You are reading 3Bits & Change, Joseph's email about building a direct to consumer business on the internet and an occasional Web3 issue. Today’s email was written after a trip to SF to music streamed from KCRW in LA.
Good morning,
Two issues this week. I wanted to get this update about training and the machine in your inbox .
Bit #1 I saw it all work
I had the distinct pleasure of learning from an OG sharpener in his shop, store and trucks last week. I spent the days sharpening and on routes, in markets and at the store. It was fantastic.
No matter how you slice this, you can’t learn to be a sharpener in a few hours or even in a few weeks. The tools and abrasives are too sophisticated. The knife styles and repair needs are manifold. The techniques are both about knowledge but also about physical performance, skill and mastery. Yet, if you do an intensive at a place that sees hundreds to thousands of knives a week you can get a jump start and learn fast. I did just that “learned fast” and worked on customer knives too.
Add that to the learning I’ve done on my own, the many sets I’ve sharpened in the last months and I’m well on the way to being a very competent advanced sharpener for even the trickiest of knives.
Bit #2 You’re the sharpener
I never thought I’d be a metal worker. I’m a metal worker now.
The sharpener is not the tool(s), it’s the person using them. Sure, sharpening is done by robots in factories. Yet, after the handles are on the knives those robots don’t work the same ways when sharpening. Moreover, the robots get the same exact blank to work from. Sharpeners post facto have a whole range of ware and abuse to assess and work around.
Anyway, many factories have the machine that will arrive to Vivront in the coming weeks for post production sharpening. Yes, the brands you know for new knives in Germany and elsewhere have the same machine.
It’s not just that I’m a metal worker. I’m a sculpter too.
There is art and skill and opinion and vision and planning that goes into sharpening knives. Each is unique. Here I thought it was all about sharp. Nope. Sharp is in part the result of doing lots of things well in a specific order over and over with specialized tools.
From reprofiling to cutting onions with competence again there are more steps than I thought that need to be executed well when sharpening knives. While it’s not “sharpening by hand” (because this is a powered sharpening tool) it is absolutely free-hand sharpening. This context demands that the human holding the knife has a high skill level. Trust me, when you don’t it goes sideways. I screwed up a bunch of knives last week.
As I am now sharpening in our shop back in MN, even on my previous machines, there are phrases and practices I learned that keep going through my mind. The experience, regardless of the machine, has made me a better sharpener. Here are a few:
Land soft
Feather
Elbow high
0 Degrees
Lift at 90
Pinky out
I’m not the same sharpener I was two weeks ago. From holding the knife without a thumb, the placement of the alternate hand, my tendency to work with the machine vs against it have all changed. I’ve accelerated in skill.
Bit #3 Where to put this thing
This machine is something else. I had originally thought we’d stick it in the garage. Yet, it needs multiple 20 AMP circuits with the air circulation, etc. We have a single 15 AMP option in the “start up” garage now. So, it’s got to go somewhere else. We’re looking way more aggressively now than a few weeks ago. Standby there.
I wish it could go in a truck. Maybe that’s the place for it. However, we have snow here 6 months of the year and farmers markets don’t make sense in that context and therefore a truck install is less likely right now.
However, a truck install could make sense if we had sharpening routes to hardware stores, grocery stores and the like.
Sum
Like most things, with enough hustle they are going to work. It’s different to see parts of your vision working somewhere else in another system. It’s so good. And, to be able to learn and develop skill with such speed is a separate gift. Now, where to put this thing. We’ll figure it out.
Change
I’m off to the national meeting for the School Nutrition Association in the coming weeks to do a deep dive on where the opportunities are to make positive impact on school lunch and nutrition programs nationwide. I’m very excited to learn more and make more connections.
On Your Way
May your curiosity be sparked, your dinner conversations be full of joy and your adventures adventurous.
Onward.
Follow @josephrueter on Instagram or Linkedin. Follow Vivront.com on Instagram and Facebook.
Order your knives sharpened, or a subscription so a package just shows up on a schedule, at Vivront.com.