your dedication to high-quality tools. I also land in that camp. I really, really and like I think in terms of generations, like when I'm buying tools, I think about whether or not my kids will have an opportunity to use these tools. But where I want to go is as you've shifted your tooling in your shop, have have you sold some equipment? And then have you found that if so, has some of the nicer tooling retained its value on the resale side?

SPEAKER_00 36:49

Yeah, yeah, I definitely think when you buy higher quality tools, it's easier to sell them and you're gonna get more for them. Marketplace has changed a little bit. I think people are, I guess I don't know all the reasons, but I think people more people use marketplace now, and probably more people are a little more spendy, like they're more willing to spend money and then try something, and if they don't like it, they'll sell it on marketplace. So sometimes marketplace has like a people want almost like brand new prices for things, but you know uh let's see. I bought I did sell I did end up selling my TorMec. I didn't sell all the jigs with it though. I kept the jigs um because I can use those with the Cuttermaster, and I sold my Kelamazoo only because I just I needed the space, and I it's like I'm not really using it, and um so I don't know. I probably I've sold other things too, but those are the two that come to mind. So it's I probably should sell some more things, but it's right now it's uh I have enough space, I suppose. Well, I'm kind of yeah, to until I need it gone, I I guess I just hold on to it.

unknown 38:10

But cool.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

I'm trying to right now I'm trying to build out my um my plan is to build out a kind of ready to sharpen unit out of my truck. And I kind of showed that to you a little bit, but my idea is like if I can just have a unit that's ready to just flip up, ready to go off the tailgate, then I could do cold calling. So I I plan to make like a mini version of my shear sharpening. I got like a twice as sharp. I'll probably put on one of those little toolker one by 3030s. And anyway, so that I could I was like, okay, today I'm gonna go hit some fabric shops, or today I'm gonna go hit some salons, and I can just bring the mobile unit that I need for that day, or and then I'll have my knife one kind of available all the time because it's I have enough equipment for knives that I can I have enough, you know, I can have that ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

That's a cool, cool idea. And then you have uh you already have a uh power source, right? Whether Pecron or something, am I remembering?

SPEAKER_00 39:22

Yeah. Yeah. And actually right now I have so as far as like layout, my my knife sharpening stuff, which is creates the most dust, that's near the front of my garage. So that's kind of I kept the woodworking stuff towards the back and that has dust collection. It's a little easier to collect dust off of wood machines, but anyway, and then I keep the metal dust towards the front of the garage, and then I have a little air uh monitor. If it goes up, I just open the garage door and use a leaf blower to kind of blow out the dust. And I do have dust collection, but you as you know you can't collect even half of that metal dust, probably. So that's where all my knife stuff is, and then in my basement, I have a dedicated space for clipper blades. I used to have that in the garage, and then I just pulled it out when I needed it, but it's so much nicer if you can. If you do have a way to make a dedicated space, it's a lot easier to do that. And then I have a dedicated corner for beauty shears, shears in general, dog grooming shears and beauty shears. And that area has no power, so I use when I'm not doing any mobile events, I use those Pecron power stations to uh power my machines for shears.

SPEAKER_01 40:50

Brilliant. And then uh maybe I'll just close it out. Like, are you dreaming about any tools right now? Is there something like uh that you you're kind of like wish you could get some year?

