Just Visiting.....

Dinner tonight was grilling at a good friends house and as we are getting ready to leave home to head out SWMBO asks if I am bringing knives with me. I then decided to grab a King 1200 figuring I can touch up all his knives with one stone (SS block set) . So when cooking with friends do you bring a knife or a stone?

 

I might start.

 

Knife. I am too slow to sharpen their knives. I end up thinning behind the edge which takes ages.

 

Most people's stainless are way too soft and too blunt to be touched up with a JIS1200. It would only work with well-maintained thin carbons. Soft stainless tend to be very abrasion resistant. Better take your own knife with you. I have for that purpose a few vintage carbon Sheffields and Sabs that don't look too flashy, so I can take them discreetly to any occasion. No non-knifenut will notice or care.

 

My knife roll is in my Jeep 90% of the time... The satchel with my traveling stones are also in the Jeep. Traveling kit is a 400 Naniwa a Green Brick and a JNAT Koppa if something needs taken beyond the green brick. I sharpen a lot of knives while visiting.

 

I bring an empty stomach and a healthy appetite.

And bottle of wine.

A gentleman never arrives empty handed.

 

Always knives. Always drink. Always something handmade that can't be bought. But so far no stones.

 

Considering some of your posts ( yum) when are you coming down under

 

Almost every invitation is followed by '' tell Jim to "Bring his knives".

I used to sharpen a lot of knives but 99% still cut on plates and put the knives in the dishwasher. I still sharpen then when asked, but now on my Balder low rpm grinder and deburr on the wood benchtop. No comments on the change of tactics has been heard so far they still love it when I deliver wrapped in newspaper with no charge written on it.

 

Rami - I promise if we make it there you and Huw are on the must visit list!

Jim - I love the 'no charge' written on the newspaper. Will have to try that next time my sister arrives with the pile of Henckels wrapped in a dishtowel.

 

On of the coolest things about my new 2x72 (well, other than being able to actually GRIND steel, lol), is that I can run a high grit belt at super low speeds...and the slack belt between my radius platen and the top wheel is very taught...with just the slightest give. My mother's not too happy about it though...because now every knife in her house is scary sharp, instead of just my dad's I made him last Father's Day, lol.

 

Must be nice to vary the speed of your belt. Not that I've burned any tips on my Kalamazoo 1x42, not me, no sir.......

 

I take a couple stones almost everywhere I visit. Usually a 500 and a combo. It's almost a given now. Nothing fancy knowing what kind of knifes I'll be doing. I leave a note with a skull and cross bone warning about sharp knives now. It's truly remarkable just many people have said "hey, I cut myself on one of the knives you just sharpened, it's really sharp!" Like I screwed up. Well WTH did you expect?

 

LOL..MrM....very true.

 

Probably easier to get a stone through airport security, too. And maybe less likely than a knife to disappear.

 

I had an aoto in checked luggage once flying out of Seattle, and TSA left a note on the bag saying they had opened it. I'm guessing a big block of stone might resemble C4 on an x-ray---but who knows what goes through the mind of a TSA agent? I drive to Seattle now, and carry many knives...

 

Ah, the beauty of splash and go...I carry my 1200 which can put a decent edge on just about anything fairly quickly.
Cheers

 

I gave up taking wine...most of the time my wines were mixed in with others yellow tails, or trader joes varities. I found you either appreciate fine wine, or you do not, there is little middle ground.

I would take my 400 and my combo 10000/4000 splash and go if I thought it wouldn't make a scene so to speak....just seems odd to me to spead out on a counter top and start sharpening the host knives for them....

If I were being asked to help cook, and I knew there was significant prep work, yes I would take a knife or two.

 

the break area at work had three ancient Chicago Cutlery knives that the edge and spine were equally dull. They had been clattering around the utensil drawer for probably decades. They were truly unusable except for spreading and mashing. I took them home and sharpened them and made some scrap kydex sayas for them to keep them serviceable. the first thing a girl at work did was unsheathe one and run her thumb down the edge giving her a really nice slice. Believe it or not, she blamed me.