Prosthetic Conscience

Iran is Farsi for Cambodia

Saw this a while ago, got around to posting today.

[ Posted: 16:36] | [ Category: /politics] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Appropriate technology

Here’s a link to a site on appropriate technology, which is something I’ve mentioned before on here. The best quote from the main page for me is:

“The definition of ‘Appropriate Technology’ changes with each situation… One quality that remains the same, however, is taking care of things. In each situation, the essence of AT remains appreciating, helping, caring. Planned obsolescence, throw-away products, poor quality all go against intelligent decision-making and the true spirit of appropriate technology.” – From “What is Appropriate Technology?” by Steve Troy of The Sustainable Village.

High quality and durability are very important to me, in tools, and in general.

[ Posted: 09:49] | [ Category: /web] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Pointless Acts of Sharpening

So, yesterday I spent a lot of time waiting on a Fedora box to get up2date over the slow network at the CPRC, and I decided to amuse myself while waiting by pointless acts of knife sharpening. On my keyring (about which I probably ought to write at some point), I have a very cheap, stainless steel, made-in-China McGuyver knife. The knife blade on it is practically worthless, but I had sharpened it up reasonably well on my free stones. It’s basically disposable, so I figured I could practise any kind of sharpening on it I wanted without worrying about ruining it.

So I put a convex grind on it.

Because the steel was so soft, I didn’t have to use a bench grinder, or anything; just the time-tested mousepad and sandpaper method. I only used three grades of sandpaper, since Hiller Hardware had a pretty scant selection of the finer stuff. I ended up starting with 220 grit to change the shape of the secondary bevel, then 500 grit to do most of the sharpening, and 1500 grit to finish. Visually, the results look very nice. It now has a flat primary grind with convex edge bevel, and a “brushed metal” kind of finish. It’s also solidly shaving sharp (but not scary sharp; with the stones I had only been able to get it barely to shaving sharp…

Anyway, a waste of time, but it amused me, and was educational. When I can pick up a mousepad (free is good) to bring home (I’m a trackball person), I’ll have a go at the cheaper of my chef knives and see if I can get a convex secondary bevel on that. Then, perhaps I will order my Valiant golok. Mwah hah hah.

[ Posted: 07:04] | [ Category: /hobbies] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]