I had a chance to watch at people at a gun show. I was busy at my knife table, but I took a little time to watch people. Despite the business of selling pocket knives, I’m not really a good observer of the public, but three people caught interest.
It was his badge that caught my attention. It was hand lettered and had his name and the title “Captain.” Being hand lettered, it wasn’t official and he had that retired look. He kinda reminded me of Hank Hill’s father on “King of the Hill”. I wanted to ask him captain of what?
Police?
Fire?
Military?
Salvation Army?
Charter boat?
Or just self appointed?
I never got a chance to ask him. He buzzed by on some important mission and I never saw him again.
The next two guys who stopped by later were quite a team. The gun show must have been their Saturday entertainment. It would not surprise me to discover their wives open the door on Saturday morning, plant a foot on their backside and with a sharp push tell’em “Don’t come back before dark!” This of course is followed by the door shaming shut and the sound of several dead bolts clicking into place.
The two of them open and closed and reopen every knife on the table while asking the other “You like this one?” They’ll ask the price, which they pass back and forth misquoting it and attaching it to the more expensive knife while their monologs occasional collide on some mutual point of interest.
If it appears you’ve drawn too fine a bead on one the other will ask “What’s steel is this?” I, of course, try to keep up with the conversation while correcting the price and determine the steel. For variety they season the mix with “What country is that from?” While this is going on they convey the sense they are going to make a purchase, if they find the right knife. They never find the right knife. My wife watches them like a hawk!
One of their favorite ploys is to ask if you’ll trade knives with them. Most of the time they will offer you an older or discontinued Spyderco or Cold Steel in exchange towards something else. Some times it’s a real stinkeroo! In fairness, the knives they offer to swap are always in excellent condition with factory edges.
I use to feel sorry for these guys. They clearly are in the retirement age range, they dress like ordinary Joes and seem to be careful with the bucks. I use to suspect they had limited funds and were liquidating previously purchased knives to have the chance to own a newer and out-of-reach expensive knife. At lease I did until one of them showed me his Spyderco Rock Lobster which retails over $300.00!
I hadn’t seen them in a while so I asked how they were and commented they haven’t been around for a while. One lipped off that his buddy just got out of jail. In retrospective, their knife table manner reminds me of the bill changing confidence scam. You ask for change for a hundred and keep changing the denominations and passing money back and forth until the mark gives you change for $120.
Maybe his buddy was telling the truth.
Let’s not even talk about the older woman in the micro mini-dress, fishnet stocking three inch stiletto heels and her escort who thinks he’s George Custer! You’ll have to experience that for yourself!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
I hereby resolve.................
New Year Resolutions 2010
Do you do New Year resolutions? Most of the time I don't. They tend to fall into big unobtainable classifications. You know, get a 12% raise, be nice to the office rat in the next cubical. They are just plan unobtainable. This year I picked 3 REACHABLE goals, so hear goes....
I resolve in 2010 to do the following:
1 - - I’ll stop rotating through my knives just because the one I’m carrying is getting dull. I rotate through my carry knives because I enjoy having different ones on me. I’ll sharpen each one goes dull. No more big batch sharpening sessions for me!
2 - - I’ll oil my knives more frequently. This includes all the pivots and moving parts as well as wiping down the blade. I’m careful with my knives and I do clean and oil them when they get wet or dirty but they are tools and have to work for a living. But I’m going to do a better job of it this year.
3 - - I’m going to stop asking my co-worker if he wants to borrow a knife when he’s trying to “key” open a taped box. Next to a domestic partner, I can’t think of too many other things more personal than your choice in a knife. He’s an adult and he can figure it out on his own.
Do you do New Year resolutions? Most of the time I don't. They tend to fall into big unobtainable classifications. You know, get a 12% raise, be nice to the office rat in the next cubical. They are just plan unobtainable. This year I picked 3 REACHABLE goals, so hear goes....
I resolve in 2010 to do the following:
1 - - I’ll stop rotating through my knives just because the one I’m carrying is getting dull. I rotate through my carry knives because I enjoy having different ones on me. I’ll sharpen each one goes dull. No more big batch sharpening sessions for me!
2 - - I’ll oil my knives more frequently. This includes all the pivots and moving parts as well as wiping down the blade. I’m careful with my knives and I do clean and oil them when they get wet or dirty but they are tools and have to work for a living. But I’m going to do a better job of it this year.
