Woodworker Turned Blade Sharpener's Business is More Than Craftsmanship

While working in cabinetry, Rich Mikula didn’t have to deal with people. He had his area of the workshop, and he simply needed to perform his tasks well.

When he started his blade sharpening business, he had to earn customers and build a reputation, all while managing his own expenses.

After about 30 years working in cabinetry, 56-year-old Mikula from Crest Hill was laid off. In the three years since, Mikula adapted a new set of skills and started his own business sharpening blades in a mobile workshop. The experience has opened Mikula's eyes to the many .

“When you go to a store and buy something, you might wonder why does it costs so much,” Mikula said. “Now I see someone had to make it. Someone had to build it.”

Mikula approached hardware and sporting goods stores, big and small, about setting up his trailer outside and working on blades. But what seemed like miles of bureaucratic approval needed for corporate chains to allow his presence on site, even in a trailer, wasn’t likely to yield fruit. Mikula soon learned that some sharpeners hit the road for two months at a time, stopping at different businesses and working along the way.

“I went through Will County stopping at around 300 different places,” Mikula said. “Salons, dog groomers, upholstery shops. Sometimes you get a hit but sometimes you don’t.”

Being able to set his up workshop trailer quickly for sharpening, and turning out freshened blades just as fast helped convince people, with his rates between $5 and $15 per blade.

“Instead of paying another $40 or so for a new implement, I can make it just as good as new, if not better,” Mikula said. “Not everyone has money for new stuff. That and other places will keep it for a week, where I’ll fix it on the spot.”

Different Hats of Owning a Business

Mikula soon learned getting customers convinced had a lot to do with trust. Interacting with customers was a new obstacle for Mikula, especially when some people are easier to please than others.  

“I have to please them and do a good job no matter what,” Mikula said. “No matter what they say I have to try to be polite. Still, some people won’t be happy no matter what.”

In 2010, , including Orland Park's, and found more salons to take his service.

“That’s when this was rolling a lot better,” Mikula said.

At the farmers markets, a customer might start with one blade. A woman once brought him a butcher knife the size of a machete. He’s also been given antique farming implements and even a long, curved blade used for taxidermy. The taxidermist was excited to find Mikula, telling him he has a hard time finding sharpening services.

“He was telling me it can’t be too sharp, otherwise it’d pierce the skin,” Mikula said.

If they are happy with the work, then more items often follow throughout the summer, such as lawn mower blades, scissors and other items. That person tells their friends, and they then dust off old cutting tools they thought were no longer useful. The original social marketing that so far has been more fruitful for Mikula than forms of advertising.

“You can put a website out there, but if they don’t know you’re there they may not find you,” Mikula said. “You need to knock on doors.”

Over the last two years, Mikula has been a fixture at markets in Frankfort, New Lenox, Kankakee, Homer Glen, Bolingbrook and Channahon along with Orland Park.

The Tinkerer

Mikula has heard stories about a man who’d travel Chicago’s South Side with a basic sharpening stone, going door-to-door sprucing up people’s cutlery. Such services that fix items are becoming fewer and fewer, Mikula said.

 “It might sound sappy, but people really are thankful when they can get something fixed,” Mikula said. “All I’m really doing is making something work better.”

Mikula’s desire to fix items that stopped working, or don’t work as well, has been a part of him long before sharpening. This business gives him a chance to do something that makes him happy.

“I was called a tinkerer,” Mikula said. “I thought it was some Disney thing, but I looked it up and it basically means a ‘mender of metals.’ To me, that’s a compliment.”

Recycling daily waste, such as paper, plastic and metal cans, has been in practice for the better part of two decades. Recycling items of greater permanence, such as electronics, is a relative newer practice.

But to Mikula, plenty of items could simply be fixed.

“Steel doesn’t go bad if its cared for,” Mikula said. “I’ve always tried to work the notion of recycling and reusing into this. It becomes more and more important. That and I really like the diversity of what people bring me to fix.”

Rich’s Sharpening Service can be reached at 815-302-5757.

Look for him this summer at Orland Park’s Farmers Market.

Visit his website for a pricing guide and other information.

With the changing economy, the way people define the American Dream also is changing. Got a story to tell about ? Contact Editor Ben Feldheim at Benjamin@patch.com.