Hello from the Ozarks of NW Arkansas

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Danvil

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Jan 13, 2014
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I'm an unrepentant knife nut. I don't work at a restaurant, but raise my own Berkshire hogs for my own eating pleasure. Got to admit, I prefer pork over beef. I like to grow my hogs up to around 400 lbs and then have them processed. I want to start doing my own butchering, but I need to work on a set up that I can use in warm weather. Around here you can have a week that's 10 degrees on a Monday and 60 on a Thursday, so I need to get a butchering shed set up with all the utilites etc. I've been making my own pancetta, guanciale, bacon, sausage etc. I live on a 25 acre farm and the hogs roam about 15 acres of pasture and hardwood forest that are loaded with oaks (acorns) and that has a definite effect on the flavor of the pork.

I own at least 50 knives, but just got into Japanese Knives in the last 2 months. My profile has a partial list of my knives and stones. I've been sharpening my own knives on a Norton India stone and a leather strop loaded with Chromium Oxide, but now I've switched to Japanese Waterstones. I really like the Hitachi White #2 and Blue steels, but haven't had that much experience with the stainless knives. I do have a
ZDP-189 Spyderco that I hate, because it seems to take a great edge after a lot of work on diamonds then falls back to about 70% of it's sharpening potential. Could be my fault.

I took the two week American Bladesmithing Course back in the late 1990, but have never made that many knives. I did learn a lot about heat treating knives and believe that the heat treat is 90% of the blade's ability to take and hold an edge.

Looking forward to learning a lot more about knives and sharpening on this site and if anyone gets up to the Rogers-Bentonville, AR area, maybe we can sit down for a beer and talk knives.

These are two of my purebred Berkshire hogs that I bred. The one standing now partially resides in my freezer and I'm carrying around quite a bit of him on myself. Damn, need to get to the gym. These two barrows weighed in at 425 lbs and 435 lbs. The red marks on the one standing is from him rubbing on a board painted red. Hogs rub on everything and are really hard on housing, etc.
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Not sure why the images aren't showing up, but I clicked the image icon and submitted the flickr.com url
Oh, well.
 
Welcome to KKF! MMMM berkshire pork, I've been meaning to buy some for a special occasion sometime soon.
 
Welcome here. Looking forward to pics. Nothing like growing your own.
 
I posted two pictures of my hogs. The pictures are on flickr.com, so maybe flickr doesn't work?
 
Yay! A second member from Arkansas! I'm up in NWA a couple of times a year...will have to connect the next time I come that way...will bring my roll and we can have some fun!

Welcome to KKF! You're in the right place.
 
Just sent you a PM and look forward to seeing you up this way. I can show you some of my heritage Berkshires that roam this place.
All the best,

Dan
 
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