"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

[Copperberry]

Stress And The Strop


Stopping to admire the mirror like polish the edge is beginning to take, I check my angles and resume brushing the pocket knife up and down the strip of leather hanging from an old eye- hook bolted to the frame of my workshop. This process, known as stropping, remains after many centuries the final step in achieving a razor sharp blade. The rhythm and cadence of the task is soothing. Fifteen strokes on the mark side, the warm whisper of steel on hide, fifteen strokes on the pile side, the sweet smell of polishing compound, seven strokes on the mark side — a temporary escape from the stresses and expectations of modern adult life.


I can’t help but wonder what stresses someone may have been escaping from while stropping their blade a hundred years ago or more. It’s easy to romanticize the past — to think, “Those were simpler times,” yet to do this is to marginalize the struggles of our ancestors. A fellow knife collector once called it, referring to when his knife was made, “back when times were simple but hard.” That’s more like it. Seven strokes on the pile side, the soil isn’t producing like it did last year, three strokes on the mark side, the pigs are getting sick…


The difference, I suppose, is that back then you knew you were doing good when your children survived infancy and you were able to keep food on the table through winter. Today, in the wealthy parts of the world anyway, mortality is rarely a mark of failure, and the indicators of success are no longer so clear. I have a theory that I’ve been ruminating on for some time now and I suspect that it is relevant to this little vignette: That anxiety is an export of the modern world — the tell tale sign of a lost generation.


Today, with every possible good and service available for purchase at the click of a button, who among us other than the artists and artisans actually make anything that they can hold with their hands and take pride in? I spent the last six months of my life working every day on a spreadsheet that is unlikely to ever leave “The Cloud” — not exactly an heirloom quality rocking chair to be cherished for another century or more. This disconnect between hard work and tangible results can leave a person feeling empty and lacking in purpose.


But when I take a pocket knife from dull to sharp, when it goes from ripping a piece of paper to feeling like it unzips the atoms one by one — that’s something I can feel, something that I did, something that I can take pride in just for myself. Three strokes on the pile side, one stroke on the mark side, one stroke on the pile side. I test the new edge for sharpness by shaving a small patch of hair off of my left arm. Back into my pocket the knife goes. Finals are coming up next week, and my left arm is nearly bare.

 

[Jack Black]

Well, better late than never.

The doctor finally called a little while ago and the lab results are fine. He said all the issue around where he took out the tumors was negative as were the lymph nodes he took out for testing. No chemo needed, but he thinks a short course of radiation will do in any little cancer cells left begone that are too small to be detected. We're seeing the doc on Thursday and he's going toast up the radiation treatment schedule.

It feels like a weight has been taken off, and both Karen and I don't have the feeling of dread that we had.

Again, and for many times, thank you all for your support in a very scary and trying time. This woman has been such a major part of my life, that the thought of losing her was worse than loosing anything in the world, including my life. Meeting her was simply the best thing that ever happened to me.

Fantastic news Carl I checked for an update on my phone, on a crowded bus, while returning home last night. Some of my fellow passengers clearly heard my sigh of relief! I am very pleased for you and Karen my friend, and for all your family

 

[waynorth]

Phew! Nice to hear the news, Carl!!

 

[jackknife]

Copperberry, you are soooooo right on that.For some odd reason stropping a blade is soothing. Last week when Karen was in surgery, I was waiting out in the 'waiting' room. Hospital waiting rooms are evil places, the TV is always tuned to some idiotic game show or real estate flipping show, and you're waiting for good or bad news. The free coffee tastes like hell.

After 2 hours I was getting to the edge of my patience and I told Karen's sister, Di, I had to go for a walk, call me immediately if the doctor comes out.

I didn't go for a walk.

Instead I went to the car and once inside, I took my belt off and started stropping my Boker 240. It was already sharp, but for some reason the feel of the blade on the leather was soothing and it took me from frantic to manageable. Like you, I have some bald patched on my left arm now. I went back in and waited some more.

I know that it's kind of psycho, your wife is in surgery and your waiting to hear if she's good news or bad, so you go out to the car and strop an already sharp knife. I'm sure non knife people that make up the rest of the world would have me committed to the asylum, but for whatever odd, weird, twisted reason, it helped me keep my sanity while waiting.

We're a weird bunch, us obsessed knife nuts.

