One chef’s side hustle keeps Detroit’s biggest chefs in business
When the chef Brendon Edwards arrived at Los Angeles restaurant Animal in 2009, he surprised the team he would be cooking with for the next month twice over.
The acclaimed restaurant was renowned for reinforcing the depths of meat-forward cooking with a nose-to-tail approach, and Edwards was there as a stage — an unpaid trainee — to learn from the team making offal sexy with dishes such as oxtail poutine and seared veal tongue salted with salmon roe pearls.
Edwards said the Victorinox knife kit he unpacked on his first day drew skeptical glares at first sight. Otherwise known as a set of Swiss Army Knives, his unsophisticated kit gave the impression of a naïve young chef who still had the smell of a culinary school coat on his shoulders. When he accepted the more difficult knife work challenges that were thrown at him, though, Edwards seemed to redeem his credibility. He was a chef with quick hands, and a deep-seated interest in knives that would grow over time.
More than 15 years later, Edwards spends much of his days gripping the handles of knives — not always his own, dicing and chopping, slicing and smashing as a cook ― but often, the knives of metro Detroit’s biggest chefs. In the wee hours of the night, after his wife has gone to bed, Edwards moonlights as a part-time knife-sharpener in a quiet corner of his basement that he’s fashioned into a workshop.
“As a professional chef, I would say that we put part of our identity into our tools, and that identity is always about how sharp our knives are,” he said, adding that there’s a sense of peacocking that comes with working with quality, and often pricey, knives. A great knife can run a chef upwards of $500.
Edwards bought those Victorinox knives when he touched down in L.A., because he merely didn’t want to endure the hassle of having his high-end professional knives inspected at the TSA checkpoint in the airport.
Edwards cut his teeth at Forest in Birmingham, under the tutelage of chef Brian Polcyn, before traveling to Kyoto to learn from the talented chef Yoshimi Tanigawa at the three-Michelin-star restaurant Kichisen. When he returned to metro Detroit, Edwards went on to helm the kitchens at Standby, Gold Cash Gold, Metropolitan Bar and Kitchen and, most recently, Batch Brewery. Today, he does private chef work for a range of clients.
He developed a reverence for the intricacies of knives as a young, impressionable food enthusiast. “I think the start of my appreciation for craftsmanship of knives started with Alton Brown,” Edwards said. He remembered the chef and television personality referencing a selection of Japanese knives. When Edwards started culinary school, he bought himself a pair of Shuns, the high-end Japanese blades beloved by professional chefs, with Brown’s advice in mind. That appreciation, Edwards said, exponentially grew during his time in Japan.
“The way that they took care of and sharpened their knives on a daily basis was impressive,” he said, adding that the style of knife often used by chefs in Japan, a chisel or single-bevel knife, can be incredibly difficult to sharpen.
Brendon Edwards, 43, chef and professional knife sharpener, examines the edge of a knife inside his home workshop in Detroit on Friday, April 10, 2026.
There is a longstanding debate that pits Japanese knives against the German variety. German knives, which are designed with a curved blade, are known for their heft and durability, while Japanese blades tend to be sharper and more lightweight, ideal for precise cuts. No matter your preference, the broad consensus in culinary circles is that some of the world’s best knives derive from Japan.
“In Japan, there is a knife for almost everything,” Edwards said. He lists distinct knives meant only for slicing sashimi, blades born for the unique role of cutting eel and feet-long swords made to execute one clean incision down the belly of a tuna. “All of those knives have a purpose, not only out of their shape, but also out of their build.”
When it comes to whether Japanese knives are better than German, Edwards does not pick sides.
“I don’t think one is better than the other,” he said. He believes there are many reasons to keep Western-style metals in your toolkit, noting their versatility. “That being said, I think most people will appreciate and utilize the qualities of Japanese knives better than a Western-style knife.”
It wasn’t until 2020 that Edwards took on his first paid client for his knife-sharpening services. Until then, he’d sharpen knives as a favor for his contemporaries. “I sharpened because I was a part of the community,” he said. “Chefs take care of other chefs.” Now, his services run about $15 per knife.
Co-owner Brendon Edwards prepares food at the Metropolitan Kitchen in Detroit on Jan. 21, 2022.
From his basement workshop, melodic rings fly through the air as Edwards sharpens about 50 knives a week or more on diamond stones. “I’m eventually going to build a Dewey Decimal system for my stones,” he said. With eight brands of stones that range from 200-16,000 grits — “the thousand-grit stones are your baseline stones” — the library of tools will make the process of selecting the right stone to sharpen a particular blade more efficient.
Since January, he’s worked with 25-30 clients, who range from home cooks to professional chefs working in restaurant kitchens, such as Nick Elswick, the former chef de cuisine at Detroit’s Selden Standard, and the chef and author Jon Kung. “There is no one in metro Detroit who can get your knife sharper than Brendon can,” Kung wrote in a testimonial to Edwards’ work via text message. “End of discussion.”
As for the volume of knives Edwards works with, there can be a range. “Usually, when chefs give me their knives, they give me all of their knives,” he said. That can mean turning around four knives overnight for a home cook, or up to 20 knives for a pro.
Brendon Edwards, 43, a chef and professional knife sharpener, uses a Japanese whetstone to sharpen a knife inside his home in Detroit on Friday, April 10, 2026. Edwards runs a side business sharpening knives for chefs across the city.
Edwards can get geek-y about knives. He specifies the difference between a sharp knife and a bite-y one — the latter refers to the pointy, almost toothy tip of the knife ideal for puncturing foods with a tough skin — and is versed in industry controversies, like the recent Bark River Knives scam. The Upper Peninsula knife company abruptly closed in March when its founder admitted to marking steel imported from China as “Made in USA.”
He holds strong opinions about knife maintenance: “Don't put them in the dishwasher and, for the love of God, all the stainless-steel cutting boards that I've seen promoted or the glass cutting boards that your Grandma might have had — they’re the worst things ever.” Contrary to general understanding, Edwards asserts that knives are fragile and require specific care. He recommends washing gently with just a sponge and a rinse and using a rubber or wood surface for cutting to avoid dulling the blade. With knives running anywhere from $100-$500 each, Edwards emphasizes the importance of maintaining the investment.
Edwards shares his knowledge by offering classes on the stones used to sharpen knives, and is open to the potential of holding lessons on knife-sharpening.
Still, he sees himself as a humble hobbyist and a chef who recognizes the value that a sharp knife can bring to cooking.
“I just like seeing people enjoy using their knives,” he said.
Contact Detroit Free Press Dining and Restaurant Critic Lyndsay C. Green at: [email protected]. Follow @LadyLuff on Instagram and Twitter. Subscribe to the Eat Drink Freep newsletter for extras and insider scoops on Detroit-area dining.
