Do we obsess too much?

jackknife said:
I worry about the rising generation being crippled by the apathy of their fathers.
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Don't worry too much. My father or grandfather never taught me how to sharpen I knife, but I learned how to do it. True, I may have picked it up earlier had I a good teacher, but the knowledge is out there. It's like anything else really, if a person is motivated enough he will learn about a subject he is interested in.
 
My father never taught me how to sharpen. He wasn't much of a woodsman... More of a country club golfer. (He did try to teach me to play golf.)

The old shoemaker near my house, a Greek fellow named George... (his son and I were cub scouts together,) taught me how to sharpen a knife so that it would slide though a thick piece of sole leather smoothly and easily. I was about 8-9 years old. He would show us how to hold the blade to the stone, and move it. Then he'd give us a scrap of sole leather and have us cut a nice straight line. If the knives weren't sharp enough to do it easily, he'd have us sharpen them some more until they could. Amazing what can be done with a $10 cub scout knife.

Stitchawl
 
Very interesting read. I agree that things were more to the point and with less mumbo-jumbo back in the day. You had a carbon steel blade which was your companion and nobody thought twice about it. Are people like us on this forum obsessing too much about sharpening? Of course we are. Things were simpler before and today there are more options available. For instance, schools had much less directions than today, fashion was more uniform etc. So, it's not just knives, it's everything. We have a plethora of ingredients to choose from for our lifestyles and for us knife nuts sharpening has become sort of a religion, filled with conventions, tradition and mystery.
 
Carborundum stones are still very popular here in Asia but what I have noticed is that more than likely the knives are junked when they get blunt. It is typical in developed countries and communities. My wife is Thai and comes from one of the most impoverished states in Thailand. She always tells me "nothing is disposable here".

It rained the other day and I gave her a disposable poncho which costs me 50cents; she dried it up nicely when we got home, folded it up and placed it back into the packaging as if to prove a point. I bought her father a decent knife to use... He is still using his old spring steel golok he bought from the local farmers market. When asked about it all he could say was that it can still be used so why waste it. He puts a decent edge on it using a piece of carborundum stone that had broken off from the sharpening stone when it was dropped. Humbling... It is going to be a while before he's going to be using my knife but he loves it and show's it off to his friends every chance he gets. Me? I can sharpen freehand and I still use the old $2 stone my mom gave me on the kitchen knives but I also have a diamond hone for those harder steels they use so often these days. Times change and there's no stopping that...
 
I don't think that we obsess too much. It is the times we live in and we are what we are. Simply put, the human race has evolved. Along with the advancements of technology, we as a race are paying more and more attention to detail. Not only that, more and more people have more time on their hands. This though I feel is not the reason for this topic being created. I think that it is our base instincts and nature that we have grown apart from that craves and hungers for that precision tool. As men that know more, we no longer can take pride in an arrow head as a precision tool. We want the best. We can get the best.

But it is our hunters instinct, that part of every man that can appreciate a well crafted blade, a well tuned engine, a powerful computer. And so to say we obsess to much, is to certify that we are men. Men obsess over detail, precision, power, capability. With reference to a blade, we do not need it to whittle the pubic hair of a gnat, we do not even need it to shave, we have shavers and razors and electric gizmos that do that for us...but as men, even if we don't need it, we sure as hell can get pleasure from knowing that this knife in my hand can and will whittle the hairs off any gnats balls and I love it!!! this car I drive can do 0 to 60 in 3.2sec and hug curves like stockings on a fat lady and i love it!! For those of you out there that can take pride in saying I can sharpen my blades can do just that, take pride in a craft that adheres to our male instincts.

I guess that what I am saying is that, to obsess, is to be a man. We obsess, that's what we do. It's not all we do, but its part of what we are.
 
This was truely interesting reading, I know when I first started out I bought a Lansky set, but soon found out that the bigger knives was a problem. And don`t forget the convex grind,.

So I got me a small diamond sharpener likt the DMT folding sharpener, cost me about 7$
And that`s what I use for all my knives now, plus the inside of my belt.
If it`s a Sheap Mora for work or a high end custom for woods hiking, the sheapo diamond sharpener does them all.
Still get them shaving if I want to.
I have much more fun freehanding than with any gizmo I`ve ever used, gives me a feeling of really accomplishing something.
When I go hiking with my friends they always ask me to sharpen their knives and axes, and I`m happy to do so (as long as they sit beside me, watch what I`m doing and try for themselves later).
I always bring my cheap Mora with me cause I think that`s the easiest knife to sharpen for a beginner, and I let them give it a go (if they f..k up the edge, I just give it a go myself and show them how to do it right) and they tend to keep at it till they get it right.
Makes a knifenut feel all warm inside, LOL...
 
I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for people to be somewhat reliant on gizmos. A lot of these gizmos are small enough to take anywhere, so it's never going to be an issue of being without them. They require less skill to use, and after about 30 minutes they get edges better than 90% of people get manually after a lifetime of practice.

