On a recent episode of the Shop Girls podcast, Vivront founder Joseph Ruter sat down to chat about SHARPOW, a brand-new sharpening kit designed to make professional-quality sharpening as easy as dropping a package in the mail.
Podcast Conversation:
Hosts:
Joseph Ruter, welcome back to the show! The founder and owner of Vivront on 50th & France. How are you, Joseph?
Joseph:
So good! Good day, Shop Girls!
Hosts:
You've really been out there in full force because you're such an entrepreneurial business owner. You’ve got another new product—let's talk about it. We're calling it SHARPOW.
Joseph:
Sharpow. We’re making it “bring the wow”!
Hosts:
Got it. “Bring the wow.” And this is designed for people—like my mom and me—who just can’t seem to get our act together and bring our knives to your store in Edina, which is five minutes from my house. That’s who this product is for, right?
Joseph:
That’s right. We’ve been on a quest to make sharpening easy and accessible. Traditional contraptions are hard to learn. Getting knife sharpening to the top of your to-do list? Challenging. And what we’ve found through our store is a lot of folks don’t want to face the fact that their knives are dull.
Hosts:
(laughs)
Joseph:
When you cut with a sharp knife. Even if it's yours and it was made sharp again, or it's a new one, you have this oh wow experience. And what we want to be able to do is put professional sharpening—you don't have to learn the contraption—but put professional sharpening in the flow of your every day, or your, at least your every week.
Hosts:
So now we can just go to Kowalski’s—and I’m sure other stores soon—buy your kit, and then what? How does it work? Because I’d probably just stare at it.
Joseph:
(laughs) Yeah. The teams at the meat counters at Kowalski’s—we’ve partnered with them and have been sharpening for them—they’ve even had these “oh wow” moments, like, “Whoa, wait, how’d you do that?” We’ve gone to school to learn sharpening—and how to sharpen well—but this is like a shelf-stable grocery product that has everything you need to ship your knives to us, including prepaid postage and packaging that meets and exceeds the requirements. So you buy this kit, you bring it home. Most of us don’t know which knives are dull, or which ones we’d want to send, or how many to send. It can handle up to 10 knives. You don’t have to send all 10. We also sharpen dessert knives and serrated knives, so you can include those too. You open the kit, decide what you want to send us, put them in the bag—the prepaid bag has a sticker on it—and the envelope goes inside that. Then it shows up to us the next day. We sharpen and return.
Hosts:
Oh my goodness. So how long from the time I drop the kit in the mailbox till I get the knives back?
Joseph:
If you get it in by that 5 o’clock time in the mailbox, in metro areas—we’re shipping Priority, which means it shows up to us the next day. We sharpen and put it back in the mail right away. Sometimes it’s three days, but it’s usually a four-day turnaround. So if you drop it off on a Monday, you're getting them back Thursday—or, if you’re really lucky, Wednesday.
Hosts:
So I could just eat out all those nights anyway! Dinner out. Oh my God. Joseph, could you keep them longer?
Joseph:
(laughs) Yes.
Hosts:
Okay. Joseph, how often should we be sharpening our knives?
Joseph:
As soon as you’re not inspired to cook—and you're avoiding the onions—that would be a good time. Lots of folks ignore this. It’ll be years. They’ll walk down the street with a bouquet of knives and say, “I haven’t sharpened these in 30 years.”
Hosts:
Uh huh.
Joseph:
That’s okay. You probably haven’t cooked a ton with those since they got dull. It’s totally fine for knives to go dull. It just means they’ve been used. It’s not something to feel bad or ashamed about. It’s just maintenance and service.
Hosts:
Right. I appreciate that you’re not trying to shame us for our bad maintenance habits. But ideally—if we want to keep them sharp—how often should we be doing this?
Joseph:
For the professionals we work with, it can be as often as every two weeks. But they’re doing 12 quarts of vegetables a couple times a day. So it’s really about usage. The material of the knife matters too—some knives are made to hold an edge longer. Using cutting boards that are less rough on the blades helps too. Most people come in with knives that require 1,500 grams of pressure to cut a string. We sharpen them down to 200 or 300 grams. Then we see them again, and their knife measures at 600 grams. Over time, folks get more discerning. As soon as your knife’s not inspiring you or giving you those “oh wow” moments in the kitchen, it’s time for service again.
