look sharp

LOOK SHARP

I need to update my last article on sharpening knives.  Sorry, yes, yet another tool you’ll probably end up needing.  The bad news is that they are disposable.  The good news is that they are only eighty cents each.  Okay, to begin at the beginning, this article assumes you just don’t have the skill to sharpen a knife on a stone.  If you do, good on you.  Your life is much easier and you need spend less money.  I’m tight enough with every dollar that I would prefer to learn how to sharpen with a stone.  Alas, I just can’t get the hang of it.  All those doo-dad knife sharpeners are NOT because I’m lazy or because I have more dollars than cents ( you know, a play on “sense” ).  I just really suck at working with a stone.

*

And this isn’t because thirty years ago I screwed up a knife trying and refuse to try again.  I have tried to pick up this skill time and again, and you would think it would finally stick as I gain more patience and have access to less money.  But still no dice.  Just as I know better than to try long distance shooting, or too complicated of mechanics, I know when a skill will elude me regardless of dedication or practice.  At most, I only marginally improve.  No matter how many times I tackle math or science, for instance, I just don’t “grok” it.  So, case closed, some of us need help.

*

I had settled on a Lansky sharpener to get a new angle on a knife, and the Rada sharpener for a fine edge.  I do loves me my Rada.  Never in my life have I used such sharp edges in preparing food in the kitchen.  The Rada is so good, it makes stainless steel a viable option again.  I no longer fear the stainless, and no longer am trying to replace all those with carbon steel.  So, probably, I still am ahead financially even with all sharpeners I must experiment with-just from that one benefit.

*

The Lansky sharpener, however, proved to be less of a cure-all than I had hoped.  Not only did I buy the system, I then upgraded the course stone with a diamond tip.  That alone costs as much as the whole kit.  So I was about $35 into the Lansky ( that doesn’t count the second kit and second diamond hone ).  I had experimented on it and the diamond add on, and then had written my original article.  It had indeed gotten my dull as dishwater bayonet paper cutting sharp, even if it was at an inflated price.  I spent more on the Lansky than I had on the one bayonet, and I had spent as much on all my bayonets as half my arsenal.  Crap just ain’t affordable anymore, and that is AFTER prices have tumbled on declining sales everywhere with everyone.

*

But then I pulled out my second bayonet for sharpening, and that is where the Lansky laid a big turd.  All my bayonets ( these are the no.9’s, the knife bayonets-much more scarce than the standard issue tent stake bayonet which is optimistically named a pike bayonet but which performed more closely to a

prison shiv ) have one standard feature, and that is they fit on to a Lee-Enfield no.4.  And that is all they have in common besides fitting in a common scabbard.  All the lengths and widths and edges are different, almost as if anyone with a grinder in their garage were sent blanks and got paid to half ass produce the units.  Almost like the Bren gun was cottage industry produced as the British factories were mostly shuddered at that point.

*

The Lansky refused to sharpen it.  The thing never had an edge put on it, and a diamond hone would have been perfect, but the thing was shaped just right that the hone wasn’t making contact with the blade, from the correct angle guide.  I got so desperate I pulled out the sharpening stone-again!-but of course that had no effect.  My only surviving option was to pull out the old school cheater stone.  These were those stone wheel kitchen knife sharpeners I had stockpiled ten years ago from the Mom& Pop dollar store here in town, prior to their closing ( where I got those twenty or thirty pairs of wool friggin socks-proving as if needed yet once again that Baby Jesus loves me above all others, even minions ).

*

It was hard to find these again.  I don’t know if Dollar Tree carries them or not.  But online, I couldn’t find them because of their weird name.  You want to look for:

Kitchen Abrader Two Grinding Wheels Tool Stone Knife Sharpener.

( https://www.ebay.com/itm/263056836275 )

*

Say that three times fast.  All they are is a small round sharpening stone set between two plastic wheels.  That keeps the knife at the correct angle.  Of course, they are cheaply made, which is why I caution you that they are disposable.  I ground half of one away trying ( and finally succeeding ) to get that darn bayonet sharp.  And it wasn’t just the whole stone.  It was half of the wheel that was ground down ( an effect of a larger stone than they sell now, plus a short knife-to use, you place the knife in and push and pull the sharpener on the ground.  A short knife only abrades a small section of the sharpener ). 

*

Today, you have to worry about less quality items being sold to you for as much as possible.  For the most part, knives once came from the factory with the correct angle on them.  You just needed to keep them sharp.  Now, not so much.  This is bad, in that you are getting ripped off and need to buy supplemental tools.  It is good in that today and probably in the future, you can trash pick a lot of knives that were abandoned by owners who share my problem of being unable to hand sharpen on a traditional stone having bought a crap knife. 

*

I would still recommend a Lansky if you can afford it, with the diamond hone.  This will give you longevity for sharpening as many knives as possible for as long as possible.  If you cannot afford it, just buy the kitchen wheel stones, in bulk.  I would recommend E-Bay over Amazon.  Amazon at its cheapest was $5.  E-Bay was 80 cents after tax with free shipping, order as few or as many as desired.  Yes, they will in fact take a month to get to you.  It is, literally, the slow mail boat from China.  Plan ahead, right?

*

If you do have the Lansky, I would still recommend the wheel stones, just in case you get a knife Lansky doesn’t care for ( as was my case ).  Here is my guess.  After the collapse, cheap or abandoned guns will abound due to lack of ammo.  At the same token, knives will go back to being taken to an expensive tradesman for sharpening.  The fact that folks could make a living sharpening knives, back in the old timey days,  tells you that NOT having the skill to sharpen was not rare.  Perhaps not a skill you pay for dearly, relatively speaking, but if you are really friggin poor you need as few expenses as possible.  And when knives go from cheap as dirt to hugely expensive once the energy for mining and smelting becomes dear, you cannot afford to screw up your knife so you get a professional to sharpen it.

*

We’ve gotten too used to disposable and cheap items.  Knives and clothes and shoes and such used to be a major investment.  And remember, the Lansky and wheel stones are for putting a new angle on dull knives.  The Rada is for taking a knife that just lost its fine edge and replacing it.  It is a finishing sharpen only.  But don’t skimp on it because it is a damn skippy good tool for what it does.

END ( today's related link https://amzn.to/2ueCzLJ )

 

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me a buck and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.***my Bonus Material blog*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there