” Mo Gao Jin, Sharpening Scissors, Mo Gao Jin …….”
Suddenly one day last week we could hardly believe our ears. Was that really a scissor sharpener’s call just outside our gate? As we rushed outside there he was, riding away on his battered bicycle with his, just as battered, hat on his head. Of course my wife and I ran after him and caught up with him at a neighbour’s house. “Quick, the camera!” my wife shouted after me as I was running home to get it.
So here he is, Ah Tuck, possibly the last mobile knife and scissor sharpener that Ipoh will ever see. He was born in Ipoh in 1935 and learnt the skill from his father. There was no sophistication about his technique, just a range of sharpening stones, from course to fine, a couple of wooden blocks, a hammer and pliers. But he soon got down to work.
He spent quite some time on this one knife which had a kink in the blade, but when he had finished it was as straight and as sharp as new.
My wife could not resist employing him as well – 3 knives sharpened for RM10, including a repair to one handle and so he settled down to work in our driveway.
Finally, before he left, he gave us three tips for keeping knives sharp:
1. Never use hot water to clean your knives. 2. Always wash a knife with the sharp side upwards. 3. Never scrape your chopping board with the sharpened side of the knife.
Now Ah Tuck is a far cry from the old travelling scissor sharpeners who used pedal power to rotate a grindstone on their bicycles, but the job was done, the knives were sharp. What more could you want for RM10?
Apparently, at age 75, he will also paint your house or mend your leaking roof, but quite how we would find him again I don’t know. Has anyone else seen him?
Remarkable, no language is adequate to describe the existential experience of Ah Tuck other than the photos. Thanks for tips !
Nice work Ika. The familiar word “mo gao jin” still rings in my ears and the way my dad used to work still stayed vividly in my mind. It was a real pity that my family did not have a camera to capture pictures of my dad at work.
Though their techniques and tools are slightly different but I think the outcome is the same. Truly a rare sight nowadays.
yes, thanks for the useful tips!
Now that is a Gem that should not be lost
Thanks ipohgal. It is funny how life works. I have been in Ipoh for 11 years and never seen a scissor sharpener and then you blog about them, I get interested and lo and behold there is one at my gate.
Keep on blogging.
….(lump in my throat)…….its a trip back in time…. Thanks for the scoop and pics! Ah Tuck..sigh…typically.
thank u very much for sharing tis with us……i missed hearing his voice,”mo toh, mo gau zhin”…..it’s amazing tat he’s still around!!
For those who don’t follow us om Facebook – Shame on you – the following two comments were placed there.
Michelle “Oh gosh, that reminds me – when we were back in Ipoh a month ago, we saw an “ice cream potong” man in a pasar malam. OMG I hadn’t had one for about a century! So needless to say our whole family had some. Yummy.”
September 28 at 9:52pm.
Phoebe “Same here, Michelle.
Incidentally, I believe you and I might have crossed paths many times during our school days. Were you in the same class as Kit Oi and Angelina?”
Saturday October 2 at 12:02am
Thanks for this post! It brings back lots of memories of similar sights, one of which was my memory of those noodle vendors/peddlers who cycles around our housing area. It’s not so far back really, just about 20-28yrs ago but I don’t see them around anymore. I was especially fond of one lady who sells the Ipoh Chic Kuey Teow…we’d run out of our house shouting for her so that she won’t miss our house as she cycles pass, and us waiting for her with our porcelain bowls for our ‘take-aways’
IT was a good way to reduce plastic wasn’t it? 
Don’t think my kids will ever see a sight like that anymore ….
In the sixties, my father had a friend from Jinjang who came to stay with us for a month or two every year.He was a sewing machine repairer and sharpening scissors and knives was his trade too. i remember he came on his trusty old motorcycle with its two boxes full of tools of his trade. all the aunties save their scissors n knives for his expert touch every year!unfortunately, we did not have a camera then and i was too young to remember the details of his trade. by the way, we were living in Tronoh Mines, Tronoh then . My father was a chargeman at the dredge. My mother was a dulang washer and I was an apprentice one too! that was real fun for a kid tacking along her mum to work. those were the days….
My Gosh ! Mo Toe Mo Kau Jin, thats how he used to shout out when he cycles round our houses back in the 60′s to early 70′s. Is he still around ? i also the MILO man who used to be around old town during those days, also in my memory is the old man who hv this big round tank like container selling the best black coffee ice in town. how about that man who shouts Done Dan ( steam egg custard ) Mmmm…. can still miss all these… any pictures of them ?
Hello Mike, sadly we have been searching for the Milo man photo for more than 6 years without success. Let us hope that your comment will stir the memory of someone who has photos of the old hawkers, any of them as they are hard to find.
This mo toe mo kau Jin man reminds me of yet another two more mobile traders in those nostalgic days in Pasir Pinji. There was this old man yelling in rhythm ‘Lin Chee gan, Chee ma wu, fa San wu, hak lo mai jok. Another one was a middle aged man calling ‘So Ba’ (broom) . Their familiar voices were frequently heard right up to 1970 when I left the village. How about this ‘dong fun’ hawker using bowl and spoon to make ‘din din din’ sound to inform potential customers he was in the vicinity, and the wan ton mee seller, making musical tak tak tak sound. These two hawkers made their rounds at night. Best wishes to all of them.
tshui.all these beautiful voices also ply around canning garden.really brings back fond memories.there’s one ice cream man wearing a coat with his james bond display on his motorcycle who blows music from his clasp hands.good memories……