He’s named his business Knifes Like New and his mobile workshop has a big sign that reads “By chance or by appointment.” In jest, he calls himself “the knife doctor,” and dispenses knife-care advice like a physician might do for an ailment. “I tell them, ‘Don’t apologize, there’s nothing wrong with those knives.’”Īnd yes, he says, a serrated knife can be sharpened. The inexpensive ones cut just as well when they’re sharp, he says. Kelley stops customers who start to apologize because they don’t have fancy, expensive knives. “There’s nothing like a sharp shovel if you’re digging up roots and stuff,” he says. He’s done hair clippers and chain saws and fishing and filet knives, and all kinds of garden tools. Kelley also has a standing appointment with a garden club.Īsked how often knives should be sharpened, Kelley quips, “When they’re dull.”Īnd what exactly can he sharpen? Well, just about anything that requires it, he says. And, he visits a handful of restaurants on a recurring basis, to keep their blades in tip-top shape. Some customers have hired him to come to their homes for parties, where everyone brings their dull knives. He parks the truck at a service station off Route 1 in Mystic, opposite Brustolon Buick, and takes his truck on the road to the Stonington farmers market on Saturdays, or to scheduled appointments.
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Later, he added a solar panel on top or runs off a generator when it’s dark or cloudy outdoors. Kelley invested in an old aluminum bread truck, circa 1947, that he found in Waterford and custom-fitted the interior with work benches, tool racks, machines and belts and bands to do his work. “And I figured, ‘Hey, this could be a good retirement business,’” he says. He taught himself with how-to books, YouTube videos, and a stone - what he calls Knives 101 - and before long was hooked and invested in a sharpening machine that he bought from a sharpener in Missouri.īy 2015, he was so good at what he was doing, his friends and neighbors were asking him to sharpen their knives, too.
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“It was Thanksgiving, and my wife, Sue, of 57 years, put the turkey and a silver carving set in front of me and I proceeded to mangle the turkey,” says the retired boat broker, who also had several other interesting careers, including owning and operating a wood-turning mill in Vermont and a stint selling church steeples, before turning to sharpening implements.Īfter the turkey-carving failure, Kelley decided he would figure out how to get a good, sharp blade on a knife. “I’m almost so busy, I’d like to get rid of it,” says the 80-year-old, who started sharpening scissors, hatchets, shovels, axes, clippers, cloppers, mower blades, weed whackers and, of course, knives, after his own fiasco four years ago. “Even brand new, the manufacturer doesn’t make them sharp,” says Kelley, explaining why his mobile knife-sharpening business is doing such a bang-up business. It’s the first thing Ted Kelley tells customers who bring their blades to him to have them sharpened.
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