Epiphany

Ben Dover

Ben Dover

Joined
Aug 2, 2006
Messages
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Since I didn't care to watch the big game last evening, I was at my workbench "fondling" several of my better knives.:)

As I examined the blade of a Spyderco Military, S90V, the thought occurred to me: "Why on earth did I put so much time and effort into this mirror polished blade, when it would have cut just as well if I had stopped at 6 microns instead of continuing to .25 microns??"

I picked up my Bob Dozier hunting knife, and an old Cold Steel "Master Hunter" of Carbon V and their blades were equal in every way.:thumbsup:

Now I'm not a fast thinker,:( but I like to flatter myself and believe that I'm a deep thinker:rolleyes:.

After a moment, I had an epiphany. Pride of craftsmanship!!:) I think that most of us do far more than is necessary when maintaining our blades, not because it's necessary, but because we want to be able to look at our work and be proud of what we've done!:thumbsup::D:thumbsup:

And it surely doesn't hurt when a friend looks at one of my knives, and says"DAMN, Ben! That's some awesome craftsmanship!:)
 
Art for art's sake?

Why not?

I don't personally have the patience...proven by my hatred of painting, caulking and other fussy jobs where just "good enough" tells. LOL. But I admire the "strive for excellence" gene in others.

(I would say that I had the "strive for excellence" gene when it came to cases I built at work...much to the dismay of the defense attorneys who chose to take their clients to trial. So, I had that going for me...which is nice.)
 
Most of my friends and those I sharpen knives for are in their 60's and 70's now, don't care about the effort I put into modifying the knife or improving on the factory edge. They only care if the knife cuts. Only a few would notice the mirror edge. That being said, I care how my effort has improved the edge. My only problem is I am always trying to improve a edge although it is fine. When I say that this is one of the sharpest knives I have, in a week or a bit longer, I try to take it up a notch. Looking for perfection that for me I might never achieve in my lifetime, but can't seem to stop if this makes any sense.
 
I have the same issue as you Ben probably because my father taught me growing up that if you take the time to do a job, Do it right! because it doesn't take much more time. Not exactly true when it comes to knife sharpening but it carries over for me in everything I do and people do take notice. I have sharpened and polished all the guys knives at work and they all love the extra time I put in to it plus they all can tell the difference. Just last weekend I made myself a paint can forge and forged a couple of throwing knives for my son out of some mystery steel and they came out great for my first attempt. The shape and balance was perfect and I cold have stopped after I cleaned the scale off with some 220 grit paper but nope, I had to break out the lapping films from my KME and go from 9M down to .10M. I have to admit at one point I felt like I was polishing a Turd :poop: but I kept on going anyway just because I could. there are too many people who say (Good enough) now a days so set an example whenever you can and hopefully it will sink in to someone. I know it sounds strange and a little unbelievable but these Millennials are capable of learning if you can get them to look away from their phones for a minute :confused:.
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Ben Dover said:
After a moment, I had an epiphany. Pride of craftsmanship!!:) I think that most of us do far more than is necessary when maintaining our blades, not because it's necessary, but because we want to be able to look at our work and be proud of what we've done!
Click to expand...

Well... sort of...

When I was a little kid I'd go into my grandfather's shop and play with the machine tools making stuff. When I'd ask about my work, a common response was "it's good enough for what you're doing." At the time, the answer would always irk me. It wasn't until years later that I understood. I wasn't building fighter planes or nuclear reactors. I was a kid making crude parts for homemade contraptions. And that's a VERY important lesson to learn if you're going to be productive and make money doing whatever you choose to do. Every craftsman needs to know where the line is.

This becomes evident in my current hobbyist machine shop projects. Usually tolerances of a few thousandths are perfectly fine. But maybe I try to take it to 0.0005, just because I can. It's total waste of time, but it makes me happy. Same with sharpening a knife. Maybe I really want to take it to 1k, but end up going substantially finer just cuz it makes a prettier edge, even though I know that I'll probably just end up hacking through difficult materials.

At the end of the day, keep working on a project as long as it's entertaining. Then it's time to stop.
 
I just sharpen on sil carbide coarse,fine,and leave it like that lately,it will be used anyways.If it has few scratches,who cares.Few knives that were sharpened for friends were polished on waterstones and then on strop with green compound.
 
I have never polished an edge on any of my knives. Not so much because I can't be arsed to do so. More because my knives are going to be used and any extra time spent polishing an edge is pretty much wasted as soon as I use it. If I had show pieces, maybe I would feel differently about it. For my uses it is "good enough" to bring the edge to a degree of sharpness that satisfies me. So far, that has not reached the point of needing a mirror polished edge.
 
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