Kiko Fejarang has used the same knives for the past 12 years, from her time at Johnny’s in Roland Park to her reign as executive chef and co-owner of The Duchess in Hampden.

“I have to forcefully stop myself from buying more knives,” she said of the Japanese blades, which she sharpens herself with a whetstone. Though she might see a shiny new model that she likes in a store, “I end up going back to my older one.”

Home cooks who aspire to be like Fejarang will soon be able to hone their tools at Chop Chop, a new knife shop just a few blocks away from The Duchess on West 36th Street. The business, set to open some time next week, is a Baltimore offshoot of Washington, D.C.’s District Cutlery, which offers knife sharpening services as well as a range of mostly Japanese knives for sale.

District Cutlery founder and Chop Chop co-owner Derek Swanson, a Navy veteran, was inspired to open his own knife sharpening business after a subpar experience at his local hardware store.

He began watching how-to videos on YouTube filmed by Murray Carter, a master blacksmith based in Idaho. The knife maker prides himself on taking an orthodox approach to Japanese knife sharpening techniques; his online bio notes he is a “17th Generation Yoshimoto Bladesmith,” following a tradition that started in 1599.

Swanson says he picked up the basics pretty quickly and in 2012, he set up a pop-up knife sharpening service in D.C.’s Union Market food hall. On opening weekend, he recalled, “I had like 70-something knives that I had to sharpen and bring back the following weekend for people.” He called in his brother, who was then unemployed and living in Boston, for help. “I’ll pay you $1,000 to come down here a week and help me sharpen knives,” he told him.

Within a few weeks, Swanson said, customers began requesting that the brothers start selling knives, too. So they reached out to Carter. Together, they traveled to Japan, visiting ancient village blacksmiths and touring knife factories such as Fujiwara, Kurosaki and Nakagawa — plants so small they sell only to a handful of stores around the globe. “It was quite an intensive immersion into the Japanese cutlery trade,” Carter said.

Soon, chefs such as Spike Gjerde traveled from Baltimore just to have their knives sharpened by District Cutlery, Swanson said.

Swanson was drawn to Japanese knives, which are made of a harder and thinner steel than their German counterparts, which helps them stay sharp longer. While they might be more expensive than other models — Chop Chop carries knives that can cost $400 or more, thanks in part to President Donald Trump’s 50% tariff on imported steel — they also don’t need as much maintenance.

The shop in Baltimore is co-owned by Swanson’s business partner, Ozzie Mendoza, a longtime chef who began sharpening knives to escape his own burnout from a 20-year career in the restaurant industry.

“I sharpen when I’m stressed,” he said as he demonstrated the whetstone technique Chop Chop uses on most knives that come through its doors. An abrasive, rectangular shaped block is submerged in a bin of water, becoming fully soaked, before Mendoza runs the blade back and forth on its surface.

There’s an art to sharpening, said Swanson, quoting a teaching from Carter called “the last molecule principle”: You don’t want to remove even one molecule more than necessary. A knife that’s been honed down too much gets thick at the blade, requiring reshaping to recover its edge. For that, Mendoza and Swanson often use a mechanical sharpening tool to get things right.

While sharp knives are said to be safer to use than dull ones, that doesn’t mean they’re foolproof. Mendoza has a scar on his knuckle as evidence of an accident about a month ago that required several stitches. “I’m actually still in pain,” he said.

When it comes to buying knives, Mendoza and Swanson advise customers to just upgrade whatever blade they use the most frequently, rather than to assume they need a full set. But even most cheap, mass-produced knives are generally better than blades available 100 years ago, Carter said. “A lot of people throw out blades that are serviceable simply because they’re old and dull.”

For maintenance, dry your knives immediately after washing, and don’t stick them in the dishwasher — the heat and chemicals can damage both the blade and the handle. The best way to store the utensil? It’s not in a drawer, where it can hit up against other metal knives. Mendoza recommends using a magnetic board on the wall, preferably one lined with wood or leather.

Customers in Baltimore should expect to pay about $10 or more for a knife sharpening that takes about two days. And home cooks shouldn’t worry their blades are beyond repair. The store’s motto is “any knife can have a second life.”