Covent Garden Knife Sharpening Shop From £1 an Inch: KATABA

KATABA, at 69A Endell Street, London WC2H 9AJ, sharpens kitchen knives by hand on whetstones and charges by length: £1.00 an inch for a mono-steel double-bevel knife and £1.50 an inch for laminated steel. The shop is open Monday to Friday from 10:30 to 18:30, and its usual lead time is about 10 to 14 working days. Knives must arrive clean and individually wrapped, and the owner is expected to drop them off and collect them in person.

KATABA was established in 2013 by Yokichi and Yuko Seno, and the shop still feels like a specialist's room rather than a cookware store. The shelves carry knives from makers such as Takayuki, Yoshikane, Shigeki Tanaka, Masutani and Tsubaya, plus whetstones from Naniwa and Shapton, saya covers and knife rolls. The sharpening page says the team has more than ten years of sharpening experience and has trained with knife makers and scissor manufacturers in Japan.

The work is done freehand on natural and synthetic whetstones, with rotary stones, buffing machines and belt sanders brought in only when a repair needs them. That is a different approach from a hardware-shop grinder, and it shows in the details: staff inspect each knife on arrival and often offer more than one way to tackle it, from a straight resharpening to a full restoration.

The current price list was revised in February 2026 and it is priced by the inch for most jobs. Mono-steel double-bevel knives cost £1.00 an inch and laminated-steel double-bevel knives £1.50 an inch, so a standard eight-inch mono-steel gyuto comes to £8. Wide-bevel knives cost £3.80 an inch, and honyaki double-edged knives, forged from a single piece of high-carbon steel, start at £60.

Single-bevel knives such as yanagiba and deba start at £2.00 an inch for non-traditional mono steel and £3.50 an inch for laminated steel. Serrated bread knives, which many London shops refuse, start at £18 here. Pocket knives such as the Higonokami folding craft knife start at £8, kitchen and tailor scissors at £18, hairdressing scissors at £25, secateurs at £15 and mandolin blades at £9.

For a knife that has been neglected, the full double-bevel repair bundles sharpening, tip repair, rust removal, polishing and thinning into one price: £28 under five inches, £38 between five and eight inches, and £40 between eight and nine inches. Anything longer is priced on inspection. A full single-bevel repair starts at £50, reflecting the slower work on a traditional Japanese edge.

If only one thing is wrong, the pinpoint prices are cheaper. A tip repair starts at £5, re-profiling or chip removal at £10 and rust removal at £10. KATABA also offers honbazuke, the first full sharpening that sets a new Japanese knife's working edge, and an engraving service. My advice is to describe the damage honestly at drop-off, because the final figure depends on what the sharpener finds.

The catch with KATABA is time. The page gives a usual lead time of about 10 to 14 working days and says single-bevel knives and heavy repairs need at least seven days. It also says plainly that the team cannot guarantee completion within a specific timeline. Because the shop opens only on weekdays, two working weeks can stretch to nearly three calendar weeks once you count the weekends.

Skip KATABA if you need your only chef's knife back for a dinner party this weekend. It is the right choice for a knife you care about and can live without for a fortnight, such as a carbon-steel gyuto with a chipped tip or a yanagiba that has lost its edge. For a quicker turnaround, Kitchen Provisions at Coal Drops Yard usually sharpens drop-offs in a couple of days for £12 a knife.

KATABA's rules are short and firm. Knives must be clean, and the shop will not accept dirty cutlery. Each knife should be wrapped individually, both to protect the edge and for safety on the street. Ceramic and titanium knives are refused. The terms of service add that owners should drop off and pick up their items themselves, so you cannot send a friend or a courier to collect on your behalf.

The shop also takes knives by post from GB addresses, with a printed request form sent along with the parcel. That service has become harder since 22 April 2024, when Royal Mail stopped carrying bladed items to UK destinations, so most Londoners will find it simpler to walk in. Saturday is normally closed, though the homepage lists Saturday 31 October as an extra opening day this autumn.

On a weekday lunchtime the room is a mix of chefs from Soho and Covent Garden kitchens dropping off a roll of knives, and home cooks buying their first Japanese gyuto who want to know which stone to use at home. Staff are happy to explain steel types and bevel angles, and the shop's own FAQ pages cover choosing a kitchen knife and the glossary of Japanese knife shapes.

The unwritten rule is to come with the knives already wrapped and a clear idea of the problem. Saying the tip snapped when it hit the sink is more useful than asking for it to be made sharp. The shop's blog posts about visiting restaurants and makers, including an October 2026 entry, give a sense of the circles the team works in.

Endell Street runs between Shaftesbury Avenue and Long Acre on the northern edge of Covent Garden, so a drop-off fits easily into a walk. Seven Dials, the junction of seven streets around a sundial column, is a few minutes to the west, with Neal's Yard and its painted courtyard tucked just beyond. The Covent Garden piazza and its market building are a short walk further south.

For a quiet coffee after handing over the knives, the small lanes around Neal Street are calmer than the piazza on weekdays. If you are collecting, do it as the last stop of the day, so that the wrapped knives go straight into a bag and home, rather than through the crowds on Long Acre or into a busy pub.

Address: KATABA, 69A Endell Street, London WC2H 9AJ. Hours: Monday to Friday 10:30 to 18:30; closed Saturday and Sunday, except the extra opening on Saturday 31 October. Usual lead time: about 10 to 14 working days, with at least seven days for single-bevel knives and heavy repairs. Ceramic and titanium knives are not accepted, and dirty knives are refused.

Nearest Underground stations are Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line and Tottenham Court Road on the Central, Northern and Elizabeth lines. The full price list, revised in February 2026, is on the sharpening-services page of katabahamono.com, along with the terms of the service and the postal form for GB addresses.