posterity

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jsitm

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To the best of my knowledge, the world's supply of iron ore is at a little less than 100 years' supply, at current rates of usage. Due to expanding population, we can rest assured that mining & smelting ores to make steel will certainly rise. Now, my question is: What do we do once we run out of ore? How will our children & grandchildren get the high-quality blades they will want? Do we recycle all available steel? If so, how?

I just posted this to get others' thoughts on this question. I welcome all constructive answers.

jsitm
 
What we do is: First, make plans to buy now the absolute best knives we can afford, so that they will last and our kids/grandkids/etc can use them.

Second, make a plan to melt down all the cheapo steel knives, add some carbon to them, and remake them as good, solid knives.

Third, stop making cars. Go back to horses...they use less steel(and less fuel, but different thread) than cars.

Fourth, go and mine other planets! Yes, the key to quality knives is to strip mine every planet with any steel, leaving them cold, empty husks of planet.

Fifth, use some of the precious resource to learn how to alchemically alter other materials into the steels we so desire.

I hope this shines a little light on our ways/means of helping our grandchildren get the knives they most assuredly won't be albe to carry due to governmental intervention.

Thank you and your welcome.


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Sean

[This message has been edited by Blackwatch (edited 02-13-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Blackwatch (edited 02-13-2001).]
 
I think it will take a while for my descendants to work through my collection, but thanks for giving me a new excuse for the next time my wife asks me why I need "another damn knife."

"But Honey, at current rates of usage the world's supply of iron ore is a little less than 100 years'. Think of the children!"

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James Segura
San Francisco, CA
 
You wanna talk about wasting steel, has any one seen the utility knives at home improvement stores with large disposible blade magazines?
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You can buy huge cartridges of blades and just keep throwing them away!
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Come on now, it's not that hard to sharpen a blade!
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I bet my NATIVE has cut the equivalent of 100's of these blades and it has a good 90% of it's life left!
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What gives with non-knife people?
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Take care!
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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Blackwatch:
Fourth, go and mine other planets! Yes, the key to quality knives is to strip mine every planet with any steel, leaving them cold, empty husks of planet.</font>
Click to expand...

We just crash-landed the NEAR asteroid orbiter on Eros yesterday. Asteroid mining, here we come!
 
not enough to destroy our planet...we will go now and destroy the universe!!! make it bow to our will and give us its most valuable resources!!

mwahahahahahahahahahahahha..cough..er, sorry.



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Sean
 
OK: may I correct your fears a bit:
Iron is the second frequent metal of the earth-crust, just after aluminum. The average concentration is about 5%. The earth's core is thought to be made mostly of iron with some nickel added. So, it never will be scarce.
What MAY be scarce is "cheaply useable" iron ore, but that is another topic.
BTW: we probably will run out of oil long before running out of iron.
Anyway: buy the best you can afford.
Happy sharpening
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Ted
 
"Science is man's method for gaining control over his environment by threatening it with chaos and destruction."

--from "Science Made Stupid" by Tom Weller

The boldface is mine, not the author's.
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--Bob Q
 
On second thought, Jsitm, within a century earth will be so densly populated, that we may only "stand", "move" and "lie down" in shifts in the assigned cubicles. Food supply will be from electricity by means of a subcutaneous "power to calories" converter. No more food, no more drinks, no more fun, just waiting to be recycled. Worst of all: NO MORE KNIVES (just no room).
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Ted
 
(Following Zut & Zut's line of logic)
And then, of course, there will be a huge nuclear holocaust which will pretty much eradicate technology as we know it, and we'll all go back to . . .
forging knifes by hand so everyone can survive
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Just guessing but I would think the amount of steel used in cutlery compared to everything else is probably a fraction of 1 percent.
 
Anyone ever read "The Hot Zone"? I think just one little aberration of ebola, it goes airborne, and we don't have to worry about steel, oil, food, or anything. Just how 10% of us will bury the other 90%.

Just a little food for thought.
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Oh, knife content.... there will be plenty of knives to go around without having to forge more, or look for more iron.
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The most affectionate creature in the world is a wet dog. - Ambrose Bierce
Most dog owners are at length able to teach themselves to obey their dog. - Robert Morley

iktomi
 
besides, we could always sharpen rocks or sticks...or start forging aluminum blades for common use.

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Sean
 
Guys I just read some very disturbing statistics in my Encyclopedia of Science from 1989. It seems that if the current rate of ore mining continues, then all of the worlds silver, gold, mercury, lead, platinum, tin, and zinc will be exhausted by the year 2000!!! We must do something to prevent this! I urge you all to stop buying metal containers and only buy plastic and styrofoam. With a little luck, we may prevent this disaster.
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Thanks for the answers....I don't understand where you are coming from, disco stu. I never said anything about us "destroying Mother Earth"! I do have environmentalist sympathies, & overpopulation is the big problem, but I don't worship the planet, nor am I a Luddite as so many extremist eco-nuts are. Technology is not bad in itself, it's what we do with it that determines the results. Personally, I would rather see us go back to horses & buggies (much more craftsmanship in a buggy than in a mass-produced car), but not to living in thatched huts & hunting to survive. Earth can only support a minute fraction of the present population, if all of us were to become hunter-gatherers. More than 9/10ths of us would have to die off just so the remaining amount could survive. I don't go with that prospect.

Tactical's post on the 'utility blade' packages is right on. I wonder at how anyone can take such wonderful material & throw it away! Now I know of another cheap supply of steel, if I ever get into forging--go to the junkyard & pick up all the used utility blades thrown away by the sheeple!
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Thanks Tactical.

I also like Sean's first post. He's thinking along the lines I do: Asking of every solution, "and then what?"
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Jsitm

Just Send It To Me
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Don't take it as a direct insult. Not how it was intended. But I for one have no eco-concerns. The earth is much more resiliant than most people think and I am confident that it will be many years after we all die before the human race has to worry about a shortage of any raw materials. And anyway, after I'm dead, why do I care?
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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Earth can only support a minute fraction of the present population, if all of us were to become hunter-gatherers.</font>
Click to expand...
I also disagree with this statement, but as I have no stats to back it up, I'll leave it at that.

BTW, I also would like to see cars abolished and horses re-instituted. But only because I despise rushing back and forth and general hurrying of any kind.


[This message has been edited by Disco Stu (edited 02-14-2001).]
 
Hey thanks jsitm, nice words(are you a crazed psycho too, just like me? lol).

anyway, i often crave not to live in this busy and hectic world do. to much doing, not enough living. well, its what we gave ourselves to work with...so, we gotta deal, right?

we'll just figure out some other way to preserve materilas to create knives and other fine products. we're gonna make it, after all!!

i believe that ecologically, if we rip earth apart, we will serve ourselves our own reward...no planet to support. however, most of us are taking the general steps to not totally exploit natural resources. recycling goooood!!!

so, that said...im still confused about what i had to say. i'm at work right now, so if i made no sense..oh well...lol.

later

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Sean
 
Nature is a "selfcorrecting" system. If "we" are too big a nuisance, nature will just eliminate "us". Ants and rats are already waiting for their chance to rule.
Happy exploiting
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Ted
 
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