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WILKES-BARRE — If you’re not in the business of cutting hair, you might never think about how all those shears and clippers stay sharp.
But for many area stylists, barbers and groomers, the answer is a regular visit from Sandor Bohm, owner of Get Sharp Mobile Sharpening Service.
“I like being my own boss,” said Bohm, a former chef whose Hungarian accent is still strong after 18 years in this country. “I love meeting new people.”
Bohm, who lives in Bloomsburg with his wife, Amy, and their sons Alex and Levi, frequently travels to businesses in Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport, and other towns in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania, often following a schedule.
“Every 500 or 600 cuts, or every three months” is the frequency he recommends for many sharpening jobs, Bohm said as he set up his grinder and ceramic file in the Style Tee salon on South Empire Street in Wilkes-Barre on a recent Wednesday afternoon.
“They do dull very fast,” Style Tee co-owner Emil Feist said. “We do a lot of dry cutting, and a lot of deep point cutting that tends to dull the blade faster.”
“Some sharpeners take (the tools) away, and do it out in a truck,” Feist said. “I think it’s so cool to watch how it’s done.”
While Feist worked on a client’s hair, Bohm worked a few feet away, sharpening shears that weren’t in use.
“I started with knives, scissors and gardening tools at the Lewisburg Farmers Market. I practiced on my neighbors’ knives, everybody’s knives. Then a friend asked if I could do shears for hair cutting,” Feist said, explaining he expanded his knowledge by reading books and watching YouTube videos.
“You have to have just the right touch,” he said. “It’s not easy.”
Before he sharpened a pair of shears, Bohm sprayed water onto a 1-ply piece of tissue paper and cut a slit into it — with some difficulty. That little test showed they were dull.
After he was finished, he cut the paper again — in a smooth, effortless glide.
“See how nice it does?” he said, brandishing the shears. “See how nice and shiny they are.”
“Some of these shears are worth $500 or $600,” Bohm said, explaining why you would want to keep them well-maintained. “The most expensive I ever sharpened was $1,100.”
Bohm, who are recently sharpened tools at Rob and Nichole’s Barber Shop 901 in Wyoming, Posh Puppies Grooming Salon in Luzerne and Color Me Beautiful in Duryea in addition to Style Tee Salon in Wilkes-Barre, also occasionally sharpens a tool for an individual as opposed to a business.
“My mom still has her shears from when she attended West Side Vo-Tech 50 years ago. Vintage is a good word for them,” Genelle Sedon of Plains Township said. “My pop-pop used to take them somewhere (to be sharpened), but they weren’t sharpened since before he passed in 2013.”
Searching the internet, Sedon found Get Sharp and was delighted that Bohm agreed to sharpen her mom’s shears. “He did a great job,” she said. “Just in time for Nonni to give my kids back-to-school haircuts.”
