[PREV - WONDERS_OF_THE_MODERN_WORLD]    [TOP]

SHARP_BUT_DULL

                                            February 24, 2017
                                            January  17, 2019

Continuing my binge of tedious tales of consumerism:

There's this kitchen knife I bought over ten years ago,
that I like quite a bit-- not the greatest knife in          Brand name:
the world, but I like it, and I'm used to it, and I use      Kiwi
it all the time.
                                                             I remember buying
It was starting to get dull and dinged-up,                   it at the Kaimei
and I was wondering how I should sharpen it.                 restaurant supply
                                                             store on Clement
Knife sharpening technology is such a simple,                Street in San
basic solved problem I had the thought I could               Francisco.
walk into just any little hardware store and
find something to do it with-- there's a problem
with such things, though: who is going to expend
resources supporting infrequent purchases of          I avoid doing internet
low-end items without much of a profit margin?        orders, myself:

We're living in a world where just knowing how to         NET_OF_LAST_RESORT
use a mop is becoming a rare skill, let alone
sharpening a tool.  You think you're going to
pick up a *sharpening stone*?  Ha.

Now, there's another type of knife-shapening tech
that's been around for at least 30 years: a small,
wall mounted gadget you drag a knife though a few
times.  Not as neat as a stone, but it's quick and
easy.... you can see why that would take over the
market-- except that it's *too small and cheap*.
There's no profit margin.

What you *can* find out there are these big
clunky rotary gadgets that are supposed to         e.g. at "Bed, Bath
suction-mount on a table-- I find them             and Beyond"
difficult to use and ineffective.  This is
an inferior tech that's taking over because
it's gotta be a whizzy gadget to sell
for enough money to justify the shelf space.

I looked in a number of places off and on
without success:

   Then it dawned on me I was missing the
   obvious: the Soko hardware store in San
   Francisco's Japantown.

   Manual, labor-intensive tools to precisely
   sharpen blades better than modern gadgetry--
   that's sounds pretty Japanese, doesn't it?      How are you going to tune up
                                                   your Katana without them?
   Soko had *both* of the knife sharpening
   solutions I had in mind.  The simple
   wall-mounted gadgets were available
   downstairs, and upstairs it wasn't a
   question of finding *a* sharpening
   stone, it was a question of what *kind*
   of sharpening stone I was interested
   in, and how much was I willing to pay?
   I picked up a reasonable looking small
   one for $10, plus the wall-mounted
   gadget, and went home well-prepared.


          But shortly afterwards I realized that
          there were Chinese housewares stores in
          Oakland's chinatown that carried new knives
          identical to the one I wanted to sharpen,
          and these were only around 4 bucks.


          It was against my principles, but I bought
          a new knife, and retired my old friend.

          For now.

          I still need to play with the
          sharpening stone some time.


--------
[NEXT - GREEN_BOWLS]