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knife sharpening trucks

mpierro

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Just wondering if anyone knows how many of those knife sharpening trucks are still out there in the city. I'd love to get in touch with anyone who operates one...
 
Wow, I'd forgotten about them. Now that I think about it they seem like such an anachronism. I used to see one in Scarborough (around Cliffside) maybe monthly, but that was 10 years ago. I have a set of stones and I just sharpen my own now
 
There is a truck that comes to the area around The Esplanade in summer every few weeks but he announces his presence by ringing a bell - so by the time people realise what he is offering they can usually not get down to meet him - running with knives etc!! There's a stationary guy who sharpens knives at the Riverdale Park Farmers' Market too.
 
I usually see knife-sharpening trucks around the Junction in the summer. I ask myself "who uses this service?" The cheap bell ringing like a poor man's ice cream truck makes it seem like it comes out of a time warp.
 
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Still hear that bell on my street in Willowdale every so often in the summer. Makes me happy to know that the past isn't completely dead.
 
Every spring we have a truck pass through Thornhill. I get him to do my Lawnmower, garden shears and and trimmer blades only. He does a great job but I wouldn't hand him any of my knives.
 
I can't recall the last time I did my Norman Bates routine - rushing out the front door brandishing a large Henckel blade. The old guy with the bell hasn't been sighted in years.
 
The knife sharpener truck grew out of the peddler pulling his home-made peddle wagon along the sidewalks of Toronto. With the sprawl of the suburbs, the distance is too great by walking, so the truck replaced the little peddle wagon. The problem is that fuel for the truck can get expensive vs. the shoe leather of the peddle wagon.
 
The old Riverdale guy used to walk. Even in the early '90s I was surprised that they still did that. Perhaps he was one of the last.
 
The old Riverdale guy used to walk. Even in the early '90s I was surprised that they still did that. Perhaps he was one of the last.

Wonder if the "food cart" bureaucrats down at city hall know about him? Would be a nice little part-time job for a retiree, if the bureaucrats don't know about him.
 
Here in the York Mills and DVP area we still have both the motor vehicle and pedestrian versions of these people during the non winter months. I wouldn't be surprised if the pedestrian guy had a car parked somewhere, I can't see him commuting on the bus or walking 10 miles to serve me and my neighbours.
 
We definitely still have this "service" still available in Mississauga. As long as I can remember. I hate them because they always make me think it's an ice cream truck, but it's not. Who needs knives sharpened anyway?
 

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