 

[Jolipapa]

Yesterday with some friends we went at a local restaurant. I had some fresh monkfish with scampis, scallops and artichoke heart in sauce. That gave the patina a pleasant hue.

 

[r redden]

Copperberry, you are soooooo right on that.For some odd reason stropping a blade is soothing. Last week when Karen was in surgery, I was waiting out in the 'waiting' room. Hospital waiting rooms are evil places, the TV is always tuned to some idiotic game show or real estate flipping show, and you're waiting for good or bad news. The free coffee tastes like hell.

After 2 hours I was getting to the edge of my patience and I told Karen's sister, Di, I had to go for a walk, call me immediately if the doctor comes out.

I didn't go for a walk.

Instead I went to the car and once inside, I took my belt off and started stropping my Boker 240. It was already sharp, but for some reason the feel of the blade on the leather was soothing and it took me from frantic to manageable. Like you, I have some bald patched on my left arm now. I went back in and waited some more.

I know that it's kind of psycho, your wife is in surgery and your waiting to hear if she's good news or bad, so you go out to the car and strop an already sharp knife. I'm sure non knife people that make up the rest of the world would have me committed to the asylum, but for whatever odd, weird, twisted reason, it helped me keep my sanity while waiting.

We're a weird bunch, us obsessed knife nuts.

I totally understand Carl I can be stressed to the max get out my soft Arkansas stone grab a knife and be calm in just a few minutes. For me it's therapeutic to sharpen a blade that is already sharp or not.

 

[oldtymer]

Copperberry, you are soooooo right on that.For some odd reason stropping a blade is soothing. Last week when Karen was in surgery, I was waiting out in the 'waiting' room. Hospital waiting rooms are evil places, the TV is always tuned to some idiotic game show or real estate flipping show, and you're waiting for good or bad news. The free coffee tastes like hell.

After 2 hours I was getting to the edge of my patience and I told Karen's sister, Di, I had to go for a walk, call me immediately if the doctor comes out.

I didn't go for a walk.

Instead I went to the car and once inside, I took my belt off and started stropping my Boker 240. It was already sharp, but for some reason the feel of the blade on the leather was soothing and it took me from frantic to manageable. Like you, I have some bald patched on my left arm now. I went back in and waited some more.

I know that it's kind of psycho, your wife is in surgery and your waiting to hear if she's good news or bad, so you go out to the car and strop an already sharp knife. I'm sure non knife people that make up the rest of the world would have me committed to the asylum, but for whatever odd, weird, twisted reason, it helped me keep my sanity while waiting.

We're a weird bunch, us obsessed knife nuts.

Glad to hear all the good reports on the Mrs.------ That 240 & you are developing quite a relationship

 

[Henry Beige]

Yesterday with some friends we went at a local restaurant. I had some fresh monkfish with scampis, scallops and artichoke heart in sauce. That gave the patina a pleasant hue.
View attachment 898075

Jolipapa, you eat better than we do around here.

 

[jackknife]

Glad to hear all the good reports on the Mrs.------ That 240 & you are developing quite a relationship

It's a great little knife!!

It's taken the place of the little Remington/Camillus peanut that is now one of the granddaughters prize possessions. It gets not just carried a lot, but used a lot. I'm not sure what carbon steel Boker uses, but its very good stuff.

 

[Jolipapa]

Jolipapa, you eat better than we do around here.

Thank you, there are a few restaurants around here, but this particular one (btw the name is Pradel like the knives, after the name of the first owner years ago), changed of management less than a year ago and the improvement in food and imagination is awesome! The hardest task is to find a table, they don't bother with reservations!
This was a "sunday's special". On wednesday (market day) there is always fish and chips on the blackboard.
I have also the choice of a McD, but then I'd have to take a bus!

 

[Rookie82]

This disconnect between hard work and tangible results can leave a person feeling empty and lacking in purpose.

You are very right, I agree 100%. Men, in particular, I think need to feel a sense of accomplishment after they spend time/energy doing something. Building a table, and being able to see it when you are done, and show others, or sell it to a customer who is excited to receive it, really gives your brain a boost of confidence that your energy spent was worthwhile. Same thing with bringing home a fish after a fishing trip, or harvesting vegetables months after planting a garden, or even just taking a drive around the block after changing your own oil in the car.

