Knife Sharpening, Necessary Life Skill?

It's only a necessary skill if you own and use tools requiring sharpening and don't want to either use dull tools or have to rely on others to do what you can do for yourself.

It's akin to a bike enthusiast and rider being either able to change a tube or tire or not being able to do so. I'll also be so bold as to suggest changing a tire/tube is a necessary skill for a bicycle enthusiast/rider.
 
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There was one time it was probably an essential skill for many people. The closer to civilization man gets and the more modern that civilization the less it is a mandatory skill. (Depends on your definition of mandatory)

Especially today packages often come with easy open tabs, tear here dots and of course we have an invention called scissors.

I doubt there are many of us who think knapping flint is a necessary skill. Even back then it seems that it was mostly done by skilled individuals for trade.
 
I'm a sous chef in a professional kitchen and until recently (after I taught a coworker how to bring an edge back to a cheap knife) I was the only person who had any clue how to sharpen knives. I've worked with no less than 6 head chefs in both small and large staffed kitchens, and not a single person has the slightest idea how to sharpen a knife. They all call the hone a sharpening steel. The way it works is every 2 weeks "The knife guy" shows up and we can cut stuff again (YAY!!:rolleyes:). Of course the knives are cheap crap and need to be touched up after a few days. My current kitchen didn't even have a stone until I brought one in.

I've worked in and around the Boston area for a few years and AFAIK all professional kitchens use similar services. So even though I work in an environment where you would think it a necessary skill. Having a coworker with the ability to sharpen a knife is a luxury.
 
leghog said:
It's only a necessary skill if you own and use tools requiring sharpening and don't want to either use dull tools or have to rely on others to do what you can do for yourself.

It's akin to a bike enthusiast and rider being either able to change a tube or tire or not being able to do so. I'll also be so bold as to suggest changing a tire/tube is a necessary skill for a bicycle enthusiast/rider.
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I'll somewhat agree with this because my other great love affair is with bicycles and for those that pedal around cities, there are plenty of service providers that can take care of that for them. This gets back to the first part of your statement where they have to rely on someone else, however. And then we can circle back to Dangerously's comments about it depending on the environment.

For riders like myself, changing a tube and tire could literally be a life/death situation, or used to be when I rode more adventurously, since being stranded in in a snow storm or inclement weather (because we're stupid) can be bad. This comes up in bike tours and things when you're more at the mercy of weather but in the city environment, you're probably not at risk from either. Always dumbfounded me the amount of people that didn't know how to change a tube but they certainly got use from their bikes without that skill.

I will add, those that don't know how to change a tube went to extra lengths for getting tires and tire lines, sometimes thornproof tubes, to avoid flats. This can be related to people getting high wear resistant steels to help compensate for their lack of skill and make what used to be necessary, not longer a necessary skill.
 
It's stupid to be a bike enthusiast/rider and not know how to change a tire/tube having to rely on others. I'll say it's equally stupid to carry and use knives without being able to sharpen them having to rely on others. My saying that seems to upset you, but neither that nor anything else will change my mind about it.
 
I wouldn't call choosing to not take the time and learn how to sharpen a knife (or change a tire) stupidity. If you have the means, why do something you don't enjoy when you can pay someone else to do it for you? Freeing up valuable time to continue doing the part of the hobby you love.

I personally find that sharpening knives is a very private introspective activity. It helps relax me and allows my mind to focus on a single activity where I don't have to think about stressful things.
To others it's an annoying necessity that takes them away from fondling their toys, or hunting for the next grail.

Neither of those thought processes is wrong. The inability to realize that shows a lack of understanding that everyone has their own reasons for doing things.
 
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Been outside cutting up an old tree .. . sharpening skills are just one of many skills an adult should have. Making water drinkable building a simple shelter improvised cooking any number of basic skills even keeping a back up supply of non perishable foods.
Yep they get along just fine right up till a natural disaster hits. Then you figure out who has basic life skills and who doesn't. As far as the generation comments . I have taught my people how to sharpen, build a shelter cook over a fire etc. It comes down to weather you want to depend on yourself or someone else.
 
It may not be a necessary skill but a wise one to know if you carry and use knives. What happens if there isnt a place to take them to to sharpen. There was something related in carry a knife thread. Its the way times have become. Take going to a store. You cash out at the register. The person looks at the register and it tells them how much to give back. Take away the register and see how long it takes them to fet back to learning simple math. Knife skills. Take away the person who sharpens for them and see how long it takes them to learn it.
 
