If you’re anything like us, you have a drawer full of painfully dull knives that you’ve been meaning to get sharpened for, like, forever—you just haven’t gotten around to it. No more excuses.
After years of dilly-dallying, we finally dropped off a dozen knives—including three beloved Japanese blades, a Chinese cleaver, and a bread knife from Santa Fe Stoneworks—at the Tera Forge booth in the Kingfield Farmers’ Market.
Mark our words: We will never go back to our old lazy ways, hacking off fingertips and massacring every tomato we meet. Our knives are sharper than Joe Jackson now, making everything we do in the kitchen about 200 times easier/better.
Tera Forge was founded by expert bladesmith Stephen Aysta. In Christmas of ’78, his father gifted him a knife kit that would change his life. It featured a drop point hunter blade from Sheffield and a handle made of cocobolo, a type of tropical hardwood.
“I was a little young for the drilling and bandsaw work,” Aysta remembers, “but I watched Dad intently as he went about assembling the components. Once the epoxy cured, I went to town with files and sandpaper, shaping the handle. That knife and the sheath we made looks as great today as they did [back then].”
Photo by Tera Forge
Aysta has been building knives from scratch ever since: Most of his blades are constructed by hand from carbon steel. The handles are made with burl wood sourced in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, and then sent to a wood stabilizer in Iowa, which Aysta says “really brings out the best figure for a visually stunning handle.”
For peeps just looking to fine-tune their current collection, Aysta’s sharpening prices are beyond fair: $4 for small knives, $5 for medium knives, $6 for large knives and cleavers; $8 for serrated knives, hatchets, and scissors that don’t require disassembly; and $12 for garden pruners, lawn mower blades, axes, and scissors that do require disassembly.
Aysta offers three ways to sharpen up: (1) Drop off and pickup at his home in Roseville, where turnaround time is 24 hours but immediate service is available upon request. (2) Hire him to sharpen knives in your home, restaurant, or workplace. The $35 mobile service fee covers four knives of any size or two scissors. Or (3) catch him at one of four farmer’s markets like we did and he can sharpen while you shop. He’s at the Northeast Farmers’ Market every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through October 16, 2021; the Kingfield Farmers’ Market every Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. through October 24, 2021; the Nokomis Farmers’ Market every Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m. through September 29, 2021; and the East Isles Farmers’ Market every Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. through September 23, 2021.
To arrange a sharpening session or request a quote on a custom knife, email Aysta at teraforgeknives@gmail.com or text 612-548-1834. 🔪
