Many Ace Hardware stores sharpen knives, usually on a Resharp machine for about $7 a knife, but it is a store-by-store service. Ace stores are independently owned, and some have the machine while others don't. Home Depot, Lowe's and Harbor Freight did not list a knife sharpening service on any page we could read on November 2, 2026. Call before you drive over, and use the question list below when you do.
What Ace offers, and where it varies
Ace's knife service is built around Resharp, an automated machine. Resharp's own page describes three steps: the machine scans the knife and measures its size and sharpness, grinding wheels regrind the V-bevel, then it polishes off microscopic burrs. It says the job takes "90 seconds or less" and lists "$6.99" per knife with a footnote that this is the suggested retail price. A store can charge differently.
Which knives qualify is spelled out on that page. Smooth-edged kitchen, hunting and pocket knives in stainless, carbon or painted steel, forged or stamped, are fine. Serrated, scalloped and wavy edges are out, and staff look at each knife to confirm it fits the machine. A Walnut Creek Ace page adds that it cannot sharpen ceramic knives.
The variation between stores shows up in the pages themselves:
- Great Lakes Ace says it offers Resharp at select locations in Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan, for straight-edge kitchen knives from 4 to 12 inches, and lists no price.
- Walnut Creek and Lowcountry Ace each list $6.99 a knife. Walnut Creek also offers drop-off so you can pick the knife up later.
- A Fort Collins Ace post from April 2023 says that store sharpens all non-serrated knives, plus axes, pruners and mower blades, with no prices given.
- A Hi-School Ace page lists kitchen knives and several kinds of scissors, tells you to "contact store for service details," and says turnaround varies by location and volume.
Pages from third parties put Resharp in roughly 1,000 Ace stores, but we found no official Ace count. Since Ace has thousands of stores, treat any single store as a maybe. The Resharp site has a locator for finding nearby machines. Scissor service is not part of Resharp; where it exists, it is that store's own arrangement.
Ace, Home Depot, Lowe's and Harbor Freight side by side
| Retailer | Knife sharpening service? | What we found (Nov 2, 2026) | How sure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ace Hardware | Many stores, not all | Resharp machine, $6.99 suggested price, about 90 seconds, smooth edges only. Individual stores set their own price and rules. | Confirmed on Resharp's page and several store pages; varies by store |
| Home Depot | None listed | Sells manual and electric sharpeners, honing steels and stones. Its service pages blocked our fetch. | Unconfirmed; call your store |
| Lowe's | None listed | Sells Smith's and Work Sharp sharpeners and rods. Its service pages blocked our fetch. | Unconfirmed; call your store |
| Harbor Freight | None listed | Its sharpeners page lists stones and hone blocks for sale and mentions no service. | Confirmed that no service appears on that page |
We read Resharp's page, the Ace store pages named above, Harbor Freight's own sharpeners page and a July 22, 2026 Hunker article on mower blades. Home Depot and Lowe's would not load for us, so "none listed" means we found nothing, not that we saw a refusal. We did not check Target, IKEA, Williams Sonoma or Tractor Supply. Sur La Table's $8 store rate is in our knife sharpening service cost guide.
What to ask before you hand over a knife
- Do you have a Resharp machine, and is it running today? One Hungry Onion poster in February 2023 said the booth at his Ace disappeared soon after he used it.
- What do you charge per knife, and is there a limit on blade length? Great Lakes Ace's page gives 4 to 12 inches.
- What angle does the machine cut? Resharp's page mentions the V-bevel but states no angle, and posters in that same thread asked and got no answer. A knife that came at 15 degrees may not leave at 15.
- Will you refuse my knife? Serrated, scalloped and ceramic blades are out at the stores we read.
- Can I leave it and pick it up later? Walnut Creek says yes.
What the edge will and won't be
We haven't used the service, and we won't pretend otherwise. What exists is thin: Resharp's description, a competing sharpening shop's review we couldn't open, and a 2023 forum thread. In that thread one poster called a large folder's result "OK, nothing to rave about," another found two cheap workhorse knives "very sharp," and a third guessed it lands between a pro and a home electric sharpener.
That fits a machine that regrinds on wheels. For a $20 stainless chef's knife that hasn't cut cleanly in a year, $7 is a great trade. For a thin Japanese knife ground to 15 degrees or less, or a hard steel you spent real money on, the missing angle information is the problem. Ask first, or send it to a hand sharpener; our mail-in service guide covers the options. If you want to match your knife's own bevel, see our Japanese knife sharpener picks.
When buying a sharpener beats paying per knife
At a published $6.99 a knife, the math is simple: divide a sharpener's price by $6.99 to get the number of knives it takes to break even. Our own service cost guide found Sur La Table at $8 and Misen's mail-in at $11 or more a knife on October 13, 2026, so a hardware-store kiosk is the low end of paid options.
| Your situation | Per year at $6.99 a knife | Better move |
|---|---|---|
| 3 knives, once a year | $20.97 | Use the kiosk. Nothing you can buy pays back that fast. |
| 4 knives, twice a year | $55.92 | Kiosk is fine; a home sharpener pays off in a year or two |
| 8 knives, three times a year | $167.76 | Buy a sharpener and learn it |
| One expensive Japanese or hard-steel knife | $6.99 a visit, but the angle is unknown | Hand sharpener, whetstone or guided system |
If you buy, pick for your skill. A Sharp Pebble 1000/6000 whetstone comes with an angle guide and a bamboo base, and its listing says it needs water, not honing oil. A Work Sharp Precision Adjust is a clamp-and-guide system whose listing says it dials in 15 to 30 degrees, which answers the angle question the kiosk can't. The Elite version adds a ceramic rod for serrated knives, the blades Resharp refuses. Check prices on Amazon. Our beginner picks and whetstone sets go deeper, and sharpeners under $50 covers the budget end.
For touch-ups between trips, a 12-inch honing rod keeps a fresh edge straight longer; our honing rod guide shows the stroke, and how often to sharpen knives says when a rod stops being enough. A drawer pull-through like the KitchenIQ Edge Grip lists both a carbide and a ceramic slot and works on straight or serrated blades, but it scrapes steel off fast, so keep it off good knives.
What to do this week
If you have everyday stainless knives and an Ace nearby, call and ask the five questions above. If the store has a machine, $7 a knife is hard to beat. If you own a knife you'd hate to see ground down, skip the kiosk and use a hand sharpener or a guided home system. And if your local Home Depot or Lowe's says it sharpens, take that over our page: we only know what we could read.
Sources, all read November 2, 2026 unless dated: Resharp, How Does Knife Sharpening Work?; Great Lakes Ace; Walnut Creek Ace; Lowcountry Ace; Ace of Fort Collins (April 17, 2023); Hi-School Ace; Harbor Freight sharpeners; Hunker (July 22, 2026); Hungry Onion thread (February 21, 2023). Product details from Amazon listings, checked November 2, 2026. How we research · Affiliate disclosure