LONDON, ONT. -- It may look and sound dangerous, but it’s a business that 13-year-old James Peggs started just months ago called 'The Sharpest Knife In the Block.'
“My grandpa taught me how to sharpen knives because I didn’t have anything to make money with and I wanted to make money,” he says.
While most youth his age aren’t encouraged to work with knives, James says it came natural after spending lots of time when he was younger on a family farm.
“We were always out on the farm and we always had bows and arrows and axes and other kinds of weapons so it wasn’t as scary as other kids because it was a different experience.”
James bought all the equipment to start his knife sharpening business himself, and it was in the middle of the pandemic that he got his business up and running.
“Now business has just been booming,” he says.
James sharpens everything from knives, to scissors, hatchets, gardening sheers even lawnmower blades and chainsaws.
“Because he was taught by my dad who has had a knife-sharpening business for years, I knew he was getting solid skills and I knew they were doing things as safely as they possibly could,” says his mom, Aspen Peggs.
This isn’t James’ first brush with entrepreneurship, he was actually eight years old when he started a recycling business in Yellowknife, NWT called The Recycling Guy.
“I started off with five customers with a couple of neighbours and then after the 2.5 years I lived there before we left I had 55 customers a week,” says James.
The young entrepreneur says he’s always thinking of business ideas, and has big plans for the money he’s making.
“With my profits, I put 10 per cent in my retirement fund, and I put 10 per cent into my givings, which is for charity type of things, and the rest goes into my chequing account where I’m saving for a Camaro.”
A white Camaro to be exact, which he plans to have when he turns 16.