Old sharpening methods...

[Mark Reich]

That is a fine post, Thomas. Well said. It's not hard to survive in the cold forest as long as you don't go empty handed or empty headed.  

It is fun for me to read just the way you write. Some of your accent comes through, so I know you're far away, but you have the same real outdoorsman's perspective. I think you would like it here where I live, and I would be comfortable where you are. But I have better knives.     Not better, different.

I have never seen an oval grinding wheel like that, and I wonder why it should be oval, or is that just artistic liberty?

That's a cool picture though. It looks like a blacksmith grinding a hand ax for a Roman soldier about 2000 years ago. It's funny that it looks like the soldier is trying to tell the blacksmith where or how to sharpen it. If the soldier knew how to sharpen it he would do it himself.

[Edgepal]

Knifes develops from the climate. The climate is not only temperature, it demand whar trees grows and how hard the trees wood are, it demands what type of game lives there and also what type of food. All those things together creates a blade design and also a handle design. In cold climate you do not like to have a metal handle or metal outside your handle.

So, if you live as north I live you would live in the middle of Alaska. If you do not - your wood, games, fish, and so on are different - and then you use traditional knifes that also are different but give the same functionallity as my knifes in my climate...

IF it is a soldier that point out things for the grinder/blacksmith he cannelloni things from his profession and way of fighting with his weapon that no blacksmith understand becouse tye blacksmith have another profession? For example "i use this part of the edge to slice thruu helmets and I need a steeper edge here with more materials behind the edge - or "make it just a little more pointy here"

The oval hrinding wheel gives convex edges when you hold your edge in the same angle and just follow the wheel up and down in the oval form. If the knife was fixed in position on a guide rod and leaning against the edge - the edge would be convex - and it is, in that way, possible to get wanted degrees on the cutting edge. With a fixed and adjustble pivot point it is possible to get also wanted convex sphere in degrees - and everything can later be maintained in exactly the same degrees. I so not know if they did this - but I can see that it will work fine - and I think that they also could se it.

I can surley survive in your area if you have a comfortble soft chair, a good whisky and a fire burning in the fireplace. Utvisas easy to survive in my age in that way.
If you come to Sweden if cause yiu visit me - and I fix the chair and the fire - you fix the whisky

Thomas

[Bud]

The way you see things is very interesting Thomas. Its just a different way of looking at knives and one that I enjoy reading very much. My grandfather looked at things in very much the same way. He grew up in a time where everything was thought of for not how it looked but how it worked. Some of his tools were fifty years old even back then but he still used them. One of the last memories I have of him was drilling a hole in a fence post with an old hand auger and a bit.  He's been gone for a while now and I'm glad that you are here to remind me of how he saw the world.

[Edgepal]

Bud,
I am 72 in april, I have been around for a while, that is one thing. The other thing is that I have been living close to, or in to, the nature nearly all my life. What formed me most I think was my 20 years in the mountains where I meet my first wife and where my three sons grow up. It was happy years, I was young and the area where I lived was far away from civilization.



To give you a idea about how nice, and sometimes hard, this are can be I show this photo. In the bay to the left and in the far end of the lake, was my home. There I lived with my family during the summer. there are many miles to the nearest civilization. Here are no roads, no bridges over water, it is only nature.

To live here gived me a lot of things, perpersctive of life, knowledge of nature, handeling of all types of edged tools and how to sharpen them so I can trust them with my life, and so on. I become a pagan and I belive in my forefathers, I am profe of their existens - and the nature are also a part of this.
Short: this years formed me.

After those years I satte down in the middle of Sweden in parish Jamtland qnd out in the Forest. I still lives there after 30 years. I do not like citys. I have carry a knife in my belt all my life and I still do and knifes are still my main tool when I do something.

Knifes for me are tools. Knifes are like a hammer, screwdriver, saw, chissel, and so on. Just a tool - but a very useful tool. knifes are not a big thing for me really - but they are usedul and they make my life easyer to live. I am not interested in knifes... But I cannot live without them - and I think that old knifeknowledge is soon totally forgotten - and I try to keep it survive.

