Columbus Cutlery

The best.

Wanna meet Michael Mina standing next to the non-english speaking dim sum master from china town looking to get their gear in top form?

Columbus Cutlery is an institution. The old couple used to take care of my knives when I was a stage at Masa's cooking with chef Julian Serrano and Co. are gone but the legend continues at CC.

Second generation leaves nothing behind.

Took my first chefs knife(which I bought at CC) to a place on Bush st bc they convinces me using a flat stone not a wheel was the proper way to sharpen a knife. Now my 30 year old first chefs knife that has traveled the world and seen so many kitchens needs to be done all over. I will probably loose another 1/8" off the blade to correct what the Bush st outfit(you figure out who they are) left my blade with a reverse slope.

God bless CC. May you live forever and never change what you do.

One of the very last old world, old school shops left if SF.

THANK YOU FOR 30 YEARS OF SHARP KNIVES

When I experience places like this, I want to sign every petition there is that tries to put a halt on San Francisco's gentrification. A shop like this is what makes up the San Francisco I grew to love when I moved here many years ago: run by a Chinese man who cares about quality work but not about increasing sales or his profit margins.

Before I get to cynical here, let me tell you how I ended up here: I had bought a nice meaty bone for my dogs and when I took it out of the fridge I thought that I might as well cut it in half and make it last longer. I took out the cleaver I'd gotten from the mother-in-law and chopped it up...well at least I tried to, but the first attempt resulted in the blade showing a hefty dent. Note: I'd successful performed this action on chicken bones before, which is why I event dared to try it with a pork bone.

Anyways, I was hiding the evidence from my other half - who already thinks of me as the eternal clutz - but eventually I had to face reality and get it fixed. I turned to Yelp and found this place. Reading through all the passionate reviews, inward quickly convinced that I'd found my guy. Last week I finally managed to make a trip to North Beach,l; I work in SoMa but I sneakily scheduled a meeting at Caffè Trieste so that I would at least kill two birds with one stone.

I dropped off the knife and the shop owner told me that it would cost 10 bucks and that it would be ready in two days. He asked me to write my name and phone number onto a piece of newspaper, which he them used to wrap the cleaver in.

Today I went back and picked up my knife. It's beautiful and might sharp. I can't wait to cut up some bones again ;-)

Step back into time and enter Columbus Cutlery, where you will receive old-fashioned service in a wonderful atmosphere. They have no Internet presence except for reviews.

PLEASE do not go here to use this place as a showroom. If you don't want to pay a reasonable price for good merchandise go straight to the Internet. But if you want to learn about the product, see a demonstration on proper use and care, this is the place for you.

I took an old friend in who wanted a very small pair of scissors for close work cutting paper. Nadia took very good care of him, including warning him not to destroy the scissors by attempting to sharpen them at home. This was not a sales ploy -- she knew he did not live close by and making the shlep was not a casual journey -- but she told him that because of the precision fit of the two blades, it would be very difficult to sharpen them at home without ruining them.

It has been a couple of months since I brought several knives in for sharpening, I've been holding off on the review to see if I felt any differently about the work that was done but it's gone from bad to worse.

The knives are sharper than when I brought them in, but they aren't any easier to actually cut with, and they've now reached the point where they are worse than pre-sharpening.

I don't know what this means in the world of knife sharpening but I'm looking at one of my favorites-a Wusthof Dreizack Grand Prix, and there are visible divots along the edge of the blade and a noticeable gradation on the surface near the edge.

Not good.

I'd been coming to Columbus Cutlery for years, first on the recommendation from some chef acquaintances, and thereafter because of the consistently excellent sharpening jobs and shop's quirky, only-in-SF vibe.

Sadly, I just had what will probably be my last experience there. The business has changed ownership, and it's definitely not the same.

The shop space itself is currently torn down, in what I assume will be a renovation. So the set-up was a little dubious, but the man at the counter said he'd been working for the old owners for a while, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I used to pay $5 a knife, and the blades came back so sharp I could do the classic "slice a single sheet of paper in half" test afterwards with ease. Now it's $8 per, and although the blades are slightly sharper than when I'd dropped them off, I can still press my thumb against my paring knife with pressure and not even break skin.

Times change, and businesses come and go, but I'm particularly sad to see this classic go.

I was strolling down Columbus Ave. this morning, hoping to find an antique/collectible shop. "I'm sure there are a few antique dealers in North Beach", - I told myself when I headed down there. Ha! As I got off the bus at Columbus and Stockton and cast a hopeful gaze up and down the street, I realized that my mission was hopeless. Everywhere I looked, people were eating. Ristorante, trattoria, pizzeria, gelateria, boulangeria, freshfisheria, getstoneddrunkeria... Mamma mia! Do people think about anything besides food and drink when they are strolling along Columbus? And then I saw a beacon of hope among the sea of gluttony. "Columbus Cutlery", said the no-nonsense sign across the street, and I rushed towards it, weaving through traffic like a starving animal, towards salvation.

Inside the tiny store, glorious blades of all descriptions glistened from the display cases lining the wall. Quiet, serenity and reason reigned supreme. Outside, a man was screaming like a maniac into his cell phone" "No!!! You comah to me now!!!", pacing back and forth and wildly gesticulating. Maybe a typical North Beach scene? The people behind the counter looked like they've been there forever, like someone you could immediately trust. My question about collectible knives was expertly answered, and I was given a number to call of someone could have more info. I didn't buy anything today, but will be forever grateful to Columbus Cutlery for saving me from spiritual starvation in the midst of the Omnipotent Kingdom of Food. And they have a knife sharpening service, too?? My kind of people!

Yes, there is a place in America where you can get your knives sharpened. She doesn't do it on a wheel in the street like you would see in a third-world country. She has a store front. Lots of knives on display. Three-day turnaround. I'm having five knives sharpened and polished for $21.00. This lady was in business thirty years ago; she must be pushing 100 by now. Maybe she owns the building, who knows?

YES. This is now the only place I will take my Global knives for sharpening. This lady is very professional. Her hours are posted and she's there for them. She is very clear about when your knives are ready and hey, guess what, when you get there -- they're ready!

As you can probably tell this has not been the case at other knife sharpening establishments I've patronized in the past.

Oh and my knife? Super sharp. The price? VERY affordable. I will be back. Often.

The Only Place in SF to Get Straight Razors Sharpened!

After searching for months for ANY place in SF to get my straight razor sharpened, I came across Columbus Cutlery. I used them for about a year, only to stop when I bought a Whet Stone from them & they taught me how to hone a straight razor by myself.

Very inexpensive pricing, quality work, highly recommended.

P.S. - When I was learning how to use the whet stone on my straight razor, they GAVE me a used straight razor to practice on, so I wouldn't have to mess up the edge of my good blade. Who the heck would do that?!?!?! These guys are great.

I was most touched by the fact when, after dropping off 4 of our best knives (3 globals & 1 henckel), I murmured something about the fact that we would not be able to cook for the rest of the week until we could return to retrieve our blades. The proprietors offered us a knife to take home on loan, a very nice gesture. Though we were promised the knives the very next day, the downside is that the kind folks at Columbus Cutlery are only open 9am-5pm on weekdays - not too convenient for the working proletariat who slave away in Mountain View. Still, by the time we got our knives back they looked great and felt frighteningly sharp.

And the knife they loaned us? Duller than some of the older, never-used knives we still had at home. Still, it was a nice gesture, and the work was extremely reasonable - $4/knife.