Growing up I lived in a family that bought knives at places like Target and Dollar Tree. Suffice it to say, I've had more than a few knives break off their hilt while I was chopping and, it's only by the grace of God that I still have all of my fingers.
My parents are the type that look at the price tag first and if it falls apart after a handful of uses, just go out and buy a new one. This never made sense to me and I always hated how I had to just deal with the fact that it was going to be either a test of strength or a test in not cutting my hand off when I would try to cut an uncooked sweet potato with a $1.00 steak knife.
When I moved out onto my own, I thought about how my parents took care of knives and did the exact opposite. No dollar knives, no storing all of the knives in a ceramic pitcher like a bouquet, no throwing them in the dishwasher or letting them "soak" in a pot of water. Now, while my parents think I am insane for spending the same amount of money on a single knife and a pair of shears that they would spend on 120 knives at Dollar Tree, I'll do it my way to save my fingers and my time in the kitchen.
Part of doing it my way is taking care of my quality pieces and that's where Jay's comes in. I found this place on Yelp and with a less than 24 hour turnaround, I had super sharp blades again.
I took in:
8 inch Global Chef's Knife
Kershaw Taskmaster Shears
Cleverest Son's Wife (yeah that's the actual brand name) T-644 Stainless Cleaver
Total bill: $9
I'm very pleased with how they turned out and my cleaver, which was a low cost but quality purchase from Ranch 99, is now sharper than when I purchased it.
The place was SUPER busy as evidenced by the multitude of knives ready to go in and out of the sharpening room.
If you need your knives before the weekend, make sure to bring them in ahead of time (maybe midweek) because everyone clearly has the same idea to get them sharpened at the last minute on Friday morning.