Ya' know, Doc, I think I needed it as much as anyone.
It's all too easy to look at a knife, disgnose the problematic issues, select a stone by rote, "dunk it and plunk it."
One client watched me sharpen once and stated, "Why do you tense your forearm and lightly twist your wrist on some portions of the knife?"
I wasn't even aware I did that.
And new alloys come down the pike all of the time. Locutus just bought a new folder with an alloy I have never seen, much less have sharpened.
I had to go to a steel chart just to find out the components of the alloy. As we spoke that night
we opined a system of sharpening, but I could not say for certain what is a
knowing course of action.
Asking penetrating questions gets the juices flowing. Believe it or not there are scores of people who opt for mundane steel, and then seriously care for their knives by rubbing them on a mouse-pad covered in sandpaper.
And they don't even really know why.
Now, if
JoeC told me he just bought
a new bundle of sandpaper, it wouldn't bother me one bit. He studies. He has numerous knives. He probably studies more than I do. Put he assesses his position and acts from a point of understanding.
But if this thread has proven one thing to me it's that "two planes forming an edge" requires intense consideration.
And it's incredibly hard on trying to be a non-guru.