(Photos by Ryan Morrill)

No matter the knife, the blade will eventually dull. And for many pursuits – cooking, fishing, styling hair, sewing, gardening, woodworking – a sharp knife, pair of scissors or tool is essential, and safer. For those in the greater Long Beach Island area who would like to turn to a professional to extend the life of a knife, look no farther than Harvey Cedars, home of Shore Sharpening.

Cricket McGehee, a scenic artist who travels to Philadelphia, Pa., regularly for her work, sharpens out of her north-end residence mainly on Fridays and weekends. At age 60, McGehee is also thinking about retirement from her career, at which point she could devote even more time to her side business.

Shore Sharpening was a product of the pandemic, said McGehee. In 2020, when the world essentially shut down, “everything I do for work wasn’t available, so I tried to figure out something people needed,” she explained. As an artist who enjoys working with wood blocks and linoleum cuts, a person who cooks a lot and a member of a family where, “growing up, you took care of your tools,” learning to sharpen made perfect sense to her.

First, she found a teacher: Warren Glazer of Nice and Sharp in New Brunswick, who himself pursued the trade following a pharmacy degree, careers in product development and cybersecurity and jewelry repair and design alongside his wife. McGehee trained extensively with Glazer in 2020, learning, among other things, to use a belt sander that he helped her modify.

She later took additional courses in Atlanta, Ga., to refine her skills in sharpening beauty parlor shears. As McGehee recounted, she studied with Bonnie Megowan on a Scimech scissor sharpening flathone. “You could go and train with them on their machine, and then you could stay the week and work with them,” she noted.

Back on LBI, McGehee primarily uses the modified belt sander, and sometimes whetstones, to sharpen knives and other tools for clients. This includes individuals who bring by their most trusted cooking tools, the knife they use to fillet fish they’ve caught, damaged old knives they’ve perhaps inherited or sentimental items, like the antique surgical scissors that a woman dropped off that had been her father’s.

As noted on steelportknife.com, “Sharpening at its most basic is creating a burr and removing a burr. The key is to follow these basic principles: proper angles (angles are fluid and can change based on wear and preferences, so the important part is learning to keep a consistent angle in order to create a crisp edge); know your steel (what angle and polish level can this steel accommodate?); and do not over sharpen (knowing when to stop is a large part of sharpening).”

McGehee asks clients to bring their knives, scissors or tools to her home in Harvey Cedars, and typically, it’s just a one-day turnaround to receive the items back, sharpened and ready to slice, shave, snip, cut, clip.

To contact her at Shore Sharpening, call 609-467-0736.  —J.K.-H.