Tosho Knife Arts

Sharpening is typically excellent; among the best in the city. Rates for sharpening are reasonable, but the turnaround time could be improved (3 – 4 days). Pricing on new knives is a bit high, but everything is of exceptional quality. You won’t find any budget knives sold here.
Customer service is hit and miss. Sometimes you get prompt attention from courteous staff, other times it feels like you’re intruding on a hipster hangout. It’s a tad pretentious.
But… the sharpening is excellent. And really, that’s what matters most.

In the sense that the two knives I brought in for sharpening are now very sharp, I’m a happy camper.
However, customer service could be better. When I picked up my sharpened knives they accidentally gave me someone else’s knife instead of my pairing knife. Didn’t realize this till I got home, so called the next morning when they were open again. They were super grateful that I called, and I said I’d come by later that afternoon to exchange the knives. When I got to the shop however, they didn’t really apologize for the inconvenience or make any effort to make it up to me. I know it’s a bit diva-​ish to complain about not being adequately apologized to or thanked, but I kind of expected them to offer a free or discounted sharpening in the future or something. Not a big deal but will probably look up another place to go next time.

I have used Tosho as a knife sharpening service three times over the past year. They have always been prompt and efficient. In fact they just finished a rush order for me and were able to sharpen some knives in just over 24 hours. They are well informed and passionate about their craft and merchandise.

Based on some favourable reviews, I decided to give Tosho Knife Arts the chance to repair and sharpen my cherished knife. What a disappointment. While they did sharpen the knife, they didn’t do any of the desired repairs or other suggestions during the two months (yes…two months) it took to get my knife back. It was supposed to be ready in a week. They called maybe twice. I always had to call them to check on the status, and it was always some BS story. By the end of the first month, I was mentally preparing my small claims court case. I fully expected never to see it again. After about six weeks or so, someone from the store even called to say it was ready, so I drove over an hour to the store, and was told no one could find it. I was given yet another seemingly BS story about where it might be. Thankfully, at the end of the second month, I was told it was ready to be picked up. One minor fix and it was sharpened; that’s it. Two months for that. I won’t be back.

Wow!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you to Tosho for sharpening my knives so well that they are better than they ever were.
After only spending a very limited time in Tosho I now realize how worth it it is to switch to Japanese steel but in the meanwhile I am so thankful to them for having my Henckels as sharp as a German blade ever will be