A-1 Precision Sharpening works to stay sharp

CEDAR RAPIDS - In the early 1980s, Daniel Bunn was working at the Goss printing-press manufacturing plant in southwest Cedar Rapids - when there was work.

'I got laid off seven times between 1981 and 1983,” Bunn recalled.

So in 1983 Bunn and his wife, Linda, bought the milling and sharpening equipment a fellow Goss worker had used in his own part-time business to launch their own A-1 Precision Sharpening.

The business remained a garage-based sideline until 2001, when Goss closed its plant. The Bunns bought some new equipment and moved A-1 to a building in northeast Cedar Rapids shared with father and son Elmer and Jim Herman, who had operated E&J Tool Grinding Services since the early 1960s.

'Jim had more work than he could keep up with, and Dan had more time,” said Linda Bunn.

In 2005, both businesses moved to the Wenig Road building they occupy today. Jim Herman retired in 2010, but the Bunns kept the E&J name as well as their own.

'It was name recognition,” Linda said. 'We kept both names, both phone numbers, just in case.”

Whatever the name, A-1 and E & J remain a true joint effort.

'He doesn't just sharpen and I don't just do paperwork,” explained Linda, standing in the shop area crowded with specialized machines. 'This is where we spend our time. Everything does something different.”

Sole employees for the combined businesses, the Bunns maintain and manufacture specialized tools for local industry and renew blades for professional homebuilders and cabinetmakers, hobbyists and homeowners. They sharpen and balance lawn-mower blades as well as sharpen knives for restaurant and home kitchens.

With three computer numeric control, or CNC, machines, the Bunns can mill tools - precise, specialized drill bits - to a customer's specifications from raw steel rod.

When the Bunns started A-1, tungsten carbide blades were just entering the homeowner/hobbyist market. These days much industrial cutting these days is done with lasers, high-pressure water jets, and small disposable blades.

'That's cut into my business a little bit,” Dan said. 'And factories leaving town, or downsizing.”

So, how often should a blade be sharpened?

'It depends on use,” Dan Bunn said. 'What are you cutting with it? How often do you cut that with it? Do you use it for a special circumstance that is extremely tough or difficult?

'When it stops working the way you want it, it's time to get it sharpened.”

The routine at A-1 Precision is only occasionally broken.

'I get the occasional call for a sword,” Dan said. 'The first question is, ‘why?' Unless you want to use it, it doesn't need to be sharpened.”

l Know a business in operation for more than a year that would make for an intriguing 'My Biz”? Let us know at michaelchevy.castranova@thegazette.com.

AT A GLANCE

' Owners: Daniel and Linda Bunn

' Business: A-1 Precision Sharpening/E&J Tool Grinding Services

' Address: 1111 Wenig Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids

' Phone: 319-364-0404

' Website: a-1precisionsharpening.com