Purple! Because Ice cream has no bones!

J. Doyle said:
I didn't know where else to post this but I thought some of you might enjoy this.

These are some fun little sharpness tests to see if you have a sharp edge with good geometry.

https://imgur.com/a/piojTBf

I'm curious if you guys try these and what your results are. And what other sharpness tests do you guys like to do?
Click to expand...

Nice test John, I'm guilty of raiding the free phone books in front of stores when we go to the big city. I usually grab one or two, they're handy for feeling a clean edge. Super slow cuts to feel where there's any drag, quick slices, loosely folded slices to cut an oval out of the middle, curved cuts, standing slice, stuff like that. I'll "potato peel" into the side of a block of walnut and go back to the phone book paper to make sure the edge stays clean afterwards. I'll have to try the rolled paper chop.
 
I have found that most of my customers in the ranching cowboy world prefer a toothy edge. Seems to cut stuff we cut better. I made this top knife three or four years ago and it'd seen some pretty tough cowboyin' use. The customer sent it back to see if I could fix er up.

BVhyWgD.jpg


Reground and etched the primary bevel and fixed the tip, gave a it lil buffing too:

s2PAYTi.jpg


Lost most of the original hamon but fixed the knife up:

KTYQlce.jpg


I use to slice leather and styrofoam peanuts to check sharpness. I've since settled on slicing paper and will use the order form if its an order and if its an in stock deal I use paper from a legal pad. I expect 3 clean slices without drag and without tearing the paper:

N3TQmFg.jpg


Ready to ship back to the customer for more cowboyin'. This has been a good test for me and my knives, especially since I might be sharpening 20 or so at a time. Again not a polished edge at all, pretty darn toothy but it cuts what we cut better.
 
So I don't post on Facebook at all but my Instagram posts cross post to it automatically. I don't pay attention to Facebook because that's not my thing but in the last month or so I've gotten an insane increase of traffic over there. So I started going over there to respond to posts and questions like a good lad. Since then I've gotten a ton of spam emails, scam posters trying to sell my knives, confusing messages and all kinds of weird stuff. Not to mention it's a very counter intuitive app to begin with. Not a fan, won't become one.

Here's one example, I didn't mention anything about any country and get this, what an angry little man:
20230112_095807.jpg

Of course I know it's an absolute waste of time to respond but maybe Bob will have an intelligent answer but I know better.
 
Redmeadow Knives said:
Nice work Dave, that sheath held up great over the years!
Click to expand...
Thank you sir! Love seeing my stuff getting used and abused. We've got the same deal. I post on IG and it goes to FB automatically. See a lot more tire kickers on FB and more sales on IG. And more strange questions like "How do I buy this?" Course the post gives ya our web address. Years ago we had some friends visiting here for the day from England. They were here to pick up a new saddle they had ordered and stopped by to see us. The girls (Nichole and Lisa) had tossed Lisa's new saddle on Lil Man one of our horses and were taking turns trying it out. Bout that time the UPS truck showed and it was Nichole's new boots. Nichole jumped down and hobbled Lil Man. Hobbles are basically horsey handcuffs and ALL good ranch horses are hobble broke. You put hobbles on Lil Man and he goes to sleep. Very traumatizing to the horse. While Nichole was getting her boots Lisa took a closeup of the hobbles on Lil Man cause they are very artistic one of a kind braided deal. She posted this pic later in the day on her FB page and dang it ignited a firestorm. Pages and pages about how the horse was being tortured (he's asleep), cruel, illegal in Sweden etc etc etc. Lots of folks displaying their ignorance.
 
Horsewright said:
Thank you sir! Love seeing my stuff getting used and abused. We've got the same deal. I post on IG and it goes to FB automatically. See a lot more tire kickers on FB and more sales on IG. And more strange questions like "How do I buy this?" Course the post gives ya our web address. Years ago we had some friends visiting here for the day from England. They were here to pick up a new saddle they had ordered and stopped by to see us. The girls (Nichole and Lisa) had tossed Lisa's new saddle on Lil Man one of our horses and were taking turns trying it out. Bout that time the UPS truck showed and it was Nichole's new boots. Nichole jumped down and hobbled Lil Man. Hobbles are basically horsey handcuffs and ALL good ranch horses are hobble broke. You put hobbles on Lil Man and he goes to sleep. Very traumatizing to the horse. While Nichole was getting her boots Lisa took a closeup of the hobbles on Lil Man cause they are very artistic one of a kind braided deal. She posted this pic later in the day on her FB page and dang it ignited a firestorm. Pages and pages about how the horse was being tortured (he's asleep), cruel, illegal in Sweden etc etc etc. Lots of folks displaying their ignorance.
Click to expand...