Is being able to distinguish high quality knives from low quality knives a necessary skill? No, and neither is sharpening. While it is a useful skill, and can be a great skill to have as a chef or woodworker, it is a necessity for most people.
It is a damn fun skill to have though.
 
I've recently gotten into freehand sharpening. The mechanics of it are so simple that Id like to hope any sentient adult could look at it and figure it out. Before this I used a Spyderco Sharpmaker and the learning curve on that thing is nonexistent. I favor old tool and spring steels, though, and I've never touched a diamond hone nor require my edge to cut free hanging hairs.
 
Is knowing how to take apart and clean tool/rifle used for hunting a necessity. No. But why own it if you cant take care of it
 
Velitrius said:
If you want to carry a knife, you probably should learn how to sharpen it.

If you want to drive a car, you probably should learn how to check the oil, pump gas and change a tire.

There is no definite NEED to have these skills, as there are folk who are paid to perform these services for you.

But if those folk aren't available to you at some point, then not having these skills can get real inconvenient.
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I'm in that camp.

I don't think knife sharpening is a "required life skill". Most people don't even carry a knife these days, so why should they learn how to sharpen one.

However, if you are going to carry and use a knife on a daily basis, you should know how to sharpen it. IMO, the only folks who would carry a knife on a daily basis and not know how to sharpen it are folks who just carry it to look cool. (I think the modern term is "mall ninja")
 
I'm not sure you'll find many on a knife enthusiast site who will say a man who owns and carries and uses knives should not know how to sharpen them.
 
If you want the top performance you have to sharpen your own knives. No way around it.

Super steels aren't just people that don't know how to sharpen.

Sometimes you don't have time to sharpen when you're in the middle of something and it's nice to have that extra edge endurance to get the cutting done. Essentially, you sharpen when you want to not because you have too.



bikerector said:
plumberroy plumberroy L leghog tagged in case you would like to continue the conversation here.

Is knife sharpening a necessary life skill... still?

A simple question and I'm using it a bit as a reference for the importance of learning life skills of this nature, in general. The "why" behind why we think this is really what I'm after in order to understand other's ideologies and philosophies.

It was brought up in another thread that knife sharpening should be a life everyone knows. I am of the opinion that it is useful but not essential because too many people don't know how to do it for it to be called essential. They thrive just fine without it.

It's a simple topic but in my mind it comes down to a philosophy of life in general of the importance we put on skills and DIY vs delegation and working other things with that now released time. Further, you can read into how people place importance of their life skills over other's and their openness to see others as different vs right or wrong.

A quick recap of the backstory, if interested
This sparked my interest:
"Hate to be this way but many people are just too lazy to learn to sharpen. They would rather pay big money for super steel knives and send them back to the factory to sharpen. Instead of buying one of the many knives that you can touch up as you go"

My opinion to the above statement:
"There's no problem with this, in my mind. That's like saying you should build your own house and you're lazy because you haven't taken the time to master the skills and apply it, whether you have the time or not. Or build a car... and so on. Life choices, we have the freedom to choose and the decision you chastise is not wrong, just different."

The rest of the conversation is in this thread but I didn't want the leading post to be more complicated than the above questions
https://bladeforums.com/threads/quality-hatchet-companies.1632023/page-2

As an aside, this time of year I routinely reflect on the prior year's happenings, mostly those things within my control but some outside of it also as it generally relates to the environment in which I operate. These are the simple questions I like to ask because it can lead to deeper questions, understanding, and help understand the purpose behind myself and other's actions, emotions, and more importantly to me, how to motivate, inspire, and foster growth in others.
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If I was running a restaurant a head chef that can't sharpen a knife would last about as long as a journeyman plumber that can't Solder .
I have read similar discussions on survivalists vs preppers survivalist learn to use what they have available whereas the preppers try to stockpile everything thing they think they might need
 
bikerector bikerector you have mentioned that you are into bikes. Trueing a wheel is almost an art. But unless the wheel is destroyed I can get it close enough to get home, that is the skill level of sharpening I am talking about
 
I think it’s a necessary skill for us knife aficionados especially, maybe not as so with the bulk of the world these days. Even though I believe we all really should know the basics of it. I know of some people that’ll sooner buy a new kitchen knife than sharpen the one they already own. All through history one tool has remained prevalent, the knife. Without it we’d have one helluva time trying to rip through a nice juicy steak. We’d have just as much trouble with a dull knife as we would a spoon.


I’ll be the first to admit I’m no master sharpener. I can keep my edges crisp, I can fix the damage I’ll inevitably cause, but it’s not even close to pretty. I learned how to freehand first, and it’s what I still continue to do, though I’m now starting to considering a system just to see how sharp I can make ‘em.
 
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