3 - - I’m going to stop asking my co-worker if he wants to borrow a knife when he’s trying to “key” open a taped box. Next to a domestic partner, I can’t think of too many other things more personal than your choice in a knife. He’s an adult and he can figure it out on his own.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Edging into Knife Videos
Knife and Edge Videos
To see the power of the Internet one only has to look at YouTube. The extensive collections videos take the expression “God only knows!” out of the providence of hyperbola.
One can find anything from trivial to the profound. I am reminded of the expression I use to hear in the ivory tower related industries such as physics, chemistry and medicine: “See one, teach one; publish.” YouTube seems to satisfy that dictate.
Even so, there remains a wealth of information to assist us in reaching if not masterly, certainly competency. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuOlGGl97dI&feature=fvw A word of caution, assumptions are made with every article and video.
I watched Murray Carter grind chips and sharpen blade edges with Japanese water stones, but he doesn’t talk too much about blade-stone angle and nothing was said about how to hold that angle constant More importantly, there’s no internet oversight committee that assures the validly of what anyone, including this knife fancier publishes. That’s what we are all doing, publishing.
Still, there’s a wealth of information about blades, edges and living with your edge.
To see the power of the Internet one only has to look at YouTube. The extensive collections videos take the expression “God only knows!” out of the providence of hyperbola.
One can find anything from trivial to the profound. I am reminded of the expression I use to hear in the ivory tower related industries such as physics, chemistry and medicine: “See one, teach one; publish.” YouTube seems to satisfy that dictate.
Even so, there remains a wealth of information to assist us in reaching if not masterly, certainly competency. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuOlGGl97dI&feature=fvw A word of caution, assumptions are made with every article and video.
I watched Murray Carter grind chips and sharpen blade edges with Japanese water stones, but he doesn’t talk too much about blade-stone angle and nothing was said about how to hold that angle constant More importantly, there’s no internet oversight committee that assures the validly of what anyone, including this knife fancier publishes. That’s what we are all doing, publishing.
Still, there’s a wealth of information about blades, edges and living with your edge.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The Gift
Merry Christmas Everyone.
Christmas Eve found me cutting up a pheasant for Hungarian paprikash. Naturally I was using a knife, my wife’s santoku. It’s not restaurant quality, so in the spirit of complete honesty and disclosure, I was also used a poultry shear to supplement the knife.
Pheasant is one of my favor game birds, even if you buy it at the super market. The bird tends to store fat under the skin and paprikash should not be oily. This made skinning and removal of the rich yellow fat was a key step in the process. Its times like this you appreciate non-slip handles! Just one of many attributes of a good knife.
A good knife is always a treasure and yet can be considered a bad gift. My wife’s grandmother was horrified about giving kitchen knives as a wedding present. They could only be a harbinger bad and unhappy times, maybe even death!
My background is central European and a gift of knives was always bad, so traditionally gift knives were given with a small coin like a penny. The gift receiver would return the penny to the giver, turning a bad omen into a purchase. I guess there was no omen attached to inexpensive knives!
I tried to introduce this custom to my wife’s family, but it was like pulling teeth, also a bad omen. The younger crowd looked at me to say “whatever” and the older patriarchs assured me there was no such tradition. So much for my traditions. Still I have a few of my own blade and bullet traditions that seem to be catching on.
I got into a conversation with a stranger about knife traditions (you meet some really nice people at a knife table!). He told me that from his Native American traditions a knife was a high girt and an honor to receive.
I liked that a lot. I still get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I think about the knives I have been given. But in all honesty, it was the people who gave me the knives that I feel good about.
Christmas Eve found me cutting up a pheasant for Hungarian paprikash. Naturally I was using a knife, my wife’s santoku. It’s not restaurant quality, so in the spirit of complete honesty and disclosure, I was also used a poultry shear to supplement the knife.
Pheasant is one of my favor game birds, even if you buy it at the super market. The bird tends to store fat under the skin and paprikash should not be oily. This made skinning and removal of the rich yellow fat was a key step in the process. Its times like this you appreciate non-slip handles! Just one of many attributes of a good knife.
A good knife is always a treasure and yet can be considered a bad gift. My wife’s grandmother was horrified about giving kitchen knives as a wedding present. They could only be a harbinger bad and unhappy times, maybe even death!
Merry Christmas!
