Tom, an Arts et Métiers student, is one of the creators of Sharp!

Did you create this object by yourself?

No, there are two of us. I work with Louis Barbe, a third-year student at Télécom Paris. We have been making and tinkering with objects together for seven years now. We met in prep school!

How did you come up with the idea for a knife sharpener?

We are part of Precious Plastic*, a global plastic recycling initiative. As part of this effort, a few years ago we built machines for recycling plastic, including a shredder, an extruder, and an injection molding machine. We therefore had everything we needed to turn waste into valuable items, as well as the desire to undertake a project on a different scale than the ones we usually do.
It’s worth noting that when the idea for a knife sharpener came to me, I first 3D-printed it. 

*Precious Plastic: A student project (2nd-year project as part of Grande Ecole Engineering Programme) since 2018 that is repeated every year—involving mold manufacturing and research on thermoplastics for plastic injection molding.

The project was completed very quickly. What were the different stages involved? 

In fact, it took only two months in total. The longest part was prototyping, but also perfecting the manufacturing process.

Why did you call this project Sharp? 

We called it "Sharp," which in English means sharp. The A is represented by the symbol for HDPE (high-density polyethylene), which is actually a way of identifying the plastic so that it can be recycled at the end of its life!

How does your training at Arts et Métiers with this project?

The excellence of the training really enabled me to develop my organizational skills and move forward with this project. What's more, the technical courses, including those in computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) at the Châlons-en-Champagne campus, greatly helped me to create the sharpener's machining program.