Have you noticed your knives are getting a bit dull or your pruning shears aren’t clipping your hedges as smoothly as they once did?

The Rancho Bernardo Woodcrafters can help with that.

Since 2012 the club has been offering a low-cost sharpening service as a fundraiser to supply its woodshop with items such as hand tools, nails and sandpaper.

While the club in Seven Oaks benefits from the money raised, members say that due to the hundreds of items brought to them for sharpening they are also clearly filling a need in Rancho Bernardo, Poway, 4S Ranch and adjacent communities.

Their next sharpening event will be held from 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13 at the Seven Oaks Community Center, 16789 Bernardo Oaks Drive in RB. Based on past events, members are anticipating several days of work as they fix an assortment of knives, scissors, garden equipment and household tools.

With this service offered every other month, the next dates for sharpening are Oct. 8 and Dec. 10.

Payment is by cash or check only, usually paid at drop-off. Member Scott Nelles said items are given an initial assessment because some tools are just too old or rusty and need to be replaced, especially if not a high-quality tool.

“Sometimes they are just too far gone,” Nelles said.

It has become such a popular service, with hundreds of items brought in, that now it usually takes a few days for items to be repaired, said member Mike von Radesky. A pick-up appointment is scheduled after the item is repaired.

The fees are low, at least half the price of a professional sharpener, Nelles said, adding few stores in the area offer the service.

A woodshop was included at the Seven Oaks Community Center when it was built in the early 1960s. The center provides and maintains the large professional-level equipment while hand tools and supplies (like sandpaper, nails and wood glue) are purchased and maintained by the nonprofit Rancho Bernardo Woodcrafters.

Members must be Seven Oaks residents and pay $35 per year for woodshop access after completing a safety training.

Von Radesky, 83, said that in 2012 the annual dues were $20 and not enough for the club to replace supplies. So a monthly knife sharpening service was offered to Seven Oaks residents as a fundraiser.

“We thought we struck a gold mine,” von Radesky said of the first event that raised $73.

After a couple years the club added scissor sharpening. By the third year, members also sharpened garden tools and that greatly increased demand.

“We have a lot of serious gardeners here ... and we came to the realization that with more customers we could make more money,” von Radesky said, adding that the fundraiser grew to $150 to $180 per month. “Our bank account started looking good.”

With several of the 60 members trained on how to sharpen and repair tools, the club decided to offer the service to those throughout Rancho Bernardo, 4S Ranch, Poway and adjacent communities.

“We started making $400 to $500 and had to pinch ourselves,” von Radesky said. “We did not realize it would get this big.”

When the pandemic began everything came to a halt. For many months the center was closed. When it reopened there were restrictions, such as a limit of two people in the woodshop to maintain social distancing.

As restrictions lifted, the club resumed its fundraiser. Its first sharpening event was in September 2021. With no sharpening events for 18 months there was a “tremendous demand” with hundreds of items brought, Nelles said.

“We had a line into the parking lot,” von Radesky said. “They were coming in faster than we could possible take care of them that day.”

For 2022 the club decided to offer the service every other month so members have time to repair what is brought in and take a break before the next event.

Knives with a plain blade are $4 each; a serrated blade are $6, extra because sharpening is by hand. Knives include culinary, hunting/skinning, pocket, boning, pizza, leather-cutting and linoleum.

Scissors are $4 each. This includes paper, kitchen, medical, fabric/pinking shears and hair-cutting scissors.

Garden tools (single or double edge) that do not require disassembly and reassembly for sharpening are $5 each. Garden tools with a double edge that require disassembly and reassembly to sharpen properly are $10 each. Tools include pruning shears, branch loppers, hedge clippers, axes, hatchets, hoes, picks, machetes, trowels, shovels, pitch forks, sickles, pruning knives and weeders.

If garden tools need to be disassembled other repairs will be done. This includes burnishing to remove rust and hardened tree sap before sharpening. Bare metal surfaces are treated with a rust-preventative spray.

To sharpen drill bits (3/32-inch to 1/2-inch) it is $1 each. It is $1 for holes punched in leather (any number holes per item).

Members can also sharpen shop tools such as chisels, scratch-awls, paper trimmers and re-forming flat-blade screw drivers. They cannot sharpen hand saws, chainsaws or power tools.

Members come with a wide variety of woodworking skills, or lack of, and use the shop for various reasons.

Nelles said one member is making furniture for a newlywed daughter. He has made a complete bedroom set and is now making furniture for her other rooms.

Phil Heinz, 68, said he enjoys making bowls and other items with a lathe. He often uses olive and eucalyptus wood, collected whenever he sees someone cutting down a tree.

“I never saw a lathe before coming here four years ago,” Heinz said. “There is a learning curve ... but it is easy once you get a feel for it.”

Von Radesky’s projects included food trays, a fancy walnut pencil and a holder for playing cards, useful for those who have arthritis and cannot hold cards easily.

Diana Evans, 76, makes wood toys, like cars, distributed at Christmas through Trinity Church in Escondido. She makes a majority of the 500 to 600 toys distributed annually while others at the church hand paint them or attach wheels.

Evans said the church gives the toys to Interfaith Community Services, the Salvation Army, Ronald McDonald House and an orphanage in Tijuana. The church sells some toys to cover supply costs.

“I used to watch my stepdad make and repair furniture,” Evans said when asked how she got interested in woodworking. “I saw him take something ready for kindling and restore it beautifully. But he would not let me touch his tools.”

About 25 years ago Evans took up woodworking. She learned from club members and took classes at Palomar College to enhance her skills. That is where she learned about Trinity Church’s toy project and became a volunteer, even though she does not attend the church.

“More women are getting into woodworking,” Evans said, explaining it is a creative outlet like sewing is for some.

Yvette Conray, 67, said she took up woodworking two years ago. She lives with and takes care of her parents. To help them continue living in their home she has focused on making items they need to age in place, such as grab bars.

“Generally, woodworking has been an older male endeavor, but we are trying to change that,” Nelles said of the club encouraging more women to take up the hobby. “We want to share the love of woodworking.”

Nelles said he joined late last year, with no experience beyond what he learned in seventh grade woodshop class. But with members willing to share their knowledge he now uses a lathe and spends hours making items such as bowls and candlesticks.

“We are about to embark ... on a training program, probably in late September,” Nelles said. “We will take beginners.”

It will likely feature eight training modules that introduce how to use basic tools.

“Our members are extremely skilled and are willing to be mentors,” Nelles said. “This is an amazing place.”

“If you have a problem making something there is somebody here who knows how to do it and everybody is very helpful,” Evans said.

Seven Oaks residents interested in joining the club can fill out a membership application at the center’s office.

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