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Retail experts and consul-
tant types often talk about
adding value to the in-store
shopping experience as a way
to counteract the speed and
convenience of online shopping.
That could include, among oth-
er things, providing customers
on-site, personalized services
that simple can’t be replicated
in the digital world and give
shoppers another reason to
come through the door.
For outdoor dealers with
healthy knife and cutlery sales,
there’s always the potential to
provide customers with knife
and blade sharpening services.
Of course, knife sharpening
has traditionally been a labor-
intensive, specialized process.
Thanks to 21st Century innova-
tion and open source affordabil-
ity, retailers now can offer knife
sharpening services for free or
near-free as a value-added ser-
vice to purchases.
The Knife Robot is a por-
table, automatic knife sharp-
ener in a box. According to Jim
Kolchin, founder and company
CEO, users simply insert a dull
knife, walk away, return five
minutes later and retrieve a
sharpened knife. The device will
produce a durable edge with
less than 40-degree inclusive
angle, said the company. And
yes, the Knife Robot also sharp-
ens serrated blades.
“Finally, consumers won’t
have to guess about how
long to sharpen their knives,
because Knife Robot is not
only automatic but also smart
enough to achieve a perfect
edge every time,” said Kolchin.
The Knife Robot came about
simply because Kolchin grew
tired of manually sharpening
knives. He made his first proto-
type using a cheap CNC machine
and Arduino, an open source
software and hardware project
and community that designs and
manufactures microcontroller
kits for building digital devices
and interactive objects that can
sense and control objects in the
physical world.
The Knife Robot features
a built-in microscopic cam-
era that it uses to detect the
“burr” — a telltale sign that
a knife has reached optimal
sharpness, said the company.
Belt angle, speed and pressure
are all customizable.
It accommodates blades
between 2 inches and 10 inches
long, not including the handle.
Maximum width is 4 inches and
maximum thickness is 3/8-inch.
Sharpening belts last through
100 uses, said the company, and
replacements can be purchased
on Amazon for about $1.
Knife Robot’s technology
currently has two implementa-
tions: a portable version tar-
geted to consumers and
a built-in kitchen version
targeted to professional
chefs, each with space in-
side the machine to store
an entire knife collection.
Retail prices are
consumer-friendly. The
company just completed a
successful round of funding on
Indiegogo, in which it reached
556 percent of its goal of
$20,000, raising $111,536.
Buy-in on the Indiegogo cam-
paign was $299 for the por-
table Knife Robot, though the
company listed a retail price
of $700.
The first orders of Knife
Robot are scheduled to ship
in October.
Ruger Muzzle-Brake
by CRKT
The Muzzle-
Brake has ele-
ments from a tradi-
tional Bowie design
but is developed
with the construc-
tion techniques of
today. With its stout
full-tang blade it
can be used as a
chopper in camp or
fashioning a quick
shelter in the forest
if needed. Its clip
point blade shape,
featuring a blood
groove, is perfect
for making quick
work of butcher-
ing an animal after
a successful hunt.
The handle is a
Gaining an Edge with Customers
FLOOR
SPACE
Knife robot provides outdoor retail value-add
Sharp Images
Of course, the ultimate objective
of an outdoor dealer providing
knife sharpening service is selling
more cutlery to loyal customers.
With that in mind, here are some
of the newest outdoor blades to
cross our editorial desks.
“ ... users
simply insert a
dull knife, walk
away, return
five minutes
later and
retrieve a
sharpened
knife.”
Inside
Outdoor
|
Spring
2017
38