My background is central European and a gift of knives was always bad, so traditionally gift knives were given with a small coin like a penny. The gift receiver would return the penny to the giver, turning a bad omen into a purchase. I guess there was no omen attached to inexpensive knives!
I tried to introduce this custom to my wife’s family, but it was like pulling teeth, also a bad omen. The younger crowd looked at me to say “whatever” and the older patriarchs assured me there was no such tradition. So much for my traditions. Still I have a few of my own blade and bullet traditions that seem to be catching on.
I got into a conversation with a stranger about knife traditions (you meet some really nice people at a knife table!). He told me that from his Native American traditions a knife was a high girt and an honor to receive.
I liked that a lot. I still get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I think about the knives I have been given. But in all honesty, it was the people who gave me the knives that I feel good about.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
They say the heart of rock and roll is the beat...
“They say the heart of rock and roll is the beat...” Huey Lew and The News
I was thinking about that that song other day. So what would be the heart of a knife?
All knives have common features, handle, blade and edge. The handle and blade are easily decorated, but not so much the edge. If you turn a knife into an object of art, is it still a knife? I want to say yes, but if its form over whelms its function does it retain it’s core identity. Perhaps it’s the potential. The objet d'art knife still can cut or stab, but doing so would ruin its appearance and function.
I was at a knife auction and several lovely stag handled Hubertus autos were auctioned. The blades were engraved and etched; they were absolutely beautiful. I didn’t bid on them; the blades didn’t have an edge. That’s right, unsharpened blades, or if as I prefer call them, spatulas. I’m not sure you should even call them knives. No edge, no knife, seems simple enough.
So the edge is the heart of the knife? I think so, but it isn’t the soul. The edge depends on the steel. Companies have developed many proprietary steels like ZDP-189 or Sandvik 12c27 for special purposes and niches. Other steels like 1095 and W-1 have been around for years. Any knife discussion group will have their share of steel junkies, all of which are jonesing for another fix of some steel reported to have mythical qualities. Kind of like a doper in search of the ultimate high.
What gives most steels the strength, hardness and flexibility is carbon. After forging or casting steels can become so hard, so brittle they are tempered. Tempering softens the steel at little by allowing a little carbon to go back in to solution.
It’s complicated. Carbon dissolves in molten iron like sugar in hot water, but let the steel cool and on the way to room temperature iron forms austenite and ferrite. These are different crystals of carbon and iron. Ferrite holds very little carbon and austenite a little more. But austenite hates itself and wants to change. Some time, most time it changes to martensite. It can hold more carbon than ferrite, but it’s brittle. Very hard, but very brittle, so brittle that the knife blade can snap. By tempering or heat treating the blade some of the martensite can changed into our old friend ferrite. The extra carbon? Even thro it has paid its bar bill, carbon has been reject by first ferrite, then austenite, then martensite and again by ferrite. Who would blame it if it develops a complex? The rejected carbon forms tiny ceramic-like clusters with a few iron atoms hanging around the property line called cementite. Don’t feel sorry for cementite, it forms the microscopic small teeth that let the blade cut.
I started thinking carbon was going to be the soul of the knife. I’m wrong; heat treatment is the real soul of any knife.
I was thinking about that that song other day. So what would be the heart of a knife?
All knives have common features, handle, blade and edge. The handle and blade are easily decorated, but not so much the edge. If you turn a knife into an object of art, is it still a knife? I want to say yes, but if its form over whelms its function does it retain it’s core identity. Perhaps it’s the potential. The objet d'art knife still can cut or stab, but doing so would ruin its appearance and function.
I was at a knife auction and several lovely stag handled Hubertus autos were auctioned. The blades were engraved and etched; they were absolutely beautiful. I didn’t bid on them; the blades didn’t have an edge. That’s right, unsharpened blades, or if as I prefer call them, spatulas. I’m not sure you should even call them knives. No edge, no knife, seems simple enough.
So the edge is the heart of the knife? I think so, but it isn’t the soul. The edge depends on the steel. Companies have developed many proprietary steels like ZDP-189 or Sandvik 12c27 for special purposes and niches. Other steels like 1095 and W-1 have been around for years. Any knife discussion group will have their share of steel junkies, all of which are jonesing for another fix of some steel reported to have mythical qualities. Kind of like a doper in search of the ultimate high.
