Do we obsess too much?

J

jackknife

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Oct 2, 2004
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I like a sharp knife as much as anyone. Being a knife knut, probably more than most people. But can we obsess to the point of no return?

I used to go hog wild sharpening my knife. Going from a washita arkansas to a hard arkansas, to a super hard arkansas. Strop on leather rubbed down with jeweler rouge. I thought nothing of spending an hour fooling around sharpening my knife. Try to whittle hair. I used to take great pride in having the sharpest knife around, and enjoying the envy of my fellow army personel, or later my co-workers. But then life moved on, and I got older. Perspectives and views changed.

I remember one day at work, I was in my 30's, and there was this old guy, Andy. He was watching me touch up my knife, and I guess I was really getting nit picky, and he askes me 'Kid, what the heck are you doing?"

Now I'd seen Andy touch up his knife, and working in a machine shop cutting grimy tape off bundles of round stock, a knife gets dull quick. But while I was spending time with fine, very fine hones then stropping, Andy would just give it a few swipes on a brown Norton India, and go on about his job. The boss made it clear he didn't really like me spending time sharpening my knife either. His point was, if the other guys could do it in a few minutes, why can't I. Of course the answer was, "I'm a knife knut, and I obsess over this." The boss told me to un-obsess, and get to work.

Next time my knife needed to be sharpened, and I just couldn't wait till after work, I did the Andy routine. I took a small India stone out of my tool box drawer, gave it a few swipes, and it felt better. Much to my surprise, it cut stuff very well. I cut round stock loose to go on the lathe, I cut off the burr from some delrin parts I did on the mill, cut open grimy carbard boxes of parts to be modified. I started taking a new look at sharpening phillosophy. I decied to spend less time sharpening.

These days I'm an old retired senior citizen, and I am using my knife more than ever. Theres fishing with the grandkids, fishing with my better half of almost 40 wonderful years. There's camping, canoeing, sailing on the bay, and woods rambling with our binoculars for hours. My pocket knives have been used in any given week in those activities. Retirement is a busy time, not too mention that since I only have so many heartbeats left, I don't want to spend any of the time I have left doing anything but fun.

These days, I find myself limiting my sharpening to 5 minutes. Thats it. If I feel my knife getting a little dull, I take out the little Eze-lap hone in my wallet, and take a few minutes to resharpen. I'm not going to obsess over micro bevels, angles, microns of grit, or any other horse hocky exept 'will it cut?" If my knife cuts the plastic clam packs open, cuts open the fish belly for cleaning, cuts the cotton jute twine to tie up a sagging tomato plant, and open my mail, then it's sharp enough. If somebody wants to get in a contest whittling hair, he's gonna have to go someplace else 'cause I'm not bothering.

I gave up obsessing over that "Is it sharp enough?" many years ago now, and I'm glad I did. It's a liberation to get to the point where you realize it really does not matter the degree of super sharpness you get past a servicable point. I've made the discovery that in the real world, it gets ridiculous real fast.

For most of my life, I've been the only real knife knut I've known. Most of my friends when I was a kid, thought I was nuts. Most of my fellow service members thought I was nuts. Most of my co-workers thought I was nuts. Looking back on it now, I have to agree with them, I was nuts. I was obsessed. Somehow they all got the exact some things done with a knife that I did, on camping trips, fishing trips, at work, with what I thought in my youthfull arrogance was dull knives. They had cheap pocket knives scraped across the grey dished in carborundum stones that thier grandfather used. I felt superior wth my setup of multiple grit stones, and I was sure that I had the better edge. But watching Andy give that beat up Buck cadet a few scrapes across an old carborunum stone, and then field dress a nice buck neat as can be, made me think. His little knife went through hide and meat just fine. A light went on over my head, like in the cartoons. Enlightenment.

If you just like to sharpen knives, and enjoy fooling with all the stuff as a hobby, okay, thats fine. Have at it. Be my guest. But if you just want to use your knives, and have a fast effective sharpening to get them back in service easy, then why bother with all the stuff the sharpening manufactors want to sell you? It's just not needed. For many years now the only tool Ive used to sharpen my knife is the old Eze-lap model L I keep in my wallet. I cut off most of the red plastic handle so it will fit in the zipper compartment of my wallet. Sometimes I'll really do it up big; I'll take off the Dickies work belt I wear, and give it some stropping. Wow!

I don't own any sharpmakers, edge pros, gizmo's or gadjets of any kind. And I refuse to take more than 5 minutes to fool with my knife edge. I just touch it up for a few minutes with whats on my person, and fold it up and put it back in my pocket. I couldn't begin to tell you what angle it is, I have no idea and just go by feel. Life is too short at this stage of the game, and there's too many fish I have to catch, hot dog sticks to whittle with the grandkids, lots of can's to plink with the .22 with the grandkids, and woods to walk with that special lady I've shared a life with. No way I want to spend an hour fooling with my knife. I rather be using it doing something I love.