Think about how you feel after you finish mowing your grass and look across the lawn that is all manicured perfectly. It's sad in our life, that it is things like this that we rely on to get that feeling of contentment.

I think today's world has created a scenario where a lot of people can just pay for things that need done, which strips away the feeling of self worth. Add to that, many of our jobs are not hands-on, but rather office or computer work (like you stated) and what your energy is being spent on is nothing you can see at the end of the day. Other's can't see it. It's like a day wasted.

I think it is very critical to be able to hone a skill and be proud of what you can do. You don't have to be a master of everything, but you should be moderately skilled in something that can bring you some pleasure.

 

[abbydaddy]

You are very right, I agree 100%. Men, in particular, I think need to feel a sense of accomplishment after they spend time/energy doing something. Building a table, and being able to see it when you are done, and show others, or sell it to a customer who is excited to receive it, really gives your brain a boost of confidence that your energy spent was worthwhile. Same thing with bringing home a fish after a fishing trip, or harvesting vegetables months after planting a garden, or even just taking a drive around the block after changing your own oil in the car.

Think about how you feel after you finish mowing your grass and look across the lawn that is all manicured perfectly. It's sad in our life, that it is things like this that we rely on to get that feeling of contentment.

I think today's world has created a scenario where a lot of people can just pay for things that need done, which strips away the feeling of self worth. Add to that, many of our jobs are not hands-on, but rather office or computer work (like you stated) and what your energy is being spent on is nothing you can see at the end of the day. Other's can't see it. It's like a day wasted.

I think it is very critical to be able to hone a skill and be proud of what you can do. You don't have to be a master of everything, but you should be moderately skilled in something that can bring you some pleasure.

This can be very true. I am in the final stretch of making the last edits to my (successfully defended) thesis, and days from being officially done with my Master's degree, but the task that has left me feeling the most satisfied in recent weeks has been making a new butt plate for the old over-under I inherited from my great-grandfather:

I made the new buttplate out of a piece of walnut.

I want to point out that I didn't put the tape on the stock. It says something about the tradition of taking care of tools in my family that prior to me taking possession of the gun it just had foam rubber duct taped to the butt for longer than I have been alive. The good news is that unlike most of the other family guns I have inherited, after a fair amount of work on my part this one is fully functional and safe to use.

 

[veitsi_poika]

This can be very true. I am in the final stretch of making the last edits to my (successfully defended) thesis, and days from being officially done with my Master's degree, but the task that has left me feeling the most satisfied in recent weeks has been making a new butt plate for the old over-under I inherited from my great-grandfather:
View attachment 898286
I made the new buttplate out of a piece of walnut.

I want to point out that I didn't put the tape on the stock. It says something about the tradition of taking care of tools in my family that prior to me taking possession of the gun it just had foam rubber duct taped to the butt for longer than I have been alive. The good news is that unlike most of the other family guns I have inherited, after a fair amount of work on my part this one is fully functional and safe to use.

50% of the things my Dad "fixed" was with duct tape LoL... I think many of us have shot a gun that had the butt either glued on, taped on or both Congrats so far and good luck abbydaddy

 

[veitsi_poika]

Think about how you feel after you finish mowing your grass and look across the lawn that is all manicured perfectly. It's sad in our life, that it is things like this that we rely on to get that feeling of contentment.

There are many in the world that would give everything they have to even own a yard, I think you are doing pretty good

many of our jobs are not hands-on, but rather office or computer work (like you stated) and what your energy is being spent on is nothing you can see at the end of the day. Other's can't see it. It's like a day wasted.

I was thinking about this the other day... I'm going to be 44 years old next week, I only recently got married (for the 1st and last time), I never had any kids and she does not have kids. My wife and I decided we did not want to be in our late 50's raising teenagers so I really have no legacy to leave in that regard.

I am an engineer so I have a desk job, at a computer and yeah I agree, looking at yourself from the outside can be pretty bleak. However, the more I thought about it, I realized that when I looked around me at work that I have many co-workers that have families, they have obligations and have bills to pay. I see many young engineers just getting started in adult life that I am mentoring and helping them to keep one foot in front of the other on a path to successful careers 20 years from now when my shoes need to be filled. I have clients who have families and all of the same obligations in life as everyone else. I'm a hard worker and I do my best to make everyone around me successful in their jobs. I do what I can to make our company successful and help my clients companies stay successful. By doing so I realized that my uneventful desk job may not seem like much or seem unfulfilling, but if I do my job well, like my Dad taught me, not only can I continue the quality of life that I currently have, I can also help hundreds of people around me be successful in their jobs and in their lives. I think that is an intangible of my job that CAN be fulfilling and perhaps replace the need to have something tangible.

