About one month ago I was sitting on the stoop when this van, it’s bell merrily ringing, pulled up outside the apartment. A mobile knife grinder! The perfect story. Only Mr Del Re wasn’t having any of it. Which is a shame really because he would have made a great City section piece for the New York Times. I let it pass. After all, you can’t force the poor, noble, knife grinder to do an interview.

But a couple of days ago, there I was, sitting at my computer, when I heard that familiar bell again. This time, I grabbed my camera, pulled down the window, gave him some lead, and took a couple of shots.

Google-searching D Del Re didn’t bring much in the way of results, but a few sneaky searches later and I found out that Mr Del Re was profiled in the New York Times on June 29, 1997! He was born in Mola, Italy, is about 49 years old (41 in 1997), and is one of the last mobile knife grinders in New York.

Mr Del Re used to work as a commodities trader but his firm went bust in the 1987 Wall Street Crash. He did not regret losing his job (apparently he used to fall asleep on the subway on his way home) so when his father-in-law, also a knife grinder, suggested that he buy that 15-foot truck from an “uncle Frank in Montreal” he leapt at the chance.

Mr Del Re runs his business out of the back of the truck, the workings of which, according to the Times, are fairly simple:

Inside are four wheels mounted into the truck’s side and connected to an eight-horsepower engine. First he rubs the blade carefully back and forth across the rough grinding stone. When he judges the blade sharp, he buffs it. Then he uses an oilstone to remove metal scraps. Often he will banter with the customer. “You know how to keep a knife sharp?” he sometimes asks. “Don’t use it.”

The Times article was accompanied by a chart and photos with other “Voices from behind the grinding wheel”. My favorite is Giacomo Iammatteo, 68, of Staten Island.

TIME IN BUSINESS: 49 years.
NATURE OF BUSINESS: Has a truck (semi-retired).

“The business is not like it used to be. The new generation doesn’t bother with it. In the old days people needed many things sharpened. The people brought out axes, scissors, knives. Before you had shears and rotary lawn mowers to cut grass. Now you have weed whackers. People just don’t need as much sharpening as they used to.”