What is Your Knife Zen?

[mnblade]

Knife Zen for me,
Is when my brother's rifle boom echoes through the trees and across the hollow and I know it's time to get to work. A few moments later I'm up to my elbows in deer and at the end of a blood soaked arm is a pocket knife. A few pieces of amber stag and carbon steel just going to work. We have come along way in the world, but cleaning and preparing game with a relatively simple tool has always been my religion.

Well said. :thumbup: I've never hunted, but I can really relate to this post.

-- Mark

 

[Humppa]

Sharping a knife is (mostly) a challenge to get a good, means very sharp, result. I prefer to sharpen my own pocketknives the most. But my real Zen knife is the #66 Serpentine Jack. The first time I sharpened it, I changed the antle completelly and now it works in a fine way.

Water- and Oilstone in the right antle has some hypnotic for me. I´m sometimes so deep in this work, that nearly forget to change the stone (when there´s no more pull left). I think I understand, what Kevin thinks about, and that´s my point of view....

 

[pinnah]

I very, very rarely achieve what I consider to be a zen state with a knife.

For me, this zen state happens when I'm totally lost in the activity. I am aware of my surroundings, aware of my technique, aware of my tool but my focus is on the work.

I am a skier, a cyclist and a bike mechanic. I can and aspire to get to this state with all of those activities. The headiest time is when it all comes together while powder skiing. I can feel the ski flexing in the snow under my weight, am aware of my legs extending and reacting but my focus is entirely on a visualized line between the trees. (Never, ever look at the trees!) Same thing happens when I'm riding and realize that miles have slipped by or when working on a hard problem on the bike. Tools come to my hands get use and put back without my focus centering on the tool. There is just the work. The fit of wrench against a nut. The feel of threads as they tighten. The sound of a properly tensioned spoke.

I admit that knives are too much of a fascination for me. Mentally, there is a voice saying, "hey look, I'm using my knife!" It's like a damnable internal YouTube knife review voice over. I attribute this to me not being entirely at peace with my knife choice and the fact that I'm still in learning mode. Beginner skiers can't have a transcendent experience skiing powder. They crash. They must focus on technique and the using the tool.

Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes permanent. And when technique becomes permanent, then you can ski or ride mindlessly.

I got close to this with my knife this weekend. Was cleaning out leaves and came to my wife's peoneese that had gone by. Needed to cut them out to rake out that section of the garden. Out came the Opinel and a few pruning strokes later, they were gone. As I was doing it, I wondered just how many times an Opinel blade had been stuck in the dirt and used this way. Still not entirely mindless. Getting closer.

This thread needs pictures, but not of knives. This one is better.

 

[J. Oeser]

My Zen has progressed through the years. For me it began when I bought a little grinder to sharpen my knives, trying to find yet another way to put a razor edge on a knife. Then I grabbed an old Schrade that I was given at the age of about 8 and decided to try "cleaning" it. At that moment I realized I might want to try making them.

Since then things have progressed and I have found a place of Zen for me in the knife world. Each step of making a knife, slip joints in particular, takes me to a different place. I can escape the pressures and difficulties of life as I finely tune the walk and talk of a knife or grind the blade to my satisfaction. It is the pursuit of perfection, not the achievement of it, that takes me to that place. Just holding the knife and looking at raw materials that will soon be a tool in someones hands. Constantly inspecting and gradually put a small piece of me in each knife is how I achieve a Zen like experience.

Thanks for this thread Kevin.

 

[matgarsmi]

Taking care of your tools as if they were your eyes is a common zen saying. They may not be the prettiest, most expensive, even most well designed, but maintaining them with care and attention to detail is what is important. And that is often my knife zen. Inspecting the blade for chips or rolls, running my fingernail along its edge with all my attention drawn to my finger, cleaning gunk off of it, and then putting it back into my pocket knowing its ready the next time I need it really calms me.

 

[DrPenguin]

Interesting replies. I've seen sharpening, feeling to the hand, normality of feel, ease of use, associating the purchase or knife with a given moment in time. A lot of good answers.

I'm not sure about the Zen moment but I do know what Carl is speaking about as far as familiarity goes and I agree with him.

For a knife to get to that point with me there are several attributes it has to have. A good, well earned patina. It has to have bone handles and they have to be smoothed a bit from accompanying me. It needs to have ease of use and the opening/closing snap has to be "right". It has usually been a knife that I associate with a given period of time. And it absolutely must have an edge that I made and am responsible for.

