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About Us

Their Philosophy

Tom and Laura Saxby have owned and operated The Edge Sharpening Company since 2005, and their business philosophy is simple – provide the highest quality sharpening services and the most positive experience they can to their customers on Vancouver Island.

Range of Services

It often takes a bit of explaining before new customers fully appreciate just how much time and money they can save using The Edge Sharpening. Spending some time with Tom or Laura and allowing them to walk through your business operation can often pay huge dividends. Customers often don’t realize what can be sharpened (see the extensive list on our Sharpening Services page), and that, in many cases, it can be sharpened many times over before it requires replacing.

Integrity

Because business integrity is so important to the Saxbys, they will always advise you as to what the most cost-effective approach is. Usually that means sharpening your blade, bit or tool. However, when its useful life is over and sharpening is no longer cost-effective, they’ll tell you. In that case, they can either sell you a new one, or send you to someone who can. It is this “putting the customer’s best interests first” attitude that has garnered them the intense loyalty of a steadily growing base of customers on Vancouver Island.

The Environment

Tom and Laura care about the environment, and pride themselves on just how “green” their operation is. Sharpening gets the maximum life out of a tool, blade or bit, and their precision sharpening facility allows you to maximize the number of times you can sharpen a piece before its life is over…and they carefully sort and recycle all metal that can no longer be sharpened.

Drop-off Depots & How to Reach Us

We give you three options – use our convenient drop-off depots listed below, come by our shop (address below), or for our busier commercial accounts, contact us directly at the number below and we’ll set up a weekly pick-up and drop-off.

Drop-off Depot Locations

We are pleased to offer a growing list of convenient drop-off depots. As you can see, these are places you may already typically go anyway, and where you can save even more time by dropping-off and picking up your items for sharpening, rather than driving to our shop in Victoria.

Victoria

Slegg Lumber
1496 Admirals Rd.
tel: 250.388.5443

KMS Tools
1652 Island Hwy.
tel: 250.391.4555

Island Fasteners
2625 Turner St.
tel: 250.386.2457

Lumberworld
3955 Quadra St.
tel: 250.479.7151

Home Hardware
1911 Oak Bay Ave.
tel: 250.598.1620

Sidney

Slegg Lumber
2030 Malaview Ave. West
tel: 250.656.1125

Saltspring Island

Slegg Lumber
804 Fulford-Ganges Rd.
tel: 250.537.4978

Windsor Plywood
166 Rainbow Rd.
tel: 250.537.5564

Duncan

JP Construction Supplies
2850 Roberts Rd.
tel: 250.746.4209

Parksville

Beaver Creek Home Center (Albertson’s)
1187 Franklin’s Gull
tel: 250.248.6888

Port Alberni

Beaver Creek Home Center
4663 Gertrude St.
tel: 250.724.1291

Mayne Island

Mayne Island Building Centre
652 Fernhill Rd.
tel: 250.539.2929

Do you have questions about what can be sharpened, or maybe about how our depot system works? Give us a call, send us an email, or drop by when you’re in the area. Tom and Laura will be pleased to meet you and answer all of your questions.

Contact Us

The Edge Sharpening Company
46 Crease Avenue
Victoria, BC V8Z 1S3

tel: 250.475.8818

fax: 250.475.8819

Sharpening Services

Many of our customers initially didn’t realize that a lot of their tools could even be sharpened, and have been spending a lot of money on continually buying new tools – tools that could have been sharpened for a fraction of the cost of replacing them.

Two good examples are custom profile grinding and insert grinding. The Edge Sharpening is the only sharpening facility on Vancouver Island that offers these services. Bring in an old piece of wood molding and we can create a blade that will match it, or bring in your dull profile grinder blades and we’ll sharpen them. Also, no one else on the island can sharpen your inserts… 2 more ways we can save you money!

Bottom line – sharpening your tools saves you money, and we do it in a way that makes them stay sharper longer, and allowing more sharpenings before you finally do have to replace them.

Did you know we can sharpen all these?

Woodworking

Carbide & Steel Blades, Augers, Router Bits, Planer & Joiner Knives, Veneer Knives, Shaper Cutters, Custom Profile Grinding, Template Design, Countersinks, Hand Saws, Chisels, Gouges, Drill Bits, Hole Saws, Plug Cutters, Spiral Router Bits, Carbide & HSS Insert Tooling, Brad Points, Boring Bits, Forstner Bits, Step Drills, Mitre Knives, Fein Blades, Carbide Tipped Band Saws, Stellite Band Saws, Mortising Chains, Mortise & Chisel Bits

Electrical

Augers, Bolt Cutters, Unibits, Electrical Box Cutters, Dry Core Bits, Hammer Drills, Drill Bits, Hole Saws, Slugger Kits