What gives most steels the strength, hardness and flexibility is carbon. After forging or casting steels can become so hard, so brittle they are tempered. Tempering softens the steel at little by allowing a little carbon to go back in to solution.
It’s complicated. Carbon dissolves in molten iron like sugar in hot water, but let the steel cool and on the way to room temperature iron forms austenite and ferrite. These are different crystals of carbon and iron. Ferrite holds very little carbon and austenite a little more. But austenite hates itself and wants to change. Some time, most time it changes to martensite. It can hold more carbon than ferrite, but it’s brittle. Very hard, but very brittle, so brittle that the knife blade can snap. By tempering or heat treating the blade some of the martensite can changed into our old friend ferrite. The extra carbon? Even thro it has paid its bar bill, carbon has been reject by first ferrite, then austenite, then martensite and again by ferrite. Who would blame it if it develops a complex? The rejected carbon forms tiny ceramic-like clusters with a few iron atoms hanging around the property line called cementite. Don’t feel sorry for cementite, it forms the microscopic small teeth that let the blade cut.
I started thinking carbon was going to be the soul of the knife. I’m wrong; heat treatment is the real soul of any knife.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Name an American Knife
Think of France and the laguiole with its bee shaped locking catch comes to mind. Who would draw an image of the Argentina gaucho without his caronera? Let someone show you classic bone-handled stiletto and you can almost see Naples and fields of ripe olives.
Could there be any other knife associated with the United States other than the Buck 110 hunter?
The man standing in frount of my table wanted an American knife to take home to the Orient. I showed him Spyderco’s Native made in Golden, Colorado, I showed him Kershaw’s Leek also made in the states. Those weren’t American enough for him.
I showed him a Buck 110 hunter and his eye lit up. That was his idea of an American knife. Mine too!
I bought mine 40 years ago. I’ve used and abused that knife. Carried it daily and faithfully for years, it was a part of who I was. Why? Because my Buck 110 never let me down when I needed it. It cuts, stays sharp, cleaned-ups well and went back in its black leather belt sheath without any trouble. I’ve semi-retired it for thinner, faster opening, clip it in my pocket knives, but I still can’t imagine leaving the sidewalk for the dirt path without it.
It’s not a perfect knife. The brass bolsters react with the fatty acids in sweat and leather to produce a green goop you have to clean. The knife is clunky, but that’s not necessary a bad thing. The steel holds an edge, but it takes time to sharpen it with the double bevel edge that gave it keen sharpness and strong staying power. More an a few hours were spent with an oilstone and strop making the perfect edge, only to miscalculate and have to start over. The lock is reliable only if it was kept clean and all knives need a drop of oil.
Al Buck’s gift to knife world was realizing that big knives, clunky knives would sell, if you didn’t have to put them in your pocket. The safety of the locking blade and oversize handle that gave you something to grab, found a home on the belt. I knew people who wore a belt just to hold up their Buck knife.
It is the American Classic.
Could there be any other knife associated with the United States other than the Buck 110 hunter?
The man standing in frount of my table wanted an American knife to take home to the Orient. I showed him Spyderco’s Native made in Golden, Colorado, I showed him Kershaw’s Leek also made in the states. Those weren’t American enough for him.
I showed him a Buck 110 hunter and his eye lit up. That was his idea of an American knife. Mine too!
I bought mine 40 years ago. I’ve used and abused that knife. Carried it daily and faithfully for years, it was a part of who I was. Why? Because my Buck 110 never let me down when I needed it. It cuts, stays sharp, cleaned-ups well and went back in its black leather belt sheath without any trouble. I’ve semi-retired it for thinner, faster opening, clip it in my pocket knives, but I still can’t imagine leaving the sidewalk for the dirt path without it.
It’s not a perfect knife. The brass bolsters react with the fatty acids in sweat and leather to produce a green goop you have to clean. The knife is clunky, but that’s not necessary a bad thing. The steel holds an edge, but it takes time to sharpen it with the double bevel edge that gave it keen sharpness and strong staying power. More an a few hours were spent with an oilstone and strop making the perfect edge, only to miscalculate and have to start over. The lock is reliable only if it was kept clean and all knives need a drop of oil.
Al Buck’s gift to knife world was realizing that big knives, clunky knives would sell, if you didn’t have to put them in your pocket. The safety of the locking blade and oversize handle that gave you something to grab, found a home on the belt. I knew people who wore a belt just to hold up their Buck knife.
It is the American Classic.
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