Knife Sharpening Using Traditional Methods: Why get a 12 knife sharpened for $10.00?

I sometimes get the unasked question by people who give me a 12 dollar, very dull knife to sharpen and when I say 8 or 10 dollars I know that they are surprised. Undoubtedly they are thinking, "I only spent 12 dollars on the knife, why pay 10 dollars to get it sharpened, I could go buy a new one for 12 dollars?"

I don't always get this but it is common and not just for 12 dollar knives but for anything under 40 dollars, some/many folks would prefer just to put that one away and go buy a new one.

I understand the though process behind this and I have given it a lot of thought myself.

My basic prices are between 6-10 dollars per knife, it depends on length, not quality.

If I were to charge less for a 12 dollar knife, conversely I should be charging more for a 150 dollar knife. What about the 400 dollar knives or handmade Japanese knives that run in the 500-2000 dollar range?

For educational purposes, the products I use are expensive, and they wear out, each knife that I sharpen removes material from the water stones, that is how they work. I purchase the highest quality of water stones for two reasons:
1. I know that they deliver knives sharper than most people have ever seen and they work quickly
2. I am obsessed with sharpening knives and I want the best stones there is, that's just the way it is and you should be thankful for that :)

So you are faced with a choice, pay 10 dollars to sharpen that knife you own or just go out and get another one, heck, go nuts and go out and get a 75 dollar knife. Here is what I can guarantee will happen:
In a month, that new knife is going to start getting dull, (a month is a conservative amount of time), in 3 months that new knife will be very dull and not much better than that 12 dollar one sitting in the drawer. Now you have 2 dull knives and every time you use them you get frustrated and you start losing some of the joy of cooking as a result. So now what do you do, go out and get a better knife, now you go out and buy your dream knife for 300 dollars. Guess what folks, in a few months those two dull knives in the drawer are going to have some company.

This is just a fact of properties of steel and knives, you use them and they get dull.

So instead of going down that road, give that 12 dollar knife to me, I'll return it and you won't believe how sharp it is.

The fact of the matter is that those inexpensive knives are harder to sharpen most of time than the 300 dollar knives. The steel is not a good quality, the bevels and edge are in bad shape and I have to deal with that. Remember those expensive stones, I wear those out more quickly on this type of knife.

I cannot charge less to sharpen a 12 or 20 dollar knife just because it is only worth that much. If I drop the price down to $7.00 for example, than the next person with the dull $200.00 Shun or Global should be charged 15 dollars instead of 10. It doesn't make sense, nor is it fair, and sometimes you just need to bite the bullet and take a chance.

REMEMBER, if you don't agree that the knife I give back to you is sharp, you just don't pay me. (This has never happened by the way)

I take great pride in my work, I don't care if the knife only costs 10 dollars and is 20 years old, if you are good enough to trust me with that knife, I promise you that you will be pleased with the result.

I love sharpening knives, it costs a lot of money to sharpen knives with the products that I use. Stop wasting money on new knives, not unless you intend to maintain the edges either by sharpening them yourself or by giving them to me.

Also, you do know that those sharpening steels do not sharpen knives right? They are extremely important tools but they won't get a dull knife sharp. You must remove metal to do that, the steel will not remove metal, it will keep a sharp knife sharp for a long time though.