Your knives are probably dull. New Tacoma culinary boutique will sharpen ‘em right up

I arrived at a home in the Lincoln District with a shoebox full of Japanese knives wrapped in a couple of dish towels. My ramshackle cardboard delivery revealed that I was but a home cook, not a professional chef, but Stephen Gangl said most of his customers are just like me.

In early 2023, the veteran chef introduced Tacoma Knife, a home-based knife sharpening business. It was actually the second home-based business at the address, as spouse Sarah Woodson has hosted her Downing Pottery studio there for several years.

This fall, they will bring their two passions together under a different roof — this time at a full-fledged retail storefront near downtown.

Tacoma Knife Sharpening and Mercantile joins a growing cohort of unique small businesses at the corner of South 11th and Fawcett, including stationery store Lauda and the new Chez Lafayette Creole Brasserie.

Think of it as a culinary boutique, where you could find “everything you need for your dinner party.”

Shelves will feature Woodson’s functional pottery, including mugs, utensil holders, spoon rests, salt cellars, honey pots and bowls a-plenty. In the window, she will highlight the “skyline” mugs that have been the bread-and-butter of her pottery business — that is, until the pandemic, through which demand for prettier home kitchenwares grew.

Related to the pottery, the mercantile will stock local honey for said pot, salt for said cellar, as well as other pantry goods like hot sauce and tinned fish.

Since announcing the brick-and-mortar in May, the couple has been amassing the opening collection of other retail items: dish towels, oven mitts, Hedley & Bennett aprons, cheffy things like tweezers and cool — but useful! — spoons. Importantly, there will also be top-notch pots and pans and, of course, knives.

Woodson is particularly excited about a corner they plan to dedicate to a “little free cookbook library.” (Some day they might add cookbooks for sale, but to be determined.)

The idea for the shop has been several years in the making. In addition to Gangl’s chef history, Woodson worked in restaurants and hotels — they met doing just that in Seattle and moved to Tacoma in 2016 — before turning to pottery full-time a few years ago. They went through the Spaceworks program with a “general store” business model.

“That concept has just been narrowed and refined,” said Gangl.

KNIFE SHARPENING FOR HOME COOKS & PROS

As the name implies, the shop will hold a dedicated studio space in the back for Gangl’s sharpening, a trade he picked up after apprenticing with an old chef friend in Bozeman. He invested in the equipment and set up a studio in the garage. Word spread organically through Instagram and a network of local chefs and restaurants, who began posting “unwrapping” videos — their faces in awe of the smooth slice of paper (a classic, if rudimentary, knife-testing technique) or the clean cut of a juicy red tomato.

Gangl would order boxes of old, rusty knives on eBay to practice. It’s “a lot of learning as you go,” he said in August. “Every knife is different.”

Earlier this year, he posted about a paper slicer a friend had dropped off. I immediately messaged him about the heavy vintage cutter I randomly picked up at Earthwise Salvage for $5, a relic of the since-rebuilt Fawcett Elementary.

“Let’s see,” he said. “I would love the practice.”

I retrieved it a few days later and, indeed, it was sharp as could be — as my knives have remained. With regular honing “to maintain your edge,” he told me in a message, he recommends home cooks drop their knives for a professional sharpening at least once a year.

A common question is whether a dull, maybe also cheap or just old and seemingly not-so-special knife is worth sharpening.

“Do you like it?” he would ask. “Then yes. I just want to save you from throwing away your knives.”

No knife is too far gone, he added: “I can fix anything!”

Rates start at $1.50 per inch of knife, with a $5 minimum, with additional fees for thinning and beveling. Have a chip? I did, too, and Gangl fixed it right up (starting at $5). He can also sharpen non-knife tools like kitchen shears, food processor blades, hedge trimmers, straight razors, axes and lawn mower blades — but just bring the blade, not the mower!

They anticipate an early October grand opening. In the meantime, they are renovating the former salon, trying to source materials from salvage stores and seeking community support through a crowdfunding campaign.

TACOMA KNIFE SHARPENING & MERCANTILE

▪ 502 S. 11th St., Tacoma, tacomaknife.com

▪ Details: knife-sharpening studio and culinary shop with kitchen tools, wares and locally made pottery; target opening October 2024

This story was originally published August 19, 2024 at 10:56 AM.