Yet somehow with all this fast and crude sharpening, my knife will still shave a few hairs off my arm, open panfish bellies for cleaning, and cut that jute twine for the tomato plants we have in pots on the back deck.

And that's good enough for me.
 
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As my BF handle would indicate, YES. ABSOLUTELY.:D I do obsess over this knife sharpening thing. That was precisely my mindset when I created my account here on BF.

I know there will come a day when it doesn't seem as interesting to me. Part of what is driving my obssession now, is the desire to reach a point where, no matter what type of blade or steel or available sharpener I have, I'll be able to get the job done quickly and efficiently. There's great satisfaction in reaching a level where I know I'll be able to put at least a serviceable edge on most any knife, no matter what. A lot of it, for me, is in developing the 'muscle memory' and 'feel' to maintain the correct angle & pressure when sharpening or stropping.

I don't freehand everything yet, except for stropping and relatively light touch-ups with a ceramic stone. I've been using a guided sharpener (Lansky & GATCO) to put new bevels on my knives. For me, that's been a great aid in demonstrating WHY it's so important to maintain a consistent angle. I literally never knew how sharp a blade could be, until I used my Lansky to put a more acute and precisely shaped bevel on a knife. That is what motivates me to keep learning more. The beautiful thing is, the more I learn, the more I realize how many different ways there are to arrive at the same end result. There are so many methods & techniques to get it done. That's very reassuring to me. And I'd like to learn as much as I can about them.

And finally, part of what is feeding my obsession right now is that I just find it very relaxing. Sitting in my comfy chair, watching TV and sipping on a glass of wine, I find it very therapeutic to pick up my strop and whatever knife is closest, and strop away. It takes my mind off of things that I'd otherwise be too worried about. I'd much rather obsess over my sharpening hobby than any of those other dreadful things.
 
I like scary sharp like most of the folks on this forum. Knives, chisel, planer blades etc. - no sense in having tools that require work to make them work. Always carry a knife. My sharpening routine is hand honing with a series of water stones. Pretty good at it, but that does require a commitment. Finally, I too recently came to an epiphany as regards knife sharpening. In brief - once I get it sharp, maintenance of the edge is as simple as a few strops every other day or so on a piece of 3/8" mdf treated with ZAM buffing compound. Amazing how easy it is to keep an edge for weeks and weeks even though I am slicing or chopping or sawing through stuff every day. As for keeping the mdf clean, I wipe it off with WD40 every now & again then recoat thinly with the ZAM. Easy as can be.

Having said all that, I have been persuaded by other posts on this forum to invest in some paper wheels from the Razor Sharp Edgemaking System guys. I think the daily stropping will still serve me well.
 
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I would say YES. Of all the things we could obsess on, a sharp knife is not the end of the world.
 
I'd bet most 'normal' folks would assume, upon observing how much time we spend in a forum about nothing but knives, that we're already at least a little bit obsessed with the subject matter. ;)
 
Nice story Jackknife.

It used to bug me a bit how much some people get bent over sharpening angles , microbevels and so forth then I thought my old standby for such judgemental occassions , to each their own.

We live in a very different age.

My grandpa's , my dad , none of them spent any more time than was necessary keeping their knives sharp , not to mention they were not concerned with scratching the blade all to hell in doing so , it is a tool afterall and not some pretty little showpiece that will never see any harsher cutting than the occassional piece of paper just to make sure it did not magically lose some of it's edge since it's last strop.

Ah , my mind and body are tired and I ramble...

Someone wants to obsess , go for it.

Me , I got better things to do :)

Tostig
 
I think it's a case of been there done that. Some of us have been there and done that. Some of us have yet to go there. :D
 
Jackknife, Well written story . Of course some obsess too much in this area and its called OCD . But how much is just right ? Your saying just sharp enough to cut what you want and others say as sharp as they can get it . Both ends of the spectrum enjoy their knife talents and express it alittle differently . Its when they began to tell persons to take it to a zillion grit polished edge or its just not sharp and spend hundreds of dollars on equipment to do it . That really makes me wonder what they had for breakfast . DM
 
This thread brings to mind one of the stories/parables I remember from my dalliance with Zen meditation. The true mastery of Zen is having learned it all and then forgetting it all and merely living it. That being said, I definitely agree with Singularity!
 
I'm not sure you can be obsessive over a very complex skill, unless you consider doing something to the best of your abilities obsessive?