My current EDC is the one I purchased for my recent wedding. (Has it been a month already?) It is slowly but surely getting smoothed out from my hands and its pocket time. I'm hopeful that it will soon acquire that great feeling in my hand but it is not quite there yet. The bone has smoothed out a bit and the rough edges are gone but it still looks new. Time will cure that. It took a wonderful edge and that has helped endear it to me even above being in my pocket while getting hitched.

My old queen mini trapper had the feel. My white owl was almost there before I got this one. It is a process not an event.

Will

 

[Doug Add]

I'm not usually a new age kind of guy, but there's something about that smooth wood. I don't know. Doug knows, though. I really should carry it.

Yes, you should.

Or send it to me. I will be happy to relieve you of the burden of indecision!

 

[matgarsmi]

I've already commented, but I just wanted to add that I love this thread.

 

[C Ben Susrool]

I think most of my Zen moments have occurred as I finished up repairing, correcting, or modifying something.
That short time when it is all coming together and overlapping to the admiration of a job well done.
It has happened at my work, in repairing and maintaining my own vehicles, and "upkeep" around the house.
Here lately, in my older age and retirement, that Zen like feeling occurs when I sharpen, modify, or correct a problem with a knife, such as I just experienced with correcting a nail breaker.

 

[richstag]

Wow, just wow. I knew this group would share some wonderful thoughts but I could not have hoped for anything this incredible. All that I can say is thank you so much to each person that has shared. It has been a pure joy to read through. Thank you to everyone.

 

[kamagong]

The ironic thing about knives is that the very act of using one increases our appreciation for it while at the same time diminishing its value, at least temporarily. Blades get dull, handles get grimy, and sheaths dry out.

I have a puukko that I like to bring along on day hikes. It's not my best knife, but it's a good one and has served me well. I noticed a while back that I can often reach a meditative state when I'm restoring this knife to its full glory. Honing and stropping the blade, applying Tru-Oil to the birch bark handle, and waxing the sheath -- I've lost track of the time doing what many would consider mundane tasks. I find it worthwhile to invest the time and effort, a properly maintained knife is a treasure to be valued.

- Christian

 

[Peter Parker]

I started getting into this steel junkie thing(a few years ago), and don't get me wrong I really like my lone CPM D2 knife, but the longer I live the more I realize I prefer the simple things in life like my old Marlin .22 bolt action with it's cheapo Tasco scope and a natural or delrin knife with good old 1095 or 1085 steel in it! At least for now that is what I like simple things that work!

 

[TLARbb]

I have really enjoyed this thread. Thanks everyone for sharing.

Ed J

 

[Gevonovich]

Great thread, Kevin. I am enjoying everyone's insights as well!!

 

[avoidspam]

Great thread, lovely to hear people's thoughts from their world.

Ok, my day starts at 6.30. Our dog impatiently drags me out of bed and bleary eyed we greet the morning. For the last year or so I have strapped this knife to my side.

I love this time of the day, we live in the middle of nowhere and the woodland we walk in changes throughout the year. One of my favourite times is just passing, stunning colours, mist filled valleys and the first crisp frost. Whilst the dog gets busy maintaining his territory I'll cut a thumb thickness length of Hazel and idly whittle it down.

This a piece I've just retrieved from outside the back door, as you can see we're not talking anything fancy here (its early!). I wouldn't consider myself fanatical about sharpness, once it can push cut newsprint I'm happy. Pasi's Puukko is a joy to idly cut wood with. This is my zen, watching the new day dawn and the dog trotting on whilst feeling a beautifully balanced tool doing what it was designed to do. It is hands down my favourite knife. If I could carry it all the time I would.

Back home toss the tail of the stick in the hedge and fire up the Isomac..., another zen moment but more caffeine induced

Sam

 

[Modoc ED]

I'm not a Zen kinda guy nor am I a Ying or Yang kinda guy but I suppose the closest I get to a Zen feeling/moment is when I'm out and about on our property - the formal yard inside the chain-link fence and the rest of our property out through the red line drawn across the photo and the times I am using my old tractor for the odd chore here and there on the property. Of course that entails carrying a knife while in pursuit of those chores and lately it has been my GEC #79 Montana Workhorse Whittler (not a true whittler in the purest sense). I sharpen it to maintain it but don't particularly get a "Kum Ba Yah" feeling while doing so nor do I get the ole Zen feeling while sharpening any knife.

So, a Zen feeling (maybe a little Ying and Yang thrown in) while out on the property doing chores, hunting, and fishing while sometimes riding my old tractor but sharpening knives - not so much.

Property

Tractor

GEC #79 Whittler

Oh, I suppose you could say I get a Zenny feeling while processing game and fish.

