Monday, October 25, 2010

Knife Sharpening.



Well, if you have time to watch TV, you have time to sharpen all of your utensils. A sharp knife means less effort is needed to use as well as being a nice helper when you are deboning a chicken thigh or a fish or what have you.

This a video on how to use a wheeled knife sharpener these do a fine job especially on longer blades and charming cheapy flea market blades.

The old fashioned way, a wet stoned pocket knife

For a prepper, or Frugalist, how to use a cinder block to sharpen a knife

How to use some commercial systems such as a Lansky

How to fix a blade with a chip in it with a stone

Wet stone maintenance

Learn to sharpen your own blades, scissors, shovels, hatchets, what have you, so they perform the way they should when you reach for them.





Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Bicycle experiment


Lately I've found, with additional time on my hands, that I have a renewed interest in bicycling, a past time I loved as a young man moreso than driving an automobile. Being forced into frugality, my selection for bicycles to engage in this past time is limited to the products at the local Goodwill Thrift Store.

Which means..Huffy bicycles, at one time Huffy was just considered a lower end bike, now among bicycling purists Huffy is akin to cow flop with rims that may or may not melt when exposed to direct sunlight.

At least that is what my online research (research=lurking on Bicycle Forums and reading old posts) has shown. Undaunted, I picked up two Huffy bikes, one a Superia 15 speed, the other an ancient Santa Fe 10 speed. The Superia appears to have been what I'd politely call a "good idea at the time" bicycle, someone bought it, rode it maybe 5 times, parked it in the garage and eventually donated it to Goodwill, the tubes are fine, the tires are fine, the brakes work etc. But with air in the tires, and a relubing the crank, forks, and wheels, it was road ready from Day 1.

It also cost a whopping 12.50 cents

The Santa Fe is a different situation completely, it was more or less from the "rode hard, put away wet" category, the 1 3/8th inch tires were flat, the front derailuer does not work, the bearing were all dry as sun bleached bones, the inner tubes had holes, the rear dereaileur was out of adjustment, and to top it off, it came from an era where tires and tubes are not standardized a 26 inch road tire could mean one of 3 possibilities and no amount of googling will solve the mystery one has to try them out or take the wheel to the local bicycle shop were to enjoy the faintly patronizing looks as the innocent question of "do you have a tire to fit this rim" question is asked.

I have no intention of mentioning that it belongs to a Huffy, least wise the patronizing look turns into thinly veiled contempt as they consider this klutz in front of them basically married their Sister, or at least 1st cousin, by owning a Huffy and having the gall to walk into THEIR shop with such a piece of garbage!

Pardon the digression.

The Sante Fe cost a whopping 10 dollars, but the reality is a Huffy of that vintage is worth 100 dollars..at most. So repairs are an expense that is not going to be recouped. However the advantage the 10 speed has over the 15 speed is simple, it is a lighter, quicker bike if one has to peddle 10 miles less weight and less rolling resistance is the way to go.

I found the tires and tubes needed on Amazon.com for 32 dollars delivered which is somewhat expensive, however if the Santa Fe works I suspect that it will be ridden far more than the more durable, but heavy, Superia. 


At the end of it all, the benefit from a cost point of view will not be all that great, even with gasoline at 2.80 a gallon, my vehicle achieves 22 mpg, meaning to recoup that 42 dollars I'll have to peddle 70 miles or so to just break even and since it is the Fall heading into Winter, that seems like a tough deal to manage to accomplish. However the health benefits should not be ignored as if one does not have health, what do you have to replace it?



Free Stuff and a Cold Steel Shovel upgrade


Gentlemen sounds as if he is Australian, but his modification of the Cold Steel Special Forces Shovel are among the best I've ever seen the cord wrapped handle along with the additional pouches attached to the nylon sheath are good ideas. I've used a CS shovel for everything from camping to a coal moving device on a BBQ grill to a thrower and the CS shovel just trucked right through everything that I've thrown at it.


Ah, Kuntao Silat Footwork, Steve Gartin IS a fine teacher, but with a troubled past, as with most teacher/student relationships, both should take away what they are looking for and discard that which is unprofitable.

General Mills has announced a 5% price increase for their products.

Take advantage of opportunities, especially if you live in the Southern Portions of the US as Winter will be upon us soon and all we can wait for is Spring, and the rebirth of the Earth..5 months from now..