SPEAKER_00 41:03

The only thing I've right now be uh think I'm thinking about where where are the gaps in there? I don't really need anything, but uh one thing that would be nice is having most of my machines, especially the two-inch machines that I have, are on the slower side. So the mirror braids half speed, the uh cutter masters are a little less than that. And sometimes it is nice to have a full speed machine. So I have one in the back of my mind is the uh the variable speed uh burking 2x48, because I already have a lot of two by 48 belts. So if I were to get that, I think I could still use it like I use the Ameribraid. I would have to probably consider selling that to make room for it. But the advantage of the Burr King is that it can um go all the way from vertical to horizontal, whereas the Marrow Braid is pretty much you can tilt it like 15 degrees, but it's really just a vertical system. Uh and then that would give me a little bit more speed variation. So other than that, it's just yeah, nothing major. I don't I'm not currently looking sometimes. I think of like the Thor V. I don't know where I would put it, and it's it's not been something that's you know, I don't get asked a lot for that kind of those kinds of tools, and so it's just not it's not really in my view right now, so focus, so I haven't really looked into those too much. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Thanks, Grant. Yo, I don't think we mentioned where you are in the world.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Oh, I'm in I'm in Glen Allen, Illinois, which is a western suburb of Chicago, so far west. It's I mean probably 30 miles west of Chicago. So it's not and it's uh yeah, it's a pretty nice area, but it's like uh suburbs and uh so fairly densely populated. There's quite a few sharpeners here, I would say from people that I've run into along with just the Google list scenes. I mean, there's definitely over a hundred sharpeners. Well, but it it is a big area, but yeah, and there's and from people I've talked to, other sharpeners, even in like LA, they're like they can't believe how many storefront um sharpening businesses are here, which isn't that many, but probably a half dozen or so, which just isn't that common. You might have one in an area, but it's not yeah. So there's quite a few sharpeners, and people that I run into at markets and stuff, they're always talking about you know, all how their grandfather used to make a living sharpening, going, you know, door to door with his cart and all that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

stuff so amazing dude that's I didn't know there are that many people sharpening near you and I just again like you've made a successful business uh surrounded by other sharpeners so sometimes that deters people they see one thing one one person doing well on a Google business profile and they think that there's no opportunity for them in that market so just yeah want to highlight that that there still is work there's plenty of work yeah that's for sure yeah the more yeah that's I always tell people you know it's like you can't you can't sharpen everybody's tools you don't like one person can't do everything so and you don't need every b every person to say yes you just need some people to say yes and honestly if you can average if you can get to the point where you average even just one or two customers a day you can make a pretty good decent um side income with that and so that's really not that's not unreasonable with a decent population like you to get one or two people a day is not not out of reach. No right it's 350 people a year you compare that to the population within a 45 minute or an hour radius of you and most people are serving a fraction of a percent of the people around them. Uh and then what was the name of your business grant? Just if anybody wants to custom edge custom edge sharpening awesome yeah and uh it's on the yeah go ahead sorry oh it's it's on the guild map yeah yeah perfect and um yeah you're you're uh you're an active person within the guild you're a very helpful person you have a lot of uh a lot of information to share you gave us a class on stropping not long ago that was fantastic and I know a lot of people got a lot out of that and uh it probably influenced the way they sharpen in their shop. Uh thanks for just being an awesome person and thank you so much for taking the time to share uh you know your systems and your thoughts on tooling and um is there any you have any did we miss anything or is there anything else you'd like to share before we sign off nothing major I had a couple things are wrote down are a couple of um small hand tools that I really like.

SPEAKER_00 46:23

Yeah let's do it so a couple things that I use like every day that are that just good quality hand tools that I like is um some people call it NIPEX or KNIPEX it's starts with a K K N I P E X. They have these parallel pliers and there's a little button and you can just slide it up and down and I use those every single day at work and at home. I have several pair at home and you can use them for anything that you would use a socket on you just really quick take apart your garden tools take off your the wheels on your buffer I mean anything I use those things all the time and they're not cheap but I mean you know 50 bucks ish and I would probably start with the seven and a quarter inch they have various sizes but that one the seven and a quarter inch is kind of like the middle it's not too small and it's not the really big one. That and then I also use I oh I also use that for um I have a pair by my clipper blades and when I set the sockets I use that you just quick I have it set to the right size and then you just quick squeeze and so I use it for that too. And then I use um I have a couple pairs of Wira if you've heard of that it's a German brand uh they make high-end like screwdrivers and stuff they have a ratcheting screwdriver that I really like it just feels really good in your hand and just taking apart your scissors when you have those screws that are kind of locked in it's like having having something that's sturdy that you can really hold on to and something that and their bits are really nice so something that really locks in to the screw um it's nice to have so I like those two tools.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

Those are nice dude yeah great I actually I looked up I'm looking at those nipax real now right now like that's uh a great call so thanks for sharing I love those little nuggets and so yeah thanks Matt thanks I thanks for having me I appreciate it yeah dude thanks for taking the time out of your day and being part of this and um we'll we'll talk to you again soon.

SPEAKER_00 48:31

All right sounds good