 

[Jack Black]

It’s a long time since I did a manual job, so I enjoy working on my little knife projects, working with my hands and doing something competently (because I’m not so useful these days generally). I wish I could do more, be a real craftsman, but there’s still a satisfaction in doing a job well, when you overcome the challenge and get it right. I’ve found the same with my design work, but I get it also from sharpening my knives and from sewing pocket sheaths and things for them. Then when you use that knife and it works so well, there’s a joy to it, a bit like riding a motorcycle you’ve re-built yourself, but quieter, more meditative, you can lose yourself in it and feel real satisfaction. Perhaps catching a big trout with your own hand-tied flies or a pike with a homemade lure is a closer analogy, though it’s not quite the same, for me it’s perhaps more akin to the feeling you get just before the trout bites or just before that homemade float dips. I’ve also noticed, when cleaning up my flea-market finds recently, that the smell of the oil transports me back to the time when I was a teenage motor-mechanic, even washing my dirty hands afterwards becomes a pleasure for me. More than that, also the smells transport me back to my childhood as I remember the smell of my father’s overalls, of my uncles and grandfathers, and all those working men I grew up with.

 

[LKJW]

I really don't know why, but it's only once in a while that I find something that resonates with me. For some odd reason, it feels so much different that it almost speaks out to me. I've found that there were 'special' knives, a gun one in a while, or something else. I've owned a lot of knives, guns, cars, motorcycles, and other possessions and very few f them really meant anything to me. Oh yeah, I liked them, but if something happened to it, I could just go get another one. Except for the few items that 'spoke' to me. Like it was meant for you. Like Henry's 309, or LKJW's Schrade-Walden.

I don't know why this happens, but I think it contributes to the zen thing with some of us. Some weird connection to an object, that when we carry or use it, the universe seems right. The thing just clicks with something inside us. Fate? Past life memory? Who knows. But it is real and tangible when something clicks with us. I got to a point some years ago that I was able to sell off most of my stuff because it didn't mean anything to me. It had become a burden to have it all. But there were some things I couldn't part with. It would have been like amputating a part of myself.

Human psyche is a strange thing, and we don't really know what goes on within ourselves. But it is a real thing when you bond with an inanimate object to the point where it becomes an extension of your hand. The Japanese believe that some of the spirit of the maker remains in the blade, and perhaps that's true of knives as well as the swords. Or some vestige of a former owner remains in a used knife we find in a shop. Who knows?

Carl.

Yes, Carl. I believe the Japanese have the right idea. The SW above for example. When I hold that knife I FEEL the care and talent that went into making it and the other hands that have held it and marveled at it. That's part of the reason I like used knives. Maybe it is a writer's foible, but there is no story in a new knife. Sure, they can be pretty. Like the new BF knife. I like it a lot. I'm glad I have it. But it won't be a 'knife' until another 50 years or so when I am gone and the blades are scratched and dark and someone is holding it, wondering.

I also agree...I am not moved by many material things. My old Honda CB450 and pocket knives and my oldest guitar...oh, and my fishing stuff...those things resonated. It is a weird phenomena. I love my laptop and I need it for working, but it is a cold impersonal affection that I feel for it. I just hope it doesn't break because I don't want to buy a new one. But it is a tool. With knives, it is the ones that go beyond tool or fit the need you have for a tool so well...

I too thought of Zen and the Art of MC Maintenance...a book I have read several times. And I also concur, bringing a knife back from the grave is an entrancing experience.

And sorry Doug, the Schrade Walden stays with me.

 

[Will Power]

That situation is connected to the feel of a Barehead knife in my hands, eyes shut turning it over, searching for it in the pocket and drawing it out waiting to see how pleased I am with it, a familiar reassurance, always comforting. A knife is a creation of many hands and eyes and becomes an extension of your hand and gladdens your eye. Favourite knives have meaning, context, they look and feel beautiful (even if they are modest or battered). Life is often not beautiful, so that which gives us beauty gives us balance. Knowing this, gives you a connexion with your knives, that is Zen.

 

[JAlexander]

For the moment comes in two phases: First when I'm using a bladed tool and I hit that perfect stroke. It could be limbing a tree with an axe, it could be ear-marking calves, it could be using a gouge to carve out a bowl. Whenever the tool becomes an extension of my hand and I make the cut in the best, cleanest way with the least wasted motion. The other part of the moment comes in maintaining my tools after I use them. Typically it's a quick sharpening and wipe down with oil, but if I did something really stupid it can get more involved.