Gregg Weinstock of Yorkville clearly has an edge to him, but for Jenny Close of Montgomery, that’s just fine.
“I came to see him once before and I know he sharpens knives, so I assumed he’d do pruning shears as well,” Close said recently at the Aurora Farmers Market. “I got all my shears sharpened this morning and I can’t wait to go home and start pruning.”
If there is something with a blade that needs a better edge, Weinstock is your guy. Owner of The Finer Edge, Weinstock has been a fixture at Aurora’s market on Saturdays as well as someone who has likely had a hand in many local haircuts.
“I’d say about 80 to 90 percent of my business involves beauty salon scissors,” Weinstock said. “A lot of people don’t go to school for this and watch a YouTube video and then we have to come out and fix what they did.”
Weinstock, 60, said he began learning to sharpen knives, scissors and other cutting tools when he was just 8 years old and really began developing his skills out of necessity due to other interests.
“I was competing professionally in the barbecue circuit and really honed my skills because at that point you are really a butcher as well as a chef,” he said. “My dad was a great teacher, but I did go to school to learn more about how to sharpen things and have bought a lot of knife machines out of Germany and made or modified things myself.”
Weinstock’s arsenal that is brought to the Aurora Farmers Market includes five knife machines as well as another “for household scissors” and others that will put an edge on straight edge or serrated knives.
“The problem for homeowners is that it’s hard to keep an edge on their knives and many that try to sharpen their own do more harm than good,” he said.
Chuck Anderson of Aurora visited with Weinstock recently and said he has “used his services many times.”
“He really gets a good edge on scissors, and you have to be extremely careful using them once he’s done,” Anderson said. “People don’t know but when you sharpen things with a steel rod it really doesn’t work — it just tips the blade back.”
Anderson said he discovered Weinstock six years ago “because I had a dull knife in my pocket and thought, what can I do?”
“I got the knife sharpened and maybe four Band Aids later, I was happy,” he said.
Erin Lyle of Aurora likewise said she has used Weinstock’s expertise before.
“I’ve been using his services since I’ve been coming to the market which has been about five years now,” Lyle said. “I get my dull knives sharpened at the beginning of the summer and then I bring them back at the end before the market closes. There’s no comparison once he’s done with them.”
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Sugar Grove resident Blanca Saucedo said she has visited The Finer Edge stand twice now and that as a retired person, she depends on Weinstock’s skills.
“I am retired which means I do a lot more cooking at home and the knives have to be sharp,” she said. “I’m 65, and at my age women don’t always have as much strength in their hands and I need to have a sharp knife.”
Weinstock said he normally sharpens about 100 knives each Saturday and tests each one by slicing a piece of paper. He doesn’t recommend the old tomato trick which involves slicing the tomato without it leeching juice.
“I check the edge on paper because I can feel if there is a snag or a bald spot,” he said.
Weinstock said of all the cutting utensils he has put an edge to, his favorite cooking tool is the 8-inch chef’s knife.
In terms of knives and their safety, he admits there are two factors.
“It’s true that a sharp knife is safer than a dull one, but you also have to know what you’re doing with it,” he said.