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Knife sharpeners fall into two categories. There's the store-bought kind -- those long, thin sharpening steels chefs and home cooks use to keep knives ready. There is also the human kind, people so consumed with creating a well-balanced, razor sharp edge, they've made it their life's work. Such is the case with Doyle Hanson. The New Orleans-based traveling knife sharpener has performed his craft throughout the region for the last 20 years.

Lawn and garden equipment, beauticians' scissors, pet grooming clippers, and especially, culinary knives are among the blades Hanson takes on. He says it started in his Northern Iowa childhood, when grass cutting responsibilities and the slow rhythm of the farm, gave him both the inspiration and the time to sharpen sickles, scythes and more. He began sharpening everything in sight and reading everything he could about the ancient craft. Years later, as a commercial diver in Louisiana, he sharpened the knives of his fellow divers to kill time. Then, when a career change led him to tend bar in New Orleans, the hobby took a serious turn. He sharpened dull knives to speed up the daily slicing of lemons and limes, and demonstrated his success to his colleagues by shaving the hair off his forearm. The cooks handed over their kitchen knives immediately. Over the years, Hanson's equipment became more sophisticated and his client list grew. What never changed was his enthusiasm or his strong opinion about how it's done.

"You can really mess it up," says Hanson about the delicate back-and-forth of defining a new edge. "Ninety-nine percent of chefs do not know how to sharpen properly. It's not something they learn to do right in cooking school."

Hanson is available the first and third Saturday of every month at the Red Stick Farmers Market, including this weekend, or by appointment, (504) 227-1101.

To read previous Du Jour features on local chefs and other culinary experts, click here.

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