This thread made me smile.
Although new here, I'm a regular dezin of a Harley Davidson forum, where the subject of oils, and tires, their characteristics frequency of change/mileage are hotly debated - normally for the X2 (x squared) time, often in a given month. Indeed why not sharpening threads? We all aspire to have the best system.
Besides, if we're writing here (posting there) we don't have to display our work or go for a long satisfying ride.
I opt for the garage shop and the ride.
Young enough to remember doing it;
Old enough to wish I could do it again.
This has now become a long sharpening thread thread complaining about long sharpening threads.
Geez, Derek! You shrinks and psychs are all alike! Taking wholesome, good, clean fun and redefining it into deviant behavior that threatens civilization.
Why can't we have our debates ad infinitum; it's a welcome outlet for the frustrations of all our challenges in life in a forum where no one is threatened by the tyranny of the majority, since in sharpening threads there is no majority. And with endless opportunities to spin our favorite tales each week (and sometimes twice a week), we remain unfettered by mob rule and life by consensus. Think how boring - and frustrating - life would be it we all had to conform. Sharpening threads are healthy! Sharpening threads are liberty!
And that includes the liberty to refrain from clicking on the link to visit sharpening threads. Like the rest of us, you already know what's going on in there. If you have other outlets for your frustrations, you, unlike so many woodworkers, may not need the liberating joy of another sharpening thread.
Full disclosure: while I've let go my passions for Mercedes and Porsche and moved into pick-em ups, I did call up Janice Joplin on YouTube in another tab while writing my present post. Laughed out loud. Good memories of the old days. I think that's healthy too.
Fair winds and following seas,
Jim Waldron
You only need two stones and a strop but some people just have to get that third stone so their first three strokes of the plane are 'better'.
Just sharpened our main chefs knife with water stones to have my wife declare it needed sharpening as it would not cut a tomato!
Clearly I told her "you are buying the wrong tomatoes!".
You can do a lot with very little! You can do a little more with a lot!
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
Sharpening threads beat watching Saturday Night Live.....and....threads even have commercials....
Well done Doug!!!!! I'm old enough that I, like others, heard Janis after the first line.
My only interest in sharpening threads is that they stay civil. As a moderator having to read or at least skim them has become painful after all these years. My philosophy is that there is sharp enough, and then there is sharpening as fetish.
Dave Anderson
Chester, NH
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
It's funny how different hobbies all have their flash points.
Neanders their sharpening and steels, and maybe one notch less, the "correct" order to buy new (or used) planes.
Normites have their sawstops.
Saying "glue" to a bunch of instrument makers is more dangerous than yelling fire in a crowded theater.
Model train people argue between "Rivet Counters" and "Operators"
HIP (Historically inclined performance) musicians will argue for pages whether a Bach meant a note to be flatted or not. And don't get them started on temperament. And then the arguments on how "accurate" the instrument needs to be constructed, good grief, sometimes I wonder if those people think that a proper instrument can only be made in a small cramped workshop in a city with no sewers using only 16th century tools while suffering the effects of plague. And then there are the "magic, lost-to-time" finishes. And then the fact that in a blindfold test, the reality is almost no one can tell a centuries old Stradivarius from a new violin from a competent maker.
Guitar players and their poly vs nitro arguments, and then that bit about tonewood.
Craft brewers trying to make a beer made out of nothing but hops.
Gardeners and the color red.
Wine aficionados. . . enough said
I guess we all need our little parts of the world to carve out our passions. It makes the routineness of day-by-day a little more bearable
You do realize that you're basically running a "fetish forum" here right? I mean the whole concept of "Neanderthal" isn't so far from "trekkie" or "furry" to begin with, and then you throw in sharpening...
Thanks for doing a tireless and excellent job of keeping it all tamped down.
Last edited by Patrick Chase; 04-08-2018 at 1:19 PM.
Dave -- to quote a forgotten sage, the arguments are vicious because the stakes are so low
Andrew -- a great perspective. Goes well with the motorcycle post above.
Doug