Make sure there's never a dull (knife) moment

Sunrise Sharpening

579 Sunrise Hwy.,

West Babylon, 631-983-8700A dull knife is a useless knife, but Long Island has been without a proper knife-sharpening venue since Morty the Knife Man left Farmingdale for Florida and the Viking Culinary Center closed in Garden City. Now, the void has been filled by Sunrise Sharpening, which opened in February.

Owner Richard De Vito comes from a long line of knife sharpeners. His family owned the venerable Manhattan business Delbon Cutlery, established in 1840, moved from the city to Centereach in the 1980s and closed in the 1990s.

The little storefront on the Sunrise Highway north service road consists of little more than a counter and a table. The table houses an electric grinding wheel and a rag-rimmed polishing wheel. This is where De Vito plies his trade. He holds a knife delicately, as if leading it in a waltz, pressing it back and forth at just the right angle against the spinning wheel. First one side, then the other, until he sees the burr rise. The burr is the tiny line of teeny steel shavings ground off by the wheel, leaving a new sharp edge. De Vito uses the polishing wheel to polish off the burr, then he goes over the blade with an even less abrasive "Arkansas stone" to finish the job by hand.

De Vito sharpens knives for chefs and butchers, shears for barbers and upholsterers. "Most chefs sharpen their knives once a week," he said. "Hair dressers, once a month. For most home cooks, I'd advise every few months for the knives they use the most."

De Vito will sharpen anything you bring him, charging $1 per inch of blade length. (He also sharpens serrated knives for an additional $1 per knife.) He's there from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, from

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.