Do Maintain
How to sharpen knives, scissors and garden tools.
Gareth Heaton
Blunt kitchen knives, scissors and garden tools. Dry wooden boards. We all have them. But maintaining your stuff is easy… when you know how.
Professional knife sharpener Gareth Heaton draws on years of experience – both at his kitchenware business and running workshops – to provide step-by-step instructions on how to correctly sharpen your tools. Using whetstones and other abrasives, you'll make them more effective and safer to use – and discover the hidden joy and satisfaction of maintenance. In Do Maintain, you will learn how to:
- Properly sharpen all types of kitchen knives
- Sharpen scissors, secateurs, spades and more
- Use whetstones and ditch ineffective home sharpeners
- Treat wooden chopping boards and season cast-iron pans
It's time to start looking after those everyday tools and utensils, break the cycle of buy and replace, and learn the lost skill of knife sharpening.
Available to pre-order now. Pre-orders will ship just ahead of publication on 2nd Oct.
Reviews
Gareth transforms the intimidating art of knife sharpening into a friendly chat; cutting through any confusion like a well-honed blade. Do Maintain is the perfect balance of a best mate’s guidance and the enthusiastic asides of a true aficionado.
Martyn Odell, Lagomchef
Gareth does a great job of distilling the concepts, materials and techniques a novice sharpener needs to get started. Buy this book and get some stones.
Josh Donald, author & founder of Bernal Cutlery
About the author
Gareth Heaton lives and works in Yorkshire, England where he runs Community Cutlery, a kitchenware business specialising in kitchen knives. Sharpening professionally since 2019, Gareth has restored thousands of knives, for both domestic and professional users. After discovering there was a real appetite for learning, he has gone on to teach knife sharpening skills to hundreds of people in the shop, at private events, and festivals, as well as online.
Product details
- Published: 2nd October 2025
- Dimensions: 120 x 178mm
- Extent: 144 pages
- ISBN: 978-1-914168-64-2
- eBook ISBN: 978-1-914168-53-6
Artwork
Photography by Jonathan Cherry & illustrations by Lee John Phillips
Paper & print details
Paperback editions printed by OZGraf Print on Munken, an FSC-certified paper
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