By Telesha Ramnarine

WHEN he first went to Bourda Market after acquiring a tiny stall to sharpen knives, all he had was a grinding stone. Many, including the butchers, mocked him and told him it was impossible for him to sharpen their knives and cutlasses on such a machine.

“You don’t sharpen cutlass and knife on a grinding stone. You would spoil it,” they would say to him. But being the iron-willed, strong individual that he is, he discarded those remarks as nonsense and went right ahead with what he knew was a good business venture.
Meet 78-year-old Hector Herbert Headley, who was born and raised in Georgetown and who has come to be well-known in the City, following his establishment of the Sharpening Center in Bourda Market, back in 1987. He is reportedly among a handful of persons who ply this trade, and he has trained some 20 persons over the years.
Along with his sharpening skills, Mr. Headley has learned the art of replacing inferior knives and cutlass handles with those made from PVC (the common but strong, lightweight plastic used in construction, etc.)

Even the Butchers
Among the schools Mr. Headley attended were the Dharm Shala’s Hindu School in Albouystown, Broad Street Government (now Dolphin’s), and St. George’s Primary. As a child, he reasoned to himself that should he go further and attend secondary school, it would cost his mother a lot financially.
She can especially remember how hard she worked to make ends meet. “As a child, I couldn’t bear to put her through all of that. I told her I preferred to start working after primary school instead of having her find resources to send me five extra years.”

He worked at Bookers Limited (now Guyana Stores) as an apprentice for five years. “Thankfully I got a scholarship from Bookers and attended the Government Technical Institute. I had to go to the institute to fulfill my commitment in the apprenticeship scheme that I was involved in,” he explained in an interview.
Eventually, he moved on to Sprostons Ship Yard on Lombard Street, a company that built ships in Guyana; the Guyana agency that looked after Caterpillar equipment, now called Macorp; Toolsie Persaud Limited; and Nichimo, a firm that manufactured fishing nets.
Mr. Headley recalled how he was kept for a very long period in the tool room at Bookers. “My skills sharpening were so good that they kept me in there longer than I should have been. So I started to mess things up a bit,” he laughed. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise when he suddenly lost employment.
He had applied for leave months before he was to proceed, but a few days before he was to go, his employer at Nichimo told him it was impossible for him to go due to the amount of work that was to be done.
“I had already made a commitment elsewhere for the time I was going to be off work. So I told him just as I kept my commitments at work, I like to keep my other commitments. So I went on leave nevertheless but when I returned, there was no employment there for me. But I wasn’t surprised.”
At this point, Mr. Headley had his wife and seven children to care for. “It was difficult to get work so I went to Robert Williams (Deputy Mayor at the time) and asked for help to find a stand in the market. He asked me if I was sure this was going to take care of my family. Other than me, there was no one for people to go to for sharpening. I figured that if a service of that sort was available in a place like a market, it would do well.”
“Around 1987, I started to operate in Bourda Market. My motto is, ‘We give you the edge.’ Apart from sharpening, I try to give my customers more than they expect. It’s not easy to do that, but it works well for me and the customer.”
“When I got there, it wasn’t easy to start up. People told me to my face that I would damage their cutlass putting it to a grinding stone. That’s what the butchers said to me. I thought that was nonsense. The butchers made a lot of fuss and told me I can’t do it so I went to the fish area and told people that I was sharpening for free for a while. Most of them came.”
Eventually, everyone went for Mr. Headley to sharpen their equipment, including the butchers. “I went to Bourda Market a Wednesday and sharpened for free for three days. Saturday morning I told them I couldn’t continue to do it free. It wasn’t a problem and my business had a jump start.”

PVC Handles
As people went to do their sharpening, they began asking Mr. Headley to put on handles on their knives. He kept telling them that it wasn’t something he could do. Eventually, though, he thought to himself that this was a business opportunity that he was throwing away.
“But what could I use to make a handle? I didn’t want to use wood because of the complications. I went and looked for pipe made of PVC. I was trying to figure out a way to flatten the PVC so I could have a nice, flat handle. PVC is really tough stuff. Someone encouraged me to heat it up; boil it and then flatten it when it was really hot. I did that but didn’t find success so decided to try it on the fire directly. That did i! It became soft and flexible. Bingo! I got it! That’s what I do up to today.”
Mr. Headley sharpens cutlasses, knives, scissors, carpenter saws, circle saws and just about anything that he can get on the grinding stone. He also buys brand-new knives and choppers and replaces their handles with those made from PVC.
“Knives have a peculiar ability of accumulating bacteria. And they are made with materials designed to go bad after a short time. You would be shocked to see the amount of living bacteria underneath the black handle knives. People don’t even know about this. I guess many don’t care.” The PVC material, however, is bacteria resistant.

Kindness at Work
Mr. Headley is very particular about timing on the job. When his customers fail to return for their equipment at the time he tells them to, it causes some amount of chaos. “People don’t keep their commitment to come back for their knives and then they come months later and said they left it last week. Of course, I engrave their names and the dates on the knives, so they don’t get away with this.”
And then there are those who would like to be loud and quarrel. “It takes extra special effort to be kind because the world is very unkind. People are insensitive to kindness generally. But I ignore that,” he said.
Mr. Headley is on the verge of retiring and so is looking to sell his business. “I’m selling the business cheap to anyone who might be interested.”
Currently, he operates on a daily basis, except on Wednesdays and Sundays, from 8 am to about 3 or 4 pm.