A cut above
Steve Schmauch fishes in a drawer for a piece of paper to prove his point. Dangling the paper in the air, he gently runs the knife down one edge. Clean-cut strips of paper fall to floor of his garage. “People get used to this standard,” he says. Though the demonstration plays like an infomercial for the ultimate kitchen knife, Schmauch’s not in business to sell knives, just sharpen them.
“There isn’t a knife that doesn’t need sharpening at some time,” he says. (Yes, even those infomercial knives, he says, could use a new edge now and then.)
In the past six years, Schmauch has quietly built a reputation as the knife-sharpening guru in the region. He calls his business Sharp Stuff. He’s the one the Coeur d’Alene Resort kitchen staff uses monthly to keep their knives in primo slicing and dicing condition. Egger Meats and Spokane Public Schools are also clients of his, he says.
Schmauch figures he’s sharpened more than 20,000 knives.
“I don’t make knives,” he says. “I don’t even cook, really.”
He just likes sharp knives, particularly kitchen knives. The interest was born years ago out of frustration with too many dull knives and no good way to sharpen them. A bit of research into knife sharpening led him to a guy in Texas, he says, who had spent 12 years inventing a three-belt machine designed to create razor-sharp knives.
“There’s no machine like this west of Texas,” Schmauch says of the unassuming contraption he bought that now spends part of its time in his South Hill garage and part on the road to clients.
The machine, which Schmauch says he’s made some changes to over the years, rotates two sanding belts and one leather polishing belt around much more slowly than a typical workshop bench grinder that some people use to sharpen blades. The slower speed creates less heat. “Some sharpeners overheat a knife and that softens the metal,” he says, explaining that his machine won’t take the temper out of the knife.
Before sharpening any knife, Schmauch says he always takes a close look at it under a bright light. Looking directly down onto the edge, he points out areas where the light is reflected, indicating dullness. A well-sharpened knife edge has perfect angles and won’t reflect the light, he says.
“There’s a bit of art, a bit of thinking as to what you do to each knife,” he says.
“My standard is to make every knife as sharp as it can be, whether it’s a $3 or $300 knife.”
Gordy Nelson, a teacher at Shadle Park High School and avid cook, recently had several knives sharpened for himself and his mother. “They are all really sharp. They work really well,” he says. “My mom hasn’t complained, and she would (if they weren’t sharp).”
Schmauch also sharpens serrated knives.
“Most people think serrated knives can’t be sharpened,” he says. They just take a bit more time and a little bit more practice.
Even fresh-from-the-factory knives can be sharper, he says. “A lot of chefs ask me to sharpen their new knives.”
He also sharpens pizza cutters and food processor chopping blades — “basically any kitchen utensil.” Schmauch charges $3 for a straight knife, $4.50 for serrated and slightly higher prices for other utensils.
So go ahead, dig in the kitchen drawer for those knives you haven’t used in years.
Even knives that are damaged can be brought back to life, he says.
“Just because it has a bent or broken tip doesn’t mean it can’t be repaired and sharpened,” he says.
In fact, if it’s a family heirloom all the more reason to get it sharpened. When properly maintained, a good quality set of knives will last two generations, he says.
Though he doesn’t push clients to buy better knives, when asked, Schmauch will share his opinions.
“I try to encourage people not to buy throwaway knives. Price relates directly to quality,” he says. Knives made from inexpensive steel are harder to sharpen and they don’t hold an edge very well, he says. (He likes forged knives and German knives.)
Schmauch occasionally makes his way around town conducting knife clinics, such as a recent one at Everyday Gourmet on the South Hill. He said he also does sharpening at Egger Meats around the holidays, and he has set his machine up at Apple Charlotte Cooking classes in the past. At a clinic he usually spends a few minutes talking about the importance of keeping knives sharp.
Well-sharpened knives allow cooks to slice away from themselves in one swoop, rather than cutting toward or sawing, which increase the risk of injury.
“When you’re cutting a tomato and finding that you’re putting more and more pressure (on the knife), that’s when the knife becomes unsafe,” he says.
Satisfied with his sharpening effort, Schmauch hands back the knife he used to slice effortlessly through the piece of paper. “Be extremely careful,” he says. “It is surgically sharp.”