That reminds me of when we had company over and cooked up some eggs that the kids brought up from the chickens. They asked if they were safe to eat.... My response was something to the effect of "They're straight out of a chicken's @#$, it doesn't get much safer than that".
 
Exactly the same! Some folks don't get it. Here we are "torturing" Josie:

HivxNl2.jpg


Oops sorry, doesn't look much like she's being tortured, she's taking a nap. The hobbles are the strap around her front legs and they live on the saddle when not being used. Now ya just don't throw them on a horse, the horse is trained to accept them, just like they are trained to accept the saddle. One guy had written in trying to explain to the folks that were panty twisted that sometimes ya have to get down to do things, like fixing fence thats gonna take two hands. "Tie the horse to a tree!" was the response. The gal that had responded was so adamant that the horse could be tied to a tree I went to her page. All pics of unicorns and rainbows, no really just unicorns and rainbows. The tree deal seems less than practical sometimes. Just tie em to a tree: I know Ike we'll have a spelling contest...er tie up to a tree:

MxJSGJX.jpg


7uEJ1LQ.jpg


csd9FKm.jpg


The entire tree concept is just impractical. When the guy tried to explain this to unicorn gal she said :"A get down and a hold is a get down and a hold." Must not have any fences that need fixing in the unicorn and rainbow world. Cause it generally takes two hands to do that. Tied to a tree, er no being held ah no just hobbled:

ByxtrXD.jpg


So I can use both hands to fix the fence:

gnT9AG5.jpg
 
Last edited:
Horsewright said:
Exactly the same! Some folks don't get it. Here we are "torturing" Josie:

HivxNl2.jpg


Oops sorry, doesn't look much like she's being tortured, she's taking a nap. The hobbles are the strap around her front legs and they live on the saddle when not being used. Now ya just don't throw them on a horse, the horse is trained to accept them, just like they are trained to accept the saddle. One guy had written in trying to explain to the folks that were panty twisted that sometimes ya have to get down to do things, like fixing fence thats gonna take two hands. "Tie the horse to a tree!" was the response. The gal that had responded was so adamant that the horse could be tied to a tree I went to her page. All pics of unicorns and rainbows, no really just unicorns and rainbows. The tree deal seems less than practical sometimes. Just tie em to a tree: I know Ike we'll have a spelling contest...er tie up to a tree:

MxJSGJX.jpg


7uEJ1LQ.jpg


csd9FKm.jpg


The entire tree concept is just impractical. When the guy tried to explain this to unicorn gal she said :"A get down and a hold is a get down and a hold." Must not have any fences that need fixing in the unicorn and rainbow world. Cause it generally takes two hands to do that. Tied to a tree, er no being held ah no just hobbled:

ByxtrXD.jpg


So I can use both hands to fix the fence:

gnT9AG5.jpg
Click to expand...

I often wonder (in amazement) at the severe lack of critical thinking skills that gets put on display in social media.

I follow a fellow on Instagram who runs a trap line, demonstrates woodsmanship and survival skills. He frequently shows the types of traps he uses, the types of critters he is targeting, and often videos himself setting loose a non-target critter that his trap snagged. The amount of willful ignorance and meanness that gets exhibited at times towards his efforts is astounding.

Everyone has an opinion and we all know what they say about those.
 
Pàdruig said:
I often wonder (in amazement) at the severe lack of critical thinking skills that gets put on display in social media.

I follow a fellow on Instagram who runs a trap line, demonstrates woodsmanship and survival skills. He frequently shows the types of traps he uses, the types of critters he is targeting, and often videos himself setting loose a non-target critter that his trap snagged. The amount of willful ignorance and meanness that gets exhibited at times towards his efforts is astounding.

Everyone has an opinion and we all know what they say about those.
Click to expand...
Walking into the corrals one day passing the squeeze chute and my buddy shoves me from behind. I stumble forward and turn around, he points at the chute. "Just saved your life." There's a huge rattlesnake coiled in the chute and he was bout to get me I guess. So I shoot the snake. They're dangerous in the corrals and near the cattle. Had a friend had a bull get bit and he never really recovered. A very $$$$$ bull too. We've had horses bit. While due to their size a horse is seldom killed by the poison it can be dangerous. Horses are generally bit on the nose because they are curious about the snake, They get bit on the nose because they are checking them out and then their nose swells up and they have trouble breathing and they can die from that not the poison. That day we were working cattle through the chute and I had a good size crew there, so I shot the snake and we hung it over the fence behind the chute and went to work. It was along day. Thats an old cowboy thing least in these parts, hanging em over a fence. The idea is that it warns other snakes to stay away. Probably more a free dinner for a coyote or pig but there ya go.