As people, if we were not all a little obsessive over something we would not have diamond stones, Sebenzas, million dollar cars, COMPUTERS!!!, or anything that is made. We would all be cavemen.

Theres nothing wrong with how you view sharpening it simply means you have come full circle. You learned the skill to its highest level then found the method that best works for you.

If you had no obsession at all you would have no reason to be hear ;)
 
Jackknife,

No, we do not obsess to much. Your "obsession" has given you the knowledge and ability to choose what kind of an edge you want to put on your knife. I think that knowledge and skill is important for a man who considers himself a knife enthusiast. I'm not saying you need to have the keenest edge but rather have an edge that works best for you.

-Paul
 
you're barking against the wrong tree :) I just bought some more DMT stuff and dmt pastes for that supersharpness :D

great story, I can definitely relate about wanting to spend every minute doing what you like and want! :thumbup:
 
Obsessive? Some of us just may be. But I think of it more as learning than obsessive. I'm alot like you now I have mainly one hone that I use for touchups and that is it. It takes me no more than a few strokes and that is it I'm done. But it took me a long time and alot of obsession about getting the perfect edge to get to this point. I've learned alot about angles, grit sizes, edge polish/coarseness, sharp vs cutting, and alot of that jaz. I've found what works for my knife that I edc and for what I like for other cutting tools. Heck I'm still learning about sharpening and edges. Learning is good. I think saying good enough isn't really what you mean you have found the edge that works for what you need so why not use that edge.
 
well said jackknife. i dont like spending a lot of time sharpening a knife when there are better things to do with my time. i also have fibromyalgia which causes my hands to cramp (probably from all the hand sharpening i used to do when i was younger) now i use a set of paper wheels which gets the job done in a few minutes.
 
I always enjoy your stories, Jackknife. You seem like a fountain of wisdom in an otherwise murky sea.

I love a sharp knife, but I hate sharpening. I usually don't go to an extreme with my edges unless I'm trying to prove something to myself. I just sharpen until I'm satisfied with the edge or if I'm trying to get a roll out, and then get on with my day. Right now actually I'm about to sharpen a knife that I've had a terrible edge on for the last month, I've just been slowly restoring the edge over the last few weeks, otherwise I'd waste my whole day doing almost nothing.

Thanks for the story.
 
I agree, Somber; "wasting my whole day doing almost nothing but that" . When you have a family and kids I can't allow myself to spend that kind of time on knife sharpening knowing, I need to change the oil and sparkplugs in that vehicle, weed the garden, repair the fence, cut more firewood for winter, ect.. Still, I'd bet there's other guys here that need to write a resume', work on getting a better job, finish college, ect.. No, knife sharpening is not exactly a waste of time . It just prevents some from thinking about, what other things they could be doing with their time that is more productive ... DM
 
I agree with a little bit of what you're saying, but to me I just love the actual sharpening process. I like to have the feeling of control on a scale that small. It gives you kind of a feeling of skill, accomplishment and like I already said the control part of it. I mean, there's pretty much no point to polishing an edge on six different grits of stone, and then looking at it through a microscope to see how perfect the edge is, but that's what I love doing.

I think I got started on enjoying that because I worked in a university machine shop. We were given some pretty big challenges; we had six or seven parts we had to handfile and cut from hacksaws that all had to be +/- .005" tolerances, and when doing work with a machine those tolerances would shrink down to +/- .001". I started getting a really good feeling every time I hand filed a surface down to the point where every portion of it would collect dye off of a surface plate machined at +/- .0005". Just doing anything on that scale felt magnificent, that you could effect and precisely control things on that small of a scale, and that you had to do so by trusting the techniques and wisdom of others.

Much like your story, I think I got started obsessing with edges in the opposite way. My shop instructor saw me using a Norton stone meant for cutting tools, and I was using it in a way that most knife people wouldn't but that always worked for me. I would just look down the stone, make sure the edge was flush with it, and drag the knife laterally across the stone. My shop instructor and fellow students said, "What are you doing, that's not going to be sharp," and would show it tear up a piece of paper, but I could just as easily cut anything else laying around the shop with it.

So I just had this urge to want to learn the "right way" according to them. Started getting really into bevels and grinding at smaller scales, and pretty soon I was getting knives sharper with hand files then they could with their precious Smith's diamond sharpening kits. Of course I heard, "That's not how you do it, that's too rough, that's not truly razor sharp," so once again I got the urge to learn what, "Truly razor sharp" was and how to get there.

I learned a lot about the theory behind it, and I'm better off for it. Sure you know how to sharpen a knife with a couple of passes on a Norton India. Can you use a 2x4 and some sandpaper? Learning the theory behind sharpening makes sharpening on practically anything pretty easy. I've found naturally porous stones out hiking and touched my knife up on those just to see the edge they would produce, and like you said, it serves for pretty much 90% of what anyone would need it for.