Plumbing

Multi Spur Bits, Unibits, Drill Bits, Hole Saws, Pipe Threading Dies

Metalworking

Annular Cutters, End Mills, Reamers, Slitting/Slotting Saws, Aviation Snips, Unibits, Taps, Countersinks, Crimpers, Shears, Slab Cutters, Hammer Drills, Drill Bits, Hole Saws, Brake Systems, Spiral Router Bits, Knurling Wheels, Punch & Dies

Industrial/Other

Paper Knives, Zamboni Knives, Chipper Knives, Bolt Cutters, Kitchen Knives, Meat Slicers, Gardening Equipment, Scissors, Jack Hammer Bits, Stump Grinder Teeth, Roto Rooter Blades, Pruning Saws, Engraving Bits, Fein Blades, Picture Frame Knives, Carbide Machining Cutters

Carbide Tipped Circular Saw Blades – Did You Know?

As a saw blade progresses through its sharpening life, the carbide teeth become shorter. As a result it will periodically be necessary to “relieve” or grind away some of the steel body behind the top of the carbide tipped teeth. According to the blade manufacturers, this is necessary to ensure optimal chip clearance, and to allow effective sharpening of the top geometry of the carbide teeth. Unlike other sharpening companies, at The Edge we do this to ensure maximum performance of your blades throughout their life.

Cost Comparison

An independent test was recently conducted by a reputable cabinet shop in Victoria. Two identical saw blades (Dimar 80 tooth ATB) were purchased to determine the difference in cutting ability between blades sharpened with our older hydraulic sharpening machine (similar to those used by the other sharpening companies) versus blades sharpened with our new precision CNC machine.

Here are the results:

	Hydraulic	CNC	Increase
Linear feet cut per sharpening (Based on actual cutting results)	1,000	1,500+	50%
Maximum number of sharpenings per blade (Calculated based on measuring carbide tips before and after sharpening and calculating # of sharpenings possible)	10	20+	100%
Cutting Capacity (linear feet)	10,000	30,000	200%

Putting it another way… here is the cost to cut 30,000 linear feet of melamine:

	Hydraulic	CNC
Saw blades required	3	1
Total blade cost ($130 per blade)	$390	$130
Sharpening cost (Using $27 per sharpening)	$810	$130
Labour cost to change blades ($18 per hr. allowing 5 minutes per change)	$45	$30
Total Cost	$1,245	$700
Cost Savings	-	$545

In conclusion, when using the CNC sharpening machine versus the hydraulic sharpening machine you:

Sharpen your blade less often.
Cut more board feet of wood before you have to sharpen your blade.
Sharpen your blade more times before having to buy a new one.
Cut more board feet of wood before you have to replace your blade.
Save significant money using The Edge Sharpening’s precision CNC sharpening machine versus hydraulic sharpening.

Customer Feedback

What are our customers saying about The Edge Sharpening Company?

Case Studies

The Edge Case Study - Island Precision (PDF)

Testimonials

“…Tom and Laura went above and beyond what other companies do when they went out and bought the equipment needed to sharpen our inserts for us. The quality of their work is excellent, and so is their service.”

Jim Barker, President
Barker Manufacturing

“Island Precision is a cost driven business, so any economies we can realize in time or money, which give us even a slight competitive advantage, can make a difference in winning or losing major bids. Working with companies like The Edge Sharpening help give us that advantage.”

Brett McDonald, Operations Manager
Island Precision

“We finally replaced our last set of blades after 5 years. We attribute that to the fact that their [The Edge Sharpening’s] sharpening takes as little as possible off the blade each time. We also noticed that they last longer between sharpenings.”

Douglas Grant, Owner
Douglas Grant Cabinet Makers Inc.

“We find their pick-up and drop-off service handy in that it saves us time. We use them mainly for repairing and sharpening our auger bits, hole saws, and dry coring bits. They do a great job!”

Derek Emery, Owner
E.H. Emery Electric Ltd.

“We have been using The Edge Sharpening service for the past couple of years with ease, they make it so easy to get all our sharpening needs done. Since we have been using their service there has never been a moment that we needed to be worried about having good saw blades around. The Edge shows up one week then is back the next with a fresh, sharp blade every time. Thanks for the great service and keep up the good work.”

Paul Moira, Shop Foreman
K & S Railings (Nanaimo, BC)

“We’re very happy with the product and services we have received from The Edge Sharpening Co. We’ve saved hundreds of dollars already by extending the life of our blades rather than purchasing new. The friendly professional pick-up and delivery service is very much appreciated. As an environmentally conscious company we choose re-using our blades to reduce our demand on natural resources.”

Michele Hansen, Vice President
D.H. Signs of the Times