Posted a picture on our IG page of the snake on the fence. Most of the comments were "Wow thats a big one," or "Glad everybody is ok," etc. One lady though kinda started out like John's first lil clip:

When clueless people see dead snakes over a fence:
00-story-screaming-into-void.gif


She wanted to know why we didn't call a Relocation Team for the snake. To her credit, she took a breath and actually listened as we had several comments back and forth and she finally agreed that our solution was really the only practical one for our situation. She was most worried bout the snake being put over the fence, she thought it was a "trophy pic." When I explained to her it was an old wives tale to keep other snakes away, she was cool with that too. At that time I'd never heard of a snake relocation team. Found out later that I make knives for the team in another part of our county. Then was reading in the paper and we have a guy, a retired Deputy, that does this in Bear Valley. The story was that he'd done over a 150 relocations in the last couple of years. Which leads us to John's second pic:

When Chuck Connors sees the CCR enforcement team:
MV5BM2RjNzUxYWUtYzNjNS00Yjc0LTg1NzItOTg0NjI0MzhlMTk1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTI0MjQ3OQ@@._V1_.jpg


Bear Valley is an upper end (least in these parts) gated community. Very horse, orientated, they actually have over 40 miles of trails and an unbelievable community equestrian center. Beautiful place but entirely too many rules and CCRs for me, far too civilized. Chuck Connors and his wife had built a home there years ago and the gated community kinda grew up around them. I never knew Chuck but had met his wife quite a few times. There use to be a feed store in town that had a wood stove going every morning and a coffee pot on top. Many of us rancher types would swing by there for the gossip and a cup of joe. She did too and I'd see her there couple of times a week. She was always regaling us with her new fights with the enforcement guys there in Bear Valley. She was from England and wanted her house to have white window sills and wouldn't ya know it that was against the rules. Suppose to blend in, green or brown. So they cite her and she pays the ticket and then next week they cite her and she pays the ticket and next week they'd cite her and she paid the ticket. This went on until they elected a new board and they eased up the rules a lil. Ya couldn't have a red vehicle that could be seen from the street nor a blue tarp covering hay or something. After Chuck passed away I was at their place quite a few times. I was working horses for the new owners. However, back to the snake. We have a son thats an IT guy in the Army. A Green Beret walks into his office one day and say's "Your parents are bad asses!" He shows Josh, our son his phone and its the snake over the fence on our IG page. "Yep, bad asses," and walks out of the office.
 
When I lived in Arizona years ago we had a ton of Mohave Greens, shot tons of them around my place. 15 years or so ago I was in Alberta, Canada and had to chuckle at all of the humongous signs about slowing down for rattlesnakes.
acx-acp51412.jpg
 
We get the occasional Mojave Green up here too. They are indeed a particular nasty breed of rattler. Ol guys round here would tell ya stories of being hunted by a green. They’d swear to it. Not as long as some of the others but girthy. As Mack can tell ya we’re right on the edge of the Mojave. I’ve killed several greens on the Mojave side of the pass. Some are bright green almost tennis ball green!

Seems like a waste of a good sign.
 
Anyone that says money can’t buy happiness has never come home with $60 of puppy toys 🤣

2955CAC6-ECA1-49EB-870A-7C5AA313F701.jpeg
The little weirdos take all their favourite toys to this bed and lie on them like a dragon on his hoard of gold.
 
Our pups also do the same thing, it’s like their little piece of comfort, or where they feel safe. What’s funny is one pup will chase after a toy, the other one follows to fight for it, then the first one goes back to a toy he wanted originally, as If he knows his brother will be distracted long enough so he can trick him.
 
Off topic, was wondering about good WW1 films, maybe not so much gore, but a good story. I mentioned All Quiet on The Western Front (with John boy actor), and I liked 1917. Saw War Horse, etc. any love stories? My daughter was asking for a movie, not sure just for historical context or for a book she was reading, she likes historical fiction too, so do I. I also like Civil War, did they ever make a movie from Across 5 Aprils? Red Badge of Courage? Sorry, I have wandered off again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top