So if a blurb of who I am or was ever made it into a history book, it may not say much and is just a blip on a radar... truth is I know deep down that there are a lot of other blips on that radar that appreciate what I do in life and I'm sure that is the case for all of you as well Even if it is simply being a friend to someone on the porch One of my favorite sayings that I think is the secret to life that everyone looks for... "Make yourself necessary to someone." It might be your significant other, a child, a family member, a friend, a stranger and I know there were times in my life that the "someone" was just myself. So don't look at it as "a day wasted", look at it as a day that "someone" appreciated.

 

[JTB_5]

There are many in the world that would give everything they have to even own a yard, I think you are doing pretty good



I was thinking about this the other day... I'm going to be 44 years old next week, I only recently got married (for the 1st and last time), I never had any kids and she does not have kids. My wife and I decided we did not want to be in our late 50's raising teenagers so I really have no legacy to leave in that regard.

I am an engineer so I have a desk job, at a computer and yeah I agree, looking at yourself from the outside can be pretty bleak. However, the more I thought about it, I realized that when I looked around me at work that I have many co-workers that have families, they have obligations and have bills to pay. I see many young engineers just getting started in adult life that I am mentoring and helping them to keep one foot in front of the other on a path to successful careers 20 years from now when my shoes need to be filled. I have clients who have families and all of the same obligations in life as everyone else. I'm a hard worker and I do my best to make everyone around me successful in their jobs. I do what I can to make our company successful and help my clients companies stay successful. By doing so I realized that my uneventful desk job may not seem like much or seem unfulfilling, but if I do my job well, like my Dad taught me, not only can I continue the quality of life that I currently have, I can also help hundreds of people around me be successful in their jobs and in their lives. I think that is an intangible of my job that CAN be fulfilling and perhaps replace the need to have something tangible.

So if a blurb of who I am or was ever made it into a history book, it may not say much and is just a blip on a radar... truth is I know deep down that there are a lot of other blips on that radar that appreciate what I do in life and I'm sure that is the case for all of you as well Even if it is simply being a friend to someone on the porch One of my favorite sayings that I think is the secret to life that everyone looks for... "Make yourself necessary to someone." It might be your significant other, a child, a family member, a friend, a stranger and I know there were times in my life that the "someone" was just myself. So don't look at it as "a day wasted", look at it as a day that "someone" appreciated.

If God cares for the sparrow that falls he cares for everyone made in his image, and that means no man or woman, boy or girl is just a blip in history. Every soul is an immortal portrait of the Divine glory. Realizing the dignity of man helps a man look upon his neighbor with awe and compassion, and impels a man to give himself for the good of another.

 

[veitsi_poika]

Stress And The Strop


Stopping to admire the mirror like polish the edge is beginning to take, I check my angles and resume brushing the pocket knife up and down the strip of leather hanging from an old eye- hook bolted to the frame of my workshop. This process, known as stropping, remains after many centuries the final step in achieving a razor sharp blade. The rhythm and cadence of the task is soothing. Fifteen strokes on the mark side, the warm whisper of steel on hide, fifteen strokes on the pile side, the sweet smell of polishing compound, seven strokes on the mark side — a temporary escape from the stresses and expectations of modern adult life.


I can’t help but wonder what stresses someone may have been escaping from while stropping their blade a hundred years ago or more. It’s easy to romanticize the past — to think, “Those were simpler times,” yet to do this is to marginalize the struggles of our ancestors. A fellow knife collector once called it, referring to when his knife was made, “back when times were simple but hard.” That’s more like it. Seven strokes on the pile side, the soil isn’t producing like it did last year, three strokes on the mark side, the pigs are getting sick…


The difference, I suppose, is that back then you knew you were doing good when your children survived infancy and you were able to keep food on the table through winter. Today, in the wealthy parts of the world anyway, mortality is rarely a mark of failure, and the indicators of success are no longer so clear. I have a theory that I’ve been ruminating on for some time now and I suspect that it is relevant to this little vignette: That anxiety is an export of the modern world — the tell tale sign of a lost generation.


