Ray Cook, owner and operator of Wood N' Saw Shop and Sharpening, believes that there will always be customers needing tools sharpened.

WARRENSBURG, Mo.--An age of technology and innovation has caused many businesses once thought an integral part of society to fade away into the not-so-distant memory of older generations.

Saw sharpening, although forgotten and ignored by many, is not one of those businesses.

“There will always be things to sharpen and people who need things sharpened,” said Ray Cook, owner and operator of Wood N’ Saw Shop and Sharpening, 331 E. Gay St.

Inside Cook’s shop, the lights are low, the radio softly plays light rock from the early ‘90s, and tools of various shapes, sizes and of unknown use are scattered in different corners of the room.

This is the shop of a sharpener. The tools are unique, the atmosphere is relaxed and the work is important, Cook explained.

“Everything needs sharpened: kitchen knives, scissors, circular saws, lawn mower blades. Anything that cuts can usually be sharpened,” Cook said.

When Cook and Pat inherited Pat’s father’s sharpening business in 1997, they both had to learn their newly chosen trade.

“Learning sharpening was fairly simple. I just had to learn the different angles and tools,” Cook said. “Screen printing was more complicated, because of the graphics. My wife took a course from UCM in Photoshop, so she could design as well.”

The tools for sharpening, Cook explained, are very specific and even after owning the business for 12 years, he has to come up with inventive ways to sharpen items that he doesn’t have a specific tool for.

Cook and his wife also own a print shop attached to the building, White Rock Tees.

The shop he inhabits when sharpening is a small room with little light and more, strange tools attached to small work tables that hang from the wall.

“I will warn not to touch anything, because there’s dust everywhere,” Cook said.

A sometimes thin, sometimes thick, layer of dust covered the walls and tools occupying the room. Cook pointed out the circular sharpeners with diamond edges for metals that can only be sharpened with one of the hardest rocks on earth.

The edges don’t gleam and are not translucent bulges stuck to the side of the sharpener. Along the edge is just a sparkly, thin layer of what could have been lead dust to the unknowing observer.

Many of the tools in Cook’s shop were left by his father-in-law when the business passed into his hands.

“The building was here. I didn’t know what to do when I first moved here. [Pat’s father] had sharpening equipment here, so I decided to take it up. I remodeled the building in 1997, and in 1998, decided I wanted to be a screen printer. No clue why,” Cook said.

Behind, and attached to, the sharpening shop is another room with what appears to be a wheel of protruding rectangular trays, and splashes of color thrown on each wall, the floor and the equipment.

This is the home of White Rock Tees, the Cooks' print shop, and the place where Cook and his wife, Pat, explore their artistic side.

“I like creating designs. It’s always fun to see a new design go into production and to see the end result,” Cook said.

To Cook, Warrensburg seemed like a good place to hang his traveling hat and take over the business that would lead him into retirement. Cook explained he was originally from Chicago, where he worked for the Federal Aviation Administration in traffic control and he traveled all over the country following his job.

“I started in Chicago, transferred to Minneapolis, transferred to Kansas City to Washington, D.C., to Virginia and back again, as a quality assurance manager. When I lived in Olathe in the 1980s, I really liked the climate, and of course, my wife’s parents lived in Warrensburg,” Cook said. “I thought this would be a great place to retire.”

Another familiar business in Warrensburg is attached to Cook’s wife, the Teehaus, which was also owned by Pat’s parents.

“My mother owned the Teehaus and dad has his [sharpening] shop, because he loved wood-working. He was really the most artistic of us all,” Pat said.

Now, as business owners and Warrensburg residents, Pat said she and her husband are happy and fortunate to be where they are.

“We’re lucky because we don’t have a certain amount of money we have to make. We just have

The tools for sharpening are very specific and Cook said that he often has to come up with inventive ways to sharpen things he doesn't have specific tools for.

doing what we do. Our customers can come to us and know that we know what they want,” Pat said.

Cook said he has no intention of retiring anytime soon, because he still enjoys his work and knows it’s important.

“There’s always going to be someone around to sharpen. I won’t do it forever,” Cook said.