Do Your Skills Translate Elsewhere?

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Seth

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Just a curiosity. I suspect that those who appreciate artisan skills and take care of their knives are a self-selecting group of people who already bring similar skills from elsewhere. But I was thinking about how I was chopping some of the rounds from the 200 year old tree that the electric company took down and how my splitting axe was sharpened just right because I have the tools and skills to do this. I am now painting the trim on my house and my scrapers have killer burrs on them that work really well: because I can reshape and create the burrs better than correctly.

So just wondering if the skills you have learned sharpening knives, making handles, practicing chopping and slicing with good form, etc. have translated to other areas of your life. I have found that even the discipline to hold correct angles and improve the skill of sharpening have bled over into an attitude of getting things right and doing things right.
 
Could also be vice-versa...having that attitude in other areas helped create an interest and skills in this area. I would that that was my case. I'm in IT and have always been interested in precision and ways of solving logical problems in the simplest, most elegant way I can.

Just a curiosity. I suspect that those who appreciate artisan skills and take care of their knives are a self-selecting group of people who already bring similar skills from elsewhere. But I was thinking about how I was chopping some of the rounds from the 200 year old tree that the electric company took down and how my splitting axe was sharpened just right because I have the tools and skills to do this. I am now painting the trim on my house and my scrapers have killer burrs on them that work really well: because I can reshape and create the burrs better than correctly.

So just wondering if the skills you have learned sharpening knives, making handles, practicing chopping and slicing with good form, etc. have translated to other areas of your life. I have found that even the discipline to hold correct angles and improve the skill of sharpening have bled over into an attitude of getting things right and doing things right.
 
I think I would be an excellent cereal(sic) killer.
 
Sharpened my lawnmower blade the other day. She sings through the grass now.
 
You guys are getting way ot, but any ken s. references are entertaining....for sure. Though I have to admit I used a course stone on the little push mower I use on the dog yard. Getting those blades to hit the bar evenly is a b1tch.
 
I wish I had any sharpening skills... But I can glue things together with the best of them :)

Stefan
 
You sharpened the barrel of a reel mower by hand???
Get some lapping compound and spin the blades in reverse after tightening the bed blade gap.


You guys are getting way ot, but any ken s. references are entertaining....for sure. Though I have to admit I used a course stone on the little push mower I use on the dog yard. Getting those blades to hit the bar evenly is a b1tch.
 
You sharpened the barrel of a reel mower by hand???
Get some lapping compound and spin the blades in reverse after tightening the bed blade gap.

I used to put a micro bevel on jointer blades by lowering the outfeed table, raise the infeed, clamp a guide board and slide an Arkansas stone back and forth across the cutter head. I was young and stupid but never got hurt.

I think I didn't do more than remove oxidation on the mower though I did do the blades with a dremel once. I was too lazy to get the compound...
 
Ken is the pig and he desecrated a leg of lamb.

[video=youtube;FXspT6YjAYY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXspT6YjAYY&list=UUs9f3v8paL3vc9kV3qrXTuQ[/video]


To get back on topic, I've work in commercial refrigeration and industrial maintenance most of my life so I've always had good hand and mechanical skills. This helped me pick up knife sharpening fairly easy.
 
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