Simple things can sometimes be very useful and save your life. Have you for example been in so strong fog that you cannot se the sun that you so nor know whats East or west? Do you know how to find the sun direction with a knife?

Put the tip of your vertical hold up knife in the middle of your thumbnail. Turn slowly the knife around and study the shadow the tip if the knife give on your thumbnail. When the shadow is the smallest, the edge points at the sun. This is a good example of knife use - and allready the vikings find the sun in this way on their travels. Try it in strong fog and learn to use it

I walked once in strong fog, I could se about 3-5 meters in front of me, for around 10 houers and I got my direction this way = your knife can work as a compass.

So, i have lived my life about in the same way as my forefathers did and I like functional tools, not fancy tools.

Thomas

[Rupert Lucius]

Reading your writings are so humbling for me.

Thanks, for walking me into yesterday.

Rupert

[Edgepal]

Rupert, perhaps you shall try to lead me out to today ?  

To se pictures from my old home made me homesick...

https://i.ibb.co/z4xk9Y8/image.jpg


This photo are closer to my home. You van se my home to the far left in this picture, its look like a pale of soilM to the left is some firewood stored.

The lake are 600 m above sea levell. The mountains around are between 1500-2000 m high. the Sami people work with their reindeers in the area and they lived on reindeers, hunting and fishing.

My oldest son still lives in the area and he lives the same life + he look after a very big area here, all the big Nationalparks in this area is his workingplace - he have the Ultimate job in my mind

Thomas

[Edgepal]

Back to edges tools, correct made in correct materials and grinded with edged that are balanced perfect between sharpness and retention...





Thomas

[Edgepal]

This picture shows the differance between todays steel edges and a obsidian edge.

There is perhaps better pictures on obsidian edges, if you find any, please post them here!

Obsidian edges are "natural" edges and 1 molecyle thick, the sharpest edge in the world ever. From a piece och obsidian you can cnock (?) a piece from its side - and you will (after som training) get an edge 1 molecyle thick. If you try, please be safe, use protection on your body and for your eyes.

These edges are terrible sharp - and brittle. So, stone age people started to grind them for around 6000 years ago so that they get more material in and behind the edge = their edges get duller - but stronger.

Thomas

[Mark Reich]

I retired from residential and commercial construction, but I kept all the equipment I'd invested in for 35 years. From my first 28 oz. Estwing framing hammer and Mod. 77 worm drive Skill saw, to almost every 18V tool DeWalt makes, I still have a fully equipped woodworking shop.

I was blessed to inherit most of my Grandad's tools, and I can't ever use one without thinking of him. His hand planes, hand saws, spoke shaves, hammers, chisels and brace and bits are a treat to use on special occasions. I use them most when I'm working on our ranch that his father homesteaded

Back when this land was settled in about 1870, Col. Armstrong Custer's men got a huge grizzly very near here (Custer was credited, but nobody believes he killed it). Custer was all over this part of the country, and we have a shallow cave on our ranch where a handful of his 7th Cavalry scratched their names, initials and date on the wall.  

The Black Hills area was hunted out of bears, bison, wolves, mountain sheep and mountain goats pretty quickly. They now mainly reside in state parks, but we have a lot of wild elk, mule deer, whitetails, pronghorn and lots of mountain lions, coyotes, fox, beaver, turkeys etc. Lots of buffalo ranches around here. Still lots of trout in almost every stream.

Weather varies according to distance from the sea and elevation, more so than just latitude. -33° C is pretty cold around here, but the weather can vary wildly within this region. There is an old saying that you probably know, Thomas. "There is no such thing as poor weather, only poor clothing."

[Edgepal]

We have the same saying here

I like your description from where you live. I know the wildlife you describe - but I have no experiance from mountain lions more then from my telly beutiful animals - but also dangerus.
Buffaloes have I seen on animal parks....long time ago

Minus 33 centigrades are cold whereever it is on earth. Tye coldest temperature I have experiance from is minus 48 centigrades (I have also experiance from + 48 centigrades so I missing 4 degrees to 100 degrees differance...)

I have also a lot of old plains and other tools and I will keep them as long as I live. I use them sometimes just to enjoy the feeling if them in my hands and listen to the sound when they go thru wood. Plain nostalgy.

Thomas