‘No point in cutting with dull knives’

Sparks fly from a blade held gingerly between Grey Wilson’s fingers. He pulls it away for a moment, looking closely for some detail imperceptible to the untrained eye. After a beat, he returns it to a rapidly spinning wheel, further honing its edge. It all happens inside a trailer that contains an array of equipment and which acts as a fully functioning storefront and facility for Wilson’s Proper Edge.

Once he’s satisfied, he wipes the blade down and returns it to its owner. It’s sharpened to a fine edge, better able to complete whichever task it’s suited for. Sometimes it’s also accompanied by a Band-Aid — perhaps to drive home the point.

A regular fixture at the Soldotna Wednesday Market and Homer Farmer’s Market, Wilson’s Proper Edge is a mobile knife-sharpening and restoration service. Wilson said the central idea is taking something old and making it new again. Having now spent four years as “your friendly neighborhood sharpener,” he regularly works on knives, shears, scissors, saw blades, garden tools or anything else with an edge.

At the Wednesday Market in Soldotna last week, Wilson sharpened knives, an ulu and even a large ax with practiced, steady hands. Between each blade, he warmly greeted people who walked up with questions or with more to add to his queue of work.

Not every blade puts on a real show of sparks, he said, many knives are made of stainless steel that doesn’t spark at all. Regardless of their shape or material, what is uniform is that they returned from Wilson’s care with a clean, unblemished edge — wholly renewed.

At the markets, people can walk up with a single item and have it sharpened, or drop off larger quantities and return for pickup after doing the rest of their shopping. There are also drop boxes at both Lucy’s Market in Soldotna and the Save U More in Homer where people can leave their knives for sharpening by filling out a form and sending a text.

Wilson said he’s always had a thing for tools, including those with a sharp edge. An interest in sharpening blossomed when he got into cooking after high school, working in kitchens and regularly taking on the responsibility of maintaining the knives. Wilson said he’s not sure whether he had a real knack for sharpening or just a hungry drive to learn the skill, but “it became my thing.”

Wilson’s Proper Edge came into being sometime later when he got a job cooking on the North Slope and brought his knives to a shop for sharpening. Only a few minutes and some dollars later, his tools were as sharp as they ever had been. A thought in the back of his mind wondered why this wasn’t a regular service already available on the Kenai Peninsula.

As a stay-at-home dad during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilson said he began to grow restless and returned to the idea. He started picking up some equipment and “one thing led to the next.”

A year later, he had bought a trailer and was ready to hit the ground running. He knew there was a need for a professional sharpening service, but he didn’t know whether it would catch on or even what kind of tools he would see.

He set up his trailer outside Alaska Cab and put a sign up.

“My first day, I had a couple bites,” he said.

By the end of that summer, he was moving around 100 knives through his trailer each day. In Homer, a similar story; he joined the market, started slow and then grew to see countless knives entrusted into his care each outing.

“The business has turned into more than anything I could have hoped for,” he said.

Now, its been four years. Wilson said that in his time sharpening knives, he’s grown as a sharpener and seen generous community support, but still regularly meets people who have never heard of him.

Once the business had gotten off the ground, Wilson said, he thought he would have cleared a hurdle of awareness. Instead, it’s been more of a grind. People keep walking up saying “Oh, what a great idea,” or “I’ve never heard of this.” Wilson keeps explaining what he does and letting the work speak for itself.

Providing key support is Wilson’s wife — who supported him in developing his business and also did the graphic design work. Wilson said his business certainly wouldn’t be what it is without her.

He’s also grateful to the warm reception and ongoing support from Homer and Soldotna, as well as the wider Kenai Peninsula, that has driven Wilson’s Proper Edge to grow into the operation it is today.

“If everybody on the peninsula has 10 knives, then I’ll probably need more than a trailer,” he said.

The success he’s experienced is humbling, Wilson said, especially from those who have had their knives sharpened repeatedly over the years.

Feedback has always been positive, but he knows that the edges he’s creating now are far superior to the ones he made when he started. He’s putting out better work in less time. He sees people coming in for sharpening less frequently because the edge is holding up longer.

Wilson’s original hunger to learn the skill is still alive and well. He said he’s seeking out information and collaborating with other sharpeners to learn. That community represents a huge bank of knowledge, he said, and he’s proud to have now grown to a point where he can offer his own knowledge in return.

“There’s no metric for it,” he said. With each knife, he uses his eye and his experience to create a sharper edge, and he takes every bit of feedback to heart. Now, he’s confident in finding the edge, but it’s about creating a better finish, producing the same level of quality faster, and finding other ways to improve his service and his business.

Wilson said he doesn’t take for granted that people entrust him with their knives. The blades he sharpen are used to prepare dinner for families, have been passed down through generations, or are used in the daily work of local professionals. People sometimes fail to realize, he said, “how intimate a tool is to our day-to-day lives.” It feels important to play a part in that.

Having a sharper tool means that it takes less effort to use. That brings more happiness. That creates more space for thoughtfulness. It gives a user their time back.

“It’s quicker, and cleaner, and more efficient, and safer,” Wilson said.

Cooking can be a tremendously rewarding and fun process, and having a sharp tool takes a chore out of it.

“Treat yourself to make that chore a little bit easier, make your cuts a little bit nicer, save yourself the effort, the time and the frustration,” he said. “Everything you do with a sharp object is work … make that work a little easier.”

“There’s no point in cutting with dull knives.”

Find more information about Wilson’s Proper Edge at “Wilson’s Proper Edge” on Facebook or @wilsonsproperedge on Instagram.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.