Moses Yoder
05-17-2014, 7:28 PM
My father died last fall right before Thanksgiving. He lived a good long life, was 79. We had planned the big #80 birthday party for January and got together anyway to discuss the business of parting with the stuff he had accumulated. We decided to do this on the Saturday of Memorial day weekend, a week from now. Stuff is to be sold to the children, then grandchildren, then garage sale, then Goodwill. He was a butcher at one time, we butchered our own meat most of our lives and I have distinct memories of him sharpening the knives. For a quick touch up during the butchering he would just use the steel, his wrist flying faster than the eye could follow and all you heard was the "whisk whisk" of the knife on the steel. He always honed the knives on a stone prior to butchering though, a round stone about 3" diameter, dished about 3/8" deep in the center, a medium grit stone. He always used 3 in 1 oil on it. It was the only stone I ever saw him use, that old worn stone. I was under the impression that it was the only honing stone he ever owned. Yesterday while sorting though the final stuff I found four different (4) honing stones. They looked brand new, never used. They were rectangular, standard size, maybe 2-1/2" x 7" or so. Ranging from coarse to fine. Never would have believed it had I not seen them with my own eyes.