Today, with every possible good and service available for purchase at the click of a button, who among us other than the artists and artisans actually make anything that they can hold with their hands and take pride in? I spent the last six months of my life working every day on a spreadsheet that is unlikely to ever leave “The Cloud” — not exactly an heirloom quality rocking chair to be cherished for another century or more. This disconnect between hard work and tangible results can leave a person feeling empty and lacking in purpose.


But when I take a pocket knife from dull to sharp, when it goes from ripping a piece of paper to feeling like it unzips the atoms one by one — that’s something I can feel, something that I did, something that I can take pride in just for myself. Three strokes on the pile side, one stroke on the mark side, one stroke on the pile side. I test the new edge for sharpness by shaving a small patch of hair off of my left arm. Back into my pocket the knife goes. Finals are coming up next week, and my left arm is nearly bare.

Great stuff written tonight so since I'm on a roll, I'll add one more to go along with what Copperberry wrote... the other night I was looking at the Keen Kutter sawcut bone Barlow I gave to my wife, which of course she is using to slice open boxes from online orders I noticed how she had completely worn out the edge on both blades and of course it had the sticky tape residue It was 10 PM but it didn't stop me from getting out of the La-Z-Boy, headed toward the basement steps and the conversation goes like this:

Her: "You getting something to drink?"

Me: "No."

Her: "You getting some ice cream?"

Me: "No."

Her: "You getting some cereal?"

Me: "No"

Her: "Well what are you going to do?"

Me: "I'm going to get my stone and make your Barlow beautiful again."

Her: "Oh... thanks, I need to break down some boxes tomorrow."

Me: ""

 

[Rookie82]

veitsi_poika I think that your post shows that there is value in what you provide at your job. You are helping to design products that are being made down the line by someone else. And you are mentoring to others and using your experience to provide assistance that they may have otherwise not received. I like your secret of life saying, it is very relevant.

My job is sitting on a computer 10 hours a day, at home by myself, creating code that makes things run without issues. None of my coworkers understand what I do, none of them even know that I do things that make their life easier. My boss only knows that I'm working if others are not complaining. It is a unique and necessary job, and pays well, but it provides no real value to my ego, or any sense of accomplishment.

So the rest of my life is spent trying to make up for what I feel is lost time. I have a daughter that I try to teach everything I can, and a wife that I share all my activities with. I like gardening and growing our own food. I like feeding my chickens and gathering eggs. I enjoy pruning our orchard trees and blueberry bushes, and harvest the fruit later, and making apple cider. I enjoy spending time with my father tapping maple trees to make maple syrup. I enjoy planting different plants around the property to keep our honeybees happy, and try to get more honey production from them. And we gather chestnuts and hazlenuts to give out to friends/family in the fall.

And I enjoy learning about and collecting pocketknives, and passing on any knowledge that I can to help someone else. So I've found my way of easing my stress, and I'm glad that I found it. I hope everyone finds those things in life that truly make them happy and stress free, and provide something that you can take pride in.

 

[jc57]

My wife was never much interested in pocket knives, until I lent her my Victorinox alox Electrician. She used the awl for making holes in corn cobs that we put on squirrel feeders. I thought I'd get it back (it was my first ever Vic alox and I was fond of it). But no, she kept it. First I knew of that was that she said something in passing about "my pocket knife." And I'm going - Oh, what did you get? Then she showed me the Electrician. And then I realized, it wasn't mine any more.

She used the heck out of that knife. About once a week she would bring it to me for sharpening. She did that knife proud. Used it for everything. Mainly opening boxes at work, but it got used. Solid, honest work. She changed jobs and doesn't need to use it as much, but I still keep it sharp for her, and she still uses it. Good to know at least someone in the family gets some value out of my hobby.

 

[kamagong]

No more Boy Scouts. From now on they'll be just "Scouts." I guess it was inevitable, once they started allowing girls to join.

Girls still have their Girl Scouts.

Our boys are getting short shrift.

 

[r redden]

"Make yourself necessary to someone." It might be your significant other, a child, a family member, a friend, a stranger and I know there were times in my life that the "someone" was just myself. So don't look at it as "a day wasted", look at it as a day that "someone" appreciated.

Absolutely fantastic post Kevin.