Help! Knife Sharpening in LA, Westside preferred

My Santa Monica guy who worked out of his home retired.
My knives are a joke…
HELP

Haven’t been in a year, but there was a good knife sharpener at the Sunday Mar Vista Farmers’ Market. If you can’t find someone on the Westside the electric shaver shop on Victory just east of Sepulveda does an excellent job on knives.

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Magnus?

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There’s a guy at the Brentwood Farmer’s Market (cannot recall his name or contact info to save my life). He’s at the southern end of the market (along Montana).

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Just curious, do they sharpen with whetstones?

yes

Nooooooooooooo!

Just spoke to Laurence. I guess I’ll give him a try - thanks, PGL

Hitachiya near PCH and Crenshaw sharpens Japanese knives. A heavily worn blade will be back in working order for $30.

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Oy, no idea. Here’s his website:

Hope it works out for you! The knives he sharpened for us were sh*t to begin w/, so hard to judge his skill based on that. We have since gotten a Victorinox santoku knife that has thankfully not needed any sharpening yet (but it’s pretty new).

He seems knowledgable enough, though, and he also seems to get a decent amount of business.

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Looks like he uses a belt.

@CiaoBob depending on how much you value your knives, you might wanna go another route since using a belt removes a lot of steel…

Thanks.
Good Intel Gathering!
My knives are nothing (but dull).
So that doesn’t matter to me. It’s close and easy enough to take care of…that matters more.

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Nope. Grinders.

Brentwood Farmers Market on Sundays. There is always an excellent knife sharpener there.

How could Magnus retire? Doesn’t he know we depend on him? I’m surprised he doesn’t have someone he’s referring to.

Evidently Magnus had quite the reputation

I used Gary’s Mobile Knife Sharpening once. At the time, he was doing ACA Butchershop knifes, but they do their own now. He came to my house and did all my knifes, scissors, and gardening tools. The knifes were sharp, but I thought they could be sharper. So then I tried Magnus, after reading all his amazing reviews, but my knifes were no sharper with Magnus than with Gary. So I’m going back to Gary. Gary also encouraged me and taught me how to take care of my knifes with a steel blade, which has really helped with the day to day use.

https://www.garysknifesharpening.com/

I’ll let you know how this latest sharpening goes!

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I never tried this place, but I remember reading the article in the Times.

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Opps, it was already suggested!!

I can’t afford JKI so I go to Anzen Hardware in Little Tokyo for knife sharpening by whetstone (by hand on whetstone, no mechanical grinders).

The owner is an elderly Japanese gentleman who’s a Hiroshima native (I think his name is Nori Takatani). His turnaround time varies from 3-7 days - I usually pick my knives up in a week or so.

It seems quite a few LA restaurant chefs use him — lots of business cards tacked to the wall. I’ve been taking my knives here for the last 3 years.

Caveat: He does caution against the use of a honing rod - he showed me how I had inadvertently damaged my knifes before I brought them in for sharpening.

Anzen Hardware
309 E 1st St
Los Angeles 90012
(213) 628-7600

PS: If you can’t find metered parking on the street, the Aiso parking lot on Aiso and 1st streets is reasonable at $2 for the first 2 hours.

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