Editor’s note: Intuit works to create awesome product experiences and moments of delight for our customers. We also appreciate others who do the same. Intuit’s Michelle Rau found a knife-sharpening business owner in Washington who’s on the cutting edge of both.
My knives are sharp. Eerily sharp. Wicked sharp. I tilt my butcher knife to catch the light from the stove hood and watch the edge of the blade disappear into what looks like infinity.
Yes. These are some seriously sharp knives. 
“Feeling my way toward infinity” is in fact what Eliot Smith calls his process of sharpening knives, a mindful and absorbing ritual that involves progressively finer sanding belts. As the self-annointed Patron Saint of Knives, it is Smith’s sacred duty to restore brilliance and function to the abused, the neglected, the dull and the lost.
Smith runs his knife-sharpening small business from his home in Vancouver, Wash. For a very reasonable fee, he makes kitchen knives, pocket knives, loppers, scissors or just about anything meant to separate anything from anything else sharp enough to do what it’s supposed to.
My awe and amazement of Smith’s metallic ministrations began before I even opened the paper-wrapped bundle I’d picked up from his secure lockers. The care with which Smith had taken to protect what he knew was fine work – and to protect my fingers – was evident. I peeled off the embossed seal, snipped the colorful raffia twine, and gently pulled on fresh green plastic wrap. The anticipation was killing me. Then they were before me, my beautiful kitchen tools.
I knew they were sharp by the supernatural glow along the edge. I could follow their renewed curves with my eye. Then I proceeded to scare the heck out of myself by test-shredding the slick paper they all came wrapped in. Wow!
At Intuit, we call these “moments of customer delight.” I was delighted. And thrilled, inspired, and grateful! What was it about this experience that made it so special?
Smith’s excellent service intersected with my values in ways that were meaningful to me. My parents taught my brother and I a healthy respect for tools and knives. They taught us to value attention to detail, visible results, a solid work ethic and quality workmanship. I watched Smith at work in a video well before I wrapped these extensions of myself in a dishtowel. As video Smith demonstrated his mastery and prepared a butcher knife for delivery, I thought, “This is a man who takes pride in his work. I want to do business with him.”
My instincts were correct. Once unwrapped, one blade whispered through mushrooms, another quickly reduced potatoes down to hash. I felt a tremor of anticipation as I pulled the big oak-handled French chef from its slot. It made quick work of one of the thickest, toughest carrots ever destined for a pot pie. It seemed a sin to return its flashing beauty to the dim interior of the wooden knife block.
Smith has just made my life easier, because these knives do some of my work for me. How can I, as an Intuit employee, contribute to the creation of tools as fine, sharp and simple as this for our small business customers? Smith and his wife have been using TurboTax for years. Now they are considering using QuickBooks for their business accounting. I want Smith to be as thrilled to use QuickBooks as I am to use the knives he sharpened for me.
Knowing what using these tools feels like –- joy! delight! -– is a powerful motivator. I will seek to find the intersection of need, value, and delight in my own day to day work.
Thank you, Patron Saint of Knives. I’m not just a fan on Facebook….I am now a believer.
Photos: Top: Patron Saint of Knives Eliot Smith uses a sanding belt to refresh a blade edge. Middle: Vintage knives restored to full function. Bottom: Smith creates the razor’s edge that razors are known for.
