Frequently asked questions
Ordered by what people ask before they buy. If yours isn't here, email Emile and I'll add it.
How sharp will they come back?
Sharper than the day you bought them. Each knife is sharpened on a slow-turning, water-cooled wheel, then finished by hand on a leather honing wheel with polishing compound. The water-cooled wheel means the steel never gets warm — your blade keeps every bit of its factory heat treatment. After the wheel, the leather hone polishes the edge to a finish you'll feel: it glides through tomato skin without crushing it.
What sharpening method do you use?
A slow-turning, water-cooled grinding wheel paired with a consistent-angle jig, finished by hand on a leather honing wheel with polishing compound. It's the same technique used worldwide by professional knife makers, butchers, woodworkers, and surgical-tool shops.
The wheel sits in a water bath through every pass, so your steel never heats up during sharpening. That's the single most important thing for keeping a knife's factory edge-holding ability intact.
Why a water-cooled wheel instead of a regular bench grinder?
Heat. A regular bench grinder spins fast and dry — it can push the edge past its tempering temperature (~200°C) in seconds. Once the temper is lost, the steel can't hold an edge any more, even if a sharpener makes it feel sharp on the day. A water-cooled wheel can't generate that heat — the edge stays cool through every pass. The result is sharpening that doesn't shorten your knife's life.
If you've ever had a knife come back "sharp" from a quick service and dull again two weeks later, you've seen what heat damage does. It's invisible at the time and irreversible. Our setup physically can't make that mistake.
How does mail-in work?
You order online and pay one flat shipping fee that covers every leg of the postal trip. There are four steps:
- Within 1 business day, we post you a padded satchel — pre-addressed back to the workshop with the return postage already paid.
- When it arrives, slide your knives into the supplied packing sleeve, seal it, and drop it at any Australia Post counter or red post box. You never pay postage at the counter.
- We sharpen on a water-cooled wheel + finish by hand on a leather honing wheel.
- We post the sharpened knives back to you.
End-to-end time from your order is typically about 2 weeks — most of that is Australia Post, not us. Once we have the knives in our hands, the workshop turnaround is usually 1–2 business days.
What if my knife arrives damaged — or doesn't come back sharp?
We photograph every knife on receipt. If something arrives damaged we tell you before we touch it. We also include a return parcel in your shipping fee so the trip back is just as protected as the trip in.
No-fix-no-fee guarantee: if your knife isn't sharper than the day you bought it after we work on it, we redo it free. Still not right after that — full refund.
What types of knives do you sharpen?
Chef knives, santoku, paring, utility, cleavers, machetes, axes, kitchen scissors, Japanese single-bevel, ceramic, and exotic steels. If you're not sure which tier yours falls under, just pick the closest one — we'll adjust if needed when we receive it.
Where do you offer pickup?
Arcadia Vale and nearby Lake Macquarie postcodes (2280–2285), 5-knife minimum, $25 flat fee. We collect, sharpen at the workshop, and bring them back to you. Anywhere outside that — mail-in is the easy answer.
How do I pay?
Online, upfront, by card via Square (Visa / Mastercard / Amex / Apple Pay / Google Pay). We don't take cash on collection or COD — when payment is locked in, the work gets done; if it isn't, things stall.
Do you accept large orders / commercial?
Yes — cafes, butchers, restaurants in the Arcadia Vale area, drop us a line at hello@sharpenit.com.au and we'll set up a recurring run. The mail-in form caps at 20 knives per order; for bigger jobs split into multiple orders or contact us.
Do you sharpen bread knives or serrated edges?
No — we don't offer bread or serrated knife sharpening. Re-cutting serrations properly needs a different rig than what our setup does, and we'd rather say no than do a half-job. If you've got a serrated knife that's lost its bite, replacement is usually the right call.