I think justifying learning and doing this by what it's supposed to be used for is flawed though. I mean, if I want to get my pocket knife shaving sharp and I'm sitting there convincing myself I should do it because I can shave with it, all anyone has to do to burst my bubble is mention that I could get a whole package of disposable razors at the dollar store for way less than I spent on the equipment I was using. However, I would have the knowledge and experience on how to hone and sharpen an edge to a hair-shaving razor's edge, and that's more valuable than I can even begin to assess.

In the end there's two reasons for learning how to sharpen really well for me. One is that you actually need to sharpen a knife to some extreme extent; that's a little less common. The other is that you just want to learn how to sharpen, to challenge yourself, etc. I don't really see anything wrong with that as long as people don't get ahead of themselves. I mean, is the guy that sharpens his EDC on a 10k stone only to have it dinged up beyond belief by the end of the night wasting his time and energy maintaining that edge? Perhaps, but to say so you would have to say that acquiring that experience is a waste of time, and I don't believe it is.

I mean, look, I've sharpened knives on knives. You can take to kitchen knives, run their edges together, and it will be sharp enough to cut 90% of the items in one's kitchen. Will I have learned anything from it? Do I have any kind of sense of accomplishment by making that edge? Is there anything there to be proud of?

While the answer is no to those questions, I realize that you can either sharpen knives to feel warm and fuzzy and proud, or to use an edge. In my opinion most pull-thru sharpeners produce an edge that would acquiesce the needs for most people, so to me even saying you're using that Norton India stone is excessive if we're just talking about obtaining a serviceable edge. That's why when it really comes time to needing a sharp knife now, if all I have is a pull-thru sharpener, that's what I will use.

I mean, in all honesty, even using a honing stone at all is surpassing the knowledge of most people. People I know ( and trust me they all regard me as some kind of creepy serial killer for caring this much about knives ) regard a kitchen steel as a "knife sharpener" and the edge it produces as "a razor". I remember one time showing my friend how to really sharpen it on a stone he actually had in his kitchen. So I sliced up paper in front of him. He took another knife out of the drawer, chopped the piece of chicken he was preparing and said, "Yeah, I don't need to cut paper, I need to cut chicken."

At a certain point it's all an exercise in futility that we have our reasons for doing. I personally don't get obsessed with buying new equipment, I like to experiment and see what's going on with the equipment I have. All I have is a humble Norton 220/1K, a Smith's Coarse/Fine diamond sharpener, and a leather belt as a strop. They've worked great for getting edge that I can't measure or even see at less than 30x, and have done a lot for my sense of "pride and accomplishment", but you know how much they've helped me complete cutting tasks that I need? Pretty much zero, as I could have used a kitchen steel to produce a viable edge in pretty much all of the tasks I need a knife for.

I get it though. After a certain point, there's really not much more about sharpening that one wants to learn. I mean, I could get all obsessive about mirror edges and start collecting strops and compound, but I'm just really not interested in learning that because I still learn new things just from using an ordinary bench stone. However, if you're asking me, "Would you rather sharpen a knife all day or go play with your family?" I think the answer is obvious go play with my family, sharpening is just a time killer to me. When it comes down to that edge that I spent so many hours on perfecting, I could destroy it in 20 minutes because one of my friends needs my knife to open a beer can. Do I go, "Oh, no, it's a knife, don't abuse it..." No, I just hand them the knife, knowing that if I need it again any time soon I could sharpen it on a piece of glass if I need to, and I could go set aside some time to kill to go restore the edge just for kicks.

So yeah, maintaining these kinds of edges... I can see calling that wasting time if you're not getting any enjoyment or experience out of it anymore. However for me, I still learn things every time I sharpen. Heck I still use my knife on things I shouldn't just for an excuse to sharpen, what kind of sense does that make in this whole context?

Some of the sense of pride an accomplishment isn't so strong now, but I do like the feeling of control it gives a person. I mean, being able to sharpen a knife to a point where it can shave your face dry gives you an ounce of pride at first... 'Til you join a forum dedicated to blades and realize that's small pickings. However, what still remains is just this sense of, "Well, I can do it if I need to," and a feeling of, "Yeah, I did this," when using it to shave. I don't know quite how to describe it, but when I use to use the tools I had made by hand to complete some bigger task, it was the same feeling of, "Yeah, you did this, you accomplished it, somehow you managed to make your will so on a scale you can't even see." Maybe I get some kind of megalomania out of it, I don't know, I just know I enjoy it. lol
 
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