Technology has advanced to the point where $50-$100 can get any knife, in the hands of any person, hair whittling sharp. The materials are light weight and portable. The materials don't need to be flattened, and they don't wear out in any reasonable amount of time. Can you blame people for using them? Why would someone forgo using equipment that is almost unequivocally better?

As far as whether or not a hair whittlingly sharp edge is really more useful than just a shaving sharp edge, I'd actually say it's noticeably better. When in use, I do notice a difference, but that may just be me.
 
Good point. Not to mention that some of my "gizmos" taught me far more about sharpening than anyone or anything else - lots of ignorance and misinformation out there. I'm a much better free hand sharpener thanks to them.
 
I agree gizmos do have their place. I also learned more from using them and how to get an edge than most other things. I was one who had thought holding an angle was why I couldn’t ever get a sharp edge. I now know the myth of holding a consistent angle has little to do with getting sharp. However, anyone who can get a sharp edge with a gizmo can get a sharp edge without one. They can be a crutch for many. The method is less important in getting a sharp edge than knowing how and learning what a sharp edge is. A gismo will not sharpen your knife, you do. There are countless people who can’t get an edge with gismos, and there are a lot of people who, are like me, and learned how to sharpen with one and then moved on to free hand with hones because hones are just easier than the gismos. Now that I do have some what of an idea on how to sharpen I can use almost anything and get a sharp edge. If I can learn anyone can.
 
db said:
I agree gizmos do have their place. I also learned more from using them and how to get an edge than most other things. I was one who had thought holding an angle was why I couldn’t ever get a sharp edge. I now know the myth of holding a consistent angle has little to do with getting sharp. However, anyone who can get a sharp edge with a gizmo can get a sharp edge without one. They can be a crutch for many. The method is less important in getting a sharp edge than knowing how and learning what a sharp edge is. A gismo will not sharpen your knife, you do. There are countless people who can’t get an edge with gismos, and there are a lot of people who, are like me, and learned how to sharpen with one and then moved on to free hand with hones because hones are just easier than the gismos. Now that I do have some what of an idea on how to sharpen I can use almost anything and get a sharp edge. If I can learn anyone can.
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Good post! I agree, learning what sharp is and the little tricks like what a bur is, that it is not your enemy but a diagnostic sign, are keys and you learn them easier with a gizmo that keeps the angle guessing game out of the way. I also had the whole angle thing priority mixed up in my head that made learning on a stone frustrating. My first gizmo, the lansky guided rods really taught me what a bur was and I was fascinated to learn how that burr shrank in size and became thinner as I switched through the grits. That was a great demonstration of theory to me and really improved how I approached sharpening.

I do think we obsess too much on sharpness. In a world where people don't really appreciate knives you really can't brag about anything to the lay person who might happen to be interested in yours. The only thing you can really do with it is claim, 'watch out its really sharp' and then demonstrate that it is on a piece of paper of course.
 
When I was at home, I had my belt sander to sharpen with, and never worried about sharpening anything, so I never worried about using my knives hard. Dinging the edges, dulling them until they couldn't butter bread, it didn't matter because in two seconds they were sharp again.

Now that I'm traveling around, never knowing where I'll be at the end of 6 weeks, I can't be quite that reckless about my knives. I have to be more cautious. For that reason, I bought myself a folding knife that accepts disposable razor blades for the rough, ugly work that would severely dull my knife (like cutting sod, trimming cement board, scoring drywall).

I also find that I tend toward the Opinel #7 that I brought with me (along with a couple other knives) because it was cheap, it's reliable, and the soft steel sharpens easily on my portable sharpening kit at the end of the day if I dull it by using it really hard.
 
Blues said:
The vast majority will fall in the middle ground, while some on one extreme will never sharpen and never learn, and others will not be satisfied until they can whittle the pubic hair of a gnat.
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Epic analogy :thumbup:
 
jackknife,

Great thread as always. You get people thinkin'.

I do think that we (myself included) obsess too much.

I enjoy being able to freehand sharpen and I am glad to no longer have a "gizmo" to sharpen my knives for me. Thankfully I can get them shaving sharp freehand on stone or ceramic.

I'm going the minimalist route these days and have sold off LOTS of my super duper whoooper steel ninja edge cool joe knives.

I find that I am really digging the good old 1999 Case stockman and a SAK. Sometimes a Spydie......but not much anymore. ;)
 
After I got some decent sized DMT diamond hones, I was able to get any steel I owned from won't cut butter to gnat's pubic hair whittling in 5 - 15 minutes, less if only slightly dull, even with CPM M4 at 62 HRC. So I use my blades like I stole 'em but rarely have a blade around for much time that won't split a hair.

I find that a nice polished edge (3 microns or less abrasive size) holds its edge for much much longer than a toothier edge. I also like very acute edge angles, 10 degrees per side maximum. So yeah I'm obsessed with my edges but knives are first and foremost cutting tools and they sure as heck cut better with sharp, thin, polished edges :)
 
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