FAQ about Knives & Knife Rental

A commercial knife sharpening service is a professional sharpening service that sends out sharp knives and collects dull knives from food service companies like restaurants and butchers, prep kitchens and commercial spaces that work with food. The idea is that sharper knives are safer (reducing liability exposure); they are more efficient (reducing labor hours); and they are a large fixed cost when maintained in house (because sharpening properly takes time from skilled professionals).

A company has a lot of costs in doing business. leasing programs, if structured properly, can have tax benefits, lower all-in costs, improve efficiency and increase performance. When the maintenance is outsourced, there can be substantial savings by offsetting labor hours, and improving the level of build quality in the underlying service tooling (knives). Additionally, with a properly curated program, you can get exactly what you need without excess, and without unnecessary knives/tools. This means more efficient kitchens, less waste and simplified implementation. 

We offer more brands than the competitors. In fact, most of our competitors evolved into knife leasing programs to improve total revenue for the knives they were already marketing. They are primarily made up of their own brand of knives, which, when compared to mainstream brands are often not best in class. We built a program from the ground up to cater to the consumer needs. 

These independent brands may have good or even great knives, but they are not tested against a broad market – which is why knife leasing is so interesting for these small name brands. When they control the maintenance, they also subtly control the perceieved and implemented quality.

We carry name brands because they are better quality in general. We sharpen them as a service because they can provide years of service for most companies, and because we are experts at selecting knives for specific use cases, and we are experts at sharpening knives. We know exactly how to deliver on value, and we can leverage our tooling and company workflow to give advantages.

We use knives from major makers, including Victorinox (the company that makes Swiss Army Knives – they are also a leader in kitchen knives), Mercer Commercial, and F.Dick. These are standard leaders on the market in the mid-range level (price-wise). They provide premium materials and build quality with a very approachable, consistent knife product.

We can also build custom knife programs for your team – including some of the finest quality knives on the market using exotic steels, unique styles or sizing, and catering to your specific kitchen needs. If you, for instance need a sharper grind, or a single edge grind like those found on Japanese style Kitchen knives, we can build a custom program for you.

Not all commercial kitchens can make sense of Western Style grinds, the thickness of the blade, and other considerations with most mainstream offerings.

We work with some custom knife makers to offer exceptional custom programs, including exotic supersteel kitchen knives as needed.

Knife steel matters for a bunch of reasons; here are several:

• Durability of the edge – How well can it handle hard, aggressive action, or day to day tough jobs over the long-term?
• Edge retention – Can it hold that super sharp edge to keep food cutting safely, looking great, and without snagging?
• Day-to-day quality of life – can the blade be trusted not to rust, or are you at least getting strategic advantages to having a higher carbon content (which generally increases the chances of rusting), like improved sharpness/durability/edge-retention?
• Is it a high quality stainless steel? Stainless steel is a great material, but in the form of a knife that needs to be sharp and durable, there are some drawbacks. The biggest advantage of high quality stainless steels is that they are easy to keep food-safe, and looking good. They are also easier to keep disinfected/food safe day in and day out.
• How delicate will I have to be with the knife? Will I have to baby it? Some of the best knives on the market from a performance perspective require a lot of attention to keep them from oxidation, and rusting. They cannot be washed in a dishwasher, they often cannot be used in a typical commercial disinfection program which uses high bleach concentrations. 

As a rule of thumb any knife should be cleaned and dried immediately by hand with properly techniques. No quality knife exists where the environment of a dishwasher ever makes sense – with the possible exception of some general use flatware type cutlery made of a single metal material.

We prioritize the best mix of knife steels, manufacturers and styles to ensure that our target customer can get what they need. We also have a robust learning component on our website to help you understand what to look for in a knife, and how to use a kitchen knife and a kitchen knife sharpening service. 

A chef’s knife is a general purpose large knife that is used to do a majority of prep work in a kitchen. It is a utilitarian and essential knife that can perform all but a few delicate tasks in the day-to day operations of a kitchen.

It is generally a Knife between 8-12″ of total blade length and is constructed of a thin piece of high quality steel that has some heft and bulk to it. It can chop slice and cut, with excellent crossover utility. It is not a specialty knife for certain tasks, but it is the one knife that can do more than any other knife in the kitchen from a total perspective. It is the absolute workhorse knife and it is indispensable for any cook, home chef, or professional chef. 

Every “Chef’s Knife” should be substantially similar from a glance. But all chef’s knives are generally quite different. The general appearance of a chef’s knife is usually reminiscent of all other chef’s knives. 

The qualities generally consist of a large bulky blade suitable for cutting through large items, with a slight rocking curvature to the blade edge side, and a flat, not sharpened top edge, with a place to hold the handle and for finger/thumb placement on the rear of the blade in front of the handle. 

Other than those general appearance considerations, more often than not, chef’s knives are very different from each other.  

Handle types, shapes, and materials are different from model to model and manufacturer and manufacturer. 

Blade materials, shapes, knife blade grind angles, and grind types are different, generally from knife to knife, though many manufacturers have a specific knife composition they favor. 

Western Style knives differ from Japanese style knives in looks and action while using them. Generally, Western Style chef’s knives are considered more robust, durable for general use and easier to use for the lay-person, while Japanese Style knives are considered more precise, less versatile – depending on blade grind, and for higher precision work, where the thinness of the blade and the steeper grind angle makes better sense. 

Chefs and home cooks usually figure out quickly, which style they enjoy most – based on feel, dexterity, historical training, and day-to-day use cases. 

The best rule of thumb is this: You must be able to handle the knife safely and competently. Given that, you should select the largest chef’s knife you can comfortably handle safely and competently. 

Generally, beginners and those with small hands or small frames might consider a smaller chef’s knife a better option – something like an 8″ knife blade length (note the handle will add to the overall length).

For general home use and for those with some basic skills: a 10″ chef’s knife is ideal, because it’s big enough to work on watermelons (and other larger foods), but usable enough to do basic chopping and mincing too. 

For those with the space or who have excellent knife skills a 12″ knife can have important benefits, especially in time savings and crossover capabilities. Make sure you can use it in the space you normally prep food in. Also make sure that it is not too big for your normal menu items. A 12 inch chef’s knife is great for prep, but may be overkill for boning a small chicken or other real-time service tasks. Great for big foods, and overkill for precision work. 

The real benefit to a larger knife is the quickness in transition between food items and the ability to cut deeper or longer items. 

Food safety is also a concern. Cutting poultry with a chef’s knife, no matter how versatile the knife is, is not acceptable without washing the knife before moving to raw items that will be eaten raw, or which will be cooked independent of the poultry, for example.