Although the profession has all but disappeared, in the past, knife sharpeners used to ride around the neighborhood plying their trade on bicycles that were specially modified with a grindstone. They would blow a whistle to let people know that they were coming and housewives would send their dull kitchen knives to be sharpened. Muhammed Idris who has worked as an itinerant knife sharpener for decades said he inherited the profession from his forefathers. When he was young, he modified his bicycle with a belt, a set of pulleys and a grindstone to make a mobile knife sharpening machine. By kicking the bicycle up onto its stand and engaging a gearing system, he is able to use the power of his legs to drive a grindstone and sharpen knives. Idris said, “After the passage of all these years, I still move from one neighborhood to another looking for customers. Sometimes I spend the whole day moving about under the scorching sun, pedaling from one street to another, without getting a single customer. However, these days I do not go out until after Asr prayers because most people are not at home in the morning.” Brand names Shawqi Ali, 55, said that most knives today are cheap and of inferior quality, and as a result, housewives throw them away once they become dull, adding “This explains why most knife sharpeners replaced their grindstones with files because cheap knives break if they are sharpened on a grindstone.” He said he has stopped roaming around neighborhoods looking for work and has instead settled down at the fish market where the workers engaged in cleaning fish frequently need to sharpen their knives and cleavers. “I sometimes receive customers from villages who come to sharpen some of the old knives which they keep as souvenirs.” Disposable plastic knives Eid Saleh Al-Mahmoudi, 53, said, “My father inherited the profession from his grandfather who had a small shop for sharpening knives and after sometime my father succeeded in expanding the business by adding a place for selling knives. He was very keen on selling quality brands, and thus, he started importing knives from India and China.” “But with the appearance of disposable plastic knives, the demand for quality brands decreased and many people in the business, including my father, stopped importing such quality brands and replaced them with inferior ones. Eventually my father had to shut down the shop because he could not pay the accumulated rent. After my father's death, I reopened the shop, but I limited my activity to knife sharpening. Sometimes I stay for two or three days without having a single customer,” he said. He recalled that once a Bedouin came to him carrying an old knife which he said his father had inherited from his grandfather. The man wanted the knife sharpened and said he would be back to collect it after he finished his shopping. Al-Mahmoudi waited until late at night for the man to come to collect the sharpened knife but he never came. “Then,” the knife sharpener continued, “to my surprise after seven months, the Bedouin came and asked me to give him the knife. He apologized for not coming sooner but explained that he did not know how to find my shop since all the shops in the market look the same. Eventually one of his relatives, who was my customer, guided him to my shop. He paid me generously for he never thought that after all this time he would find his knife.” One piaster Muhammed Amin Masoud, aged 79,still remembers the old days when he rode around Jeddah's neighborhoods on his bicycle looking for customers who needed their knives sharpened. “I used to charge my customers one piaster for each knife I sharpened, and with the passage of time, I increased the price to two piasters and eventually it became four piasters. At that time, knife sharpening was a profitable business and I even thought of moving to Makkah because of the great demand for the service especially during the Haj season,” he explained. He said he was expert in maintaining the knife sharpening bicycle pointing out that he had bought the bike from the heirs of “uncle” Mabrouk, the man from who he learned the profession. Masoud said that his mother took him to Mabrouk when he was seven years old to serve as an apprentice, and that after working with him for a number of years, he was able to earn money on his own and help support his mother after his father died. Ibrahim Abu Sharara,74, said that he was known throughout the neighborhood by the nickname Sharara which means “spark”. Children in the neighborhood used to call him “Abu Sharara” because the grindstone he used emitted sparks whenever he sharpened knives or scissors. He said he loved the profession which he had learned by himself, adding that at the beginning of his career 60 years ago, he had cut two stones from a mountain in Makkah and used them to sharpen his mother's knives. “I gradually developed my skills by acquiring a knife sharpening bicycle which my uncle bought for me and since that time, I have earned my living from this profession. In fact, I repaid my uncle for the bicycle in installments. I insisted on repaying him because I did not want to begin my life depending on others. You really appreciate the honor of earning your living from your sweat,” he said.
