Wichita chef starts a side business that could help you keep your fingers
Jeremiah Harvey knows knives.
As a blacksmith turned chef, metal and knives have become two areas of his expertise, which he’s now combined into a business that will help home cooks chop their onions with precision — and safety.
Harvey, whose resume includes stints leading kitchens at places like The Anchor, The Candle Club and the Petroleum Club, recently launched Chef Sharp, which he operates out of his home. There, he employs his skills to help return kitchen knives, hunting knives, gardening tools — even hairdressers’ shears — to their original razor-sharp glory.
This weekend, he’ll also be operating out of the Gun and Knife Show that happens from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Century II Expo Hall. Chef Sharp will have its own booth at the event, and Harvey will do on-the-spot sharpening.
Harvey’s affinity for metal started even before he was a chef, when he worked as a trained blacksmith and even helped to create some of the futuristic metal in the interior of Club Indigo, now called Industry Old Town.
Once he was a chef, he was often hired to cook for parties in people’s houses, and he’d always take his own knives with him. The hosts would inevitably notice how sharp his knives were, and he would inevitably notice how dull theirs were.
He would advise people to just get them sharpened.
“It’s such a throwaway society these days,” he said. “I really want people to save their knives. You can have your knives the rest of your life if you just take proper care of them.”
Harvey became an expert at sharpening his own knives, using tools like whetstones, small belt sanders and leather. His edges were so perfect, he developed a reputation among his Wichita chef friends, who would always ask him to sharpen their knives.
One day, his wife had an idea.
“My wife was smart and said, ‘You need to start charging these guys,’” he said with a laugh. “I started doing that, and it started getting around through word of mouth.”
In December, Harvey officially launched Chef Sharp. He charges by the inch, and his prices vary depending on what shape the knife is in. He also can sharpen almost anything with a blade, and his next goal is to learn how to sharpen lawnmower blades.
Home chefs, he’s learning, like having their knives sharpened by a real chef. His slogan is “Don’t just get it sharp. Get it Chef Sharp.”
The business also gives Harvey an opportunity to preach his mantra: A sharp knife is a safe knife.
“If you’re working with a sharp knife, it’s so much safer,” he said. “You know your knife is going to penetrate the object you’re trying to cut, and you don’t have to fight with it. Working with a dull knife is super dangerous. It’s unpredictable, and you can hurt yourself.”
Harvey said he can usually provide next-day service on knife sharpening, and that’s one of the reasons chefs love working with him.
Most of the professional knife sharpeners in town are getting older and will soon retire, Harvey said, so his business fills a need in the community.
Harvey said his next step is to take Chef Sharp nationwide so that people from all over the country can send him their knives for sharpening.
He’ll also be putting on a workshop at 6 p.m. Feb. 10 at MakeICT, 1500 E. Douglas. He’ll explain the process of knife sharpening, give tips for caring for knives and sharpen one knife or pair of scissors for each attendee. Tickets are $20 for members or $25 for nonmembers at makeict.wildapricot.org.
If you can’t make it to the Gun and Knife Show this weekend, where admission is $12 for adults, you can contact Chef Sharp at 316-670-9391. or at chefsharp.ict@gmail.com.
This story was originally published January 30, 2019 at 5:01 AM.
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