Good quality, sharp knives are one of the most important kitchen tools you can have. I'm fanatical about my knives...wash and dry immediately after using (never in the dishwasher!!), store them in the knife block with the cutting edge up, don't use knives to pry or scrape. The list goes on!
I attended a Thai cooking class taught by Thomas Robson at the Cookshop last year and he recommended knife sharpening at Quality Saw & Knife.
I dropped off 6 of our knives to be sharpened and was told that the cost of sharpening was based on the size of the knife with an additional $4 for serrated edges. Two days later, I picked up our knives and the total cost for sharpening was $24.62, tax included.
When I got home, I had to test out the sharpness of the knives with the tomato test: could a single edge knife slice through a tomato without mashing it? Using each knife, I sliced a ripe tomato. Each knife sliced through the tomato effortlessly, barely needing any force other than the weight of the knife itself! Oh the joys of having sharp knives!
Quality Saw & Knife also sharpens much larger cutting implements such as circle saw blades and drill bits!
Quality Saw & Knife, 2005 Quebec Street., Vancouver, 604.872.1696