Jim Shepherd is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. He was one of the seven founders of CNN, substituted on the radio for Howard Stern for a week, and founded Shooting Wire, Outdoor Wire, Water Wire, etc.
They launched KnifeWire.com a little while back, and Jim penned the following about his experiences on our shared trip to Buck Knives…
There’s no better teacher than experience. Especially if that experience comes under the watchful eyes and encouraging supervision of someone already accomplished at whatever you’re attempting.
While visiting Buck Knives in Post Falls, Idaho, I had the opportunity to take a second run at sharpening a knife. Two years ago, I failed -miserably -at putting the same razor edge on “my” knife their experienced sharpeners put on as many as 1,000 per day. That sounds like a lot of knives, but every Buck knife made there is hand-sharpened. Thankfully not by me.
Since this was a second try, I thought I could do better. Instead I proved the “sophomore slump” really is a thing.
My apron, cut gloves, and safety glasses quickly reminded me just how difficult sharpening really is. I made sparks fly, but my previously unsharpened edge looked irregularly serrated. I’m a long way from becoming qualified. Fortunately, I had the chance to return to zero and give it another try. The third time was better, but definitely not the charm.
Each of us proved more adept at assembling a folding pocket knife from a bag of parts that included handles, a blade (already sharpened, but taped to prevent unfortunate accidents) and a bunch of tiny screws, springs and (fortunately) a “fixture” to help in the assembly.
The simple-looking Model 791 pocket knife is a lot of things, but it isn’t simple. It has more parts than a GLOCK 19 pistol. And they’re all a lot smaller. We were told that the assembly line for this particular knife when up and running would be able to put them together in something approaching 45 seconds. Each of us assembled our knife, but we took a lot longer than 45 seconds.
You. can read the whole thing at KnifeWire.com. The link is for the July archives, select July 1 to read the piece.
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