Hosts:
So what I’m hearing is: my lack of inspiration in the kitchen is the knife’s fault. Not mine.
Joseph:
A hundred percent.
Hosts:
I’m afraid they’ll be too sharp! I’m going to cut myself.
Joseph:
Well, I think dull knives are something to be afraid of too because they’re unpredictable. You don’t know how much force is required to get through food, so people start gripping like it’s a hammer—adding a thumb or index finger for pressure.
Hosts:
Oh, you’re right.
Joseph:
But when a knife is sharp, you don’t need that extra force. The blade does the work. It slides through. Your elbows and shoulders should do the work—not your wrist.
Hosts:
So true. Not so true when the knife is dull. Okay, Joseph—I appreciate your technical ways of measuring and your string-cutting metrics and all that. I had no idea this even existed. But just for a layman like me—are we talking once a year? Once a month?
Joseph:
I think once a year is great. And then people often shift to twice a year once they get into the rhythm. So you can find holidays about six months apart and use those as a reminder. We also have a course where you can learn to use a honing rod, a stone, or a diamond abrasive to keep your knife sharper longer between services.
Hosts:
Hmm.
Joseph:
We’re happy to educate too. Knives have been a mystery to a lot of people for hundreds of years—but they really don’t have to be. We’re on this path to make sharpening super accessible—and to make the education something we can all benefit from.
Hosts:
Sure.
Joseph:
That builds confidence, flow, and joy in your kitchen.
Hosts:
So if I want to come see you instead of mailing a kit—I bring my knife...? She’s not embarrassed to show her face, Joseph. I’m not. But I am embarrassed to show my knives. So do you do them right away, or do I have to leave them?
Joseph:
We’ve got a bunch of options. At 50th & France, you probably want to visit some of our amazing co-tenants—go to the dentist, grab a coffee, see a movie...
Hosts:
Buy a dress while I drop the knives off?
Joseph:
Exactly. When you drop the same day, we’ll return it same-day. We’ll give you a quote at drop-off. Since we last talked, we’ve added appointment booking to our website. You can book a time with our sharpener. Four knives takes less time than ten. Just let us know how many you’re bringing, and we’ll block off time. You can shop while we sharpen.
Hosts:
Got it. Okay, Joseph—the knives at your home. Are they sharp?
Joseph:
Oh yeah. They’re lovely. We’ve been developing new tools, and I’ve got a full experimental set of abrasives we’re working on with some experts to bring new products to market—products that help keep knives sharper, longer.
Hosts:
I love how deep you’ve gone into this. You had a whole other career, and now this. What is it that you love about sharpening so much?
Joseph:
It’s those “oh wow” moments. When we put a knife in someone’s hand and they cut something and go, “Whoa.” That unlocks all kinds of opportunities in the kitchen. When people come over, we all end up in the kitchen. That’s where connection happens. I love taking an entrepreneurial path—whether it’s in marketing or software—and bringing something new to a space that’s right under our noses. Most people don’t sharpen. It’s a single-digit percentage. That’s a massive market for innovation.
Hosts:
Absolutely. There’s definitely satisfaction in having it done. I love this new product—SHARPOW. You can go to the website—we’ll put a link on the Shop Girls page. It’s spelled S-H-A-R-P-O-W. And Joseph, you’re at Kowalski’s now. Are you planning to take this to other stores too?
Joseph:
Absolutely. It’s not just for people who want to drive to our shop anymore. It’s for everyone. We’ve got these kits out there—and as we grow with new partners, you’ll hear more from us. We’ve already got kits in other stores.
Hosts:
Very cool. Congratulations. Thanks for keeping us sharp. He has been our sharpest expert ever. Indeed. You said that at the start, and it held true. Joseph, great to chat with you. Congrats on the new launch.
Joseph:
Thanks so much. Enjoy the day.
Listen to the episode here.
Try SHARPOW for yourself! Click here to find a Kowalski's near you