Just Knives

I needed a knife kit for school but I didn't know where to buy knives. I was stressing and stressing, searching online for knife stores in Philly (which is harder than you think) to no avail. Then I was reminded that I had forgotten that there is a knife store in my hometown! Silly me!

Buying knives can be very daunting, especially when you don't exactly understand what you need. The people here understood that I knew nothing about knives and helped me a lot. They encouraged me to feel the different knives and pick the set that felt best in my hand. They didn't even try to sell me up to a more expensive knife.

Just Knives is one of the best knife shops in the area, so it makes sense that they get a lot of culinary students from ACA. To make these students' lives easier (and their own, I'm sure) they have a kit of the required knives and tools pre-prepared and at a good deal.


The day before school began, when I bought my knives, I ran into my Chef Educator, here. He was picking up his set of knives after having them sharpened. Since he lives in Ocean City, an hour away, I'd say this is a good sign that the store is doing something right!


P.S. I also overheard someone say you could mail in your knives to have them sharpened! I guess if USPS lets you mail knives, that might be sort of handy.

I do not typically get all warm and fuzzy about purchases made on line; however, I will make an exception here. I needed to replace my old knives and went looking on line as I have not found any place that I was happy with either the selection or prices. I have made a few purchases from Just Knives and have had fast turnaround and excellent customer service.

I get my name engraved on my knives (this keeps them from meeting new people and going home with them). I forgot to put the option on one of the knives I ordered. Brian at Just Knives emailed me and asked if I wanted the engraving on the knife in question. This may sound stupid but when I have made mistakes ordering on line in the past, no one questions it and I have to live with the mistake. I will only buy my cutlery from Just Knives here on out.

I had several knives sharpened at this store a few years ago. The results were good and they provided me with good advice about keeping my knives sharp until I could call them back. I have been calling them a couple of times a day for the past two weeks hoping to ask them a question before driving 17 miles each way. No one ever answered. The outgoing message just gave their hours (10 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday). I finally took half a day off from work this morning, drove there, and discovered that they are out of business.

It would have been very helpful to me if their message had indicated that they were no longer in business before I drove all that way and back. The signs on the window say that their retail business is closed but they still sharpen knives. I will look elsewhere after this experience.

I stupidly left my two chef knives in the sink in water for far too long, and the edges got dull. I was going to throw them out and buy new ones, but I remembered watching "Good Eats" once when Alton Brown talked about how professional chefs have their knives sent out to be sharpened. I googled and found two places near me which provided that service. I choose this place because its website was more professionally done than the other one and also because it had its prices listed ($7 for each of my knives -- prices based on length of blade). I dropped off my two knives on Tuesday (stupidly thinking it would be done while I waited) and picked they up on Friday. They are cutting better than when they were new. I would definitely come back here again when the service is needed again.