Month: November 2026

–What a day.

–Found Sherry a battery charger for a leaf blower she inherited.

–Attempted to etch my Shigefusa petty. Knocked over the ferric chloride. Now there are permanent stains on workbench, garage floor, and other places. Knife turned to rust while I was cleaning up, but I managed to get most of it straightened out @ 220 grit. Much more sanding needed before it looks nice and I can reconsider an etch.

–Facebook and Instagram are slow to the point of death on Firefox, and only a little better on Chrome and Safari. There’s no word on the web about problems on those sites. Now what?

–Took a shower and shave.

–Shun Kramer knife came in. Nice. Clean EDC ultem spinner came in. Nice.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Tried etching a Konosuke BY. The hard steel at the edge turned black quickly, and I thought it would be a winner. But the cladding was a little splotchy, and–in stages–I ended up taking it back to its original state. I just don’t know how people do this cleanly.

–Went over to Sherry’s last night to service her new Xfinity wifi router. Turns out it worked fine for my Mac and her iPad, but not her desktop Mac. After noticing that all URLs I typed in were prefaced by “norton-safe-search,” I turned off that extension and everything was fine. Her computer has all sorts of anti-scam stuff on it, though it may not all be running. Anyway, good for now, and a couple pieces of Costco pumpkin pie.

–Konosuke BY “Mount Stupid” came in. Absolutely stunning knife, but useless: the finish is so good I dare not use it or try some of my uchigumori tricks on it.

–Gareth Bull Wolf Mouse folder came in. It’s small and the design is such that when tightened so that blade is centered, it’s pretty much impossible to open as a front flipper. It did come with an aftermarket thumb stud, which I will leave on.

–Tiffany Wong (Davis Dermatology) canceled my upcoming appointment; rescheduled for December 17. Crap.

–Dank and drizzly day.

–Took Grace to UC Davis Health in Folsom for our flu and COVID shots.

–Stopped at Home Depot to get some ABS tubing for ferric chloride etching. Tried it on the Kato petty. Initially looked fairly promising; later it looked splotchy. I removed all traces with the belt grinder. One problem: this technique works best on knives with stainless cladding. I don’t know if I have any more of those. It’s possible I could turn my Konosukes into Tetsujin Metal Flows, but I really think it would take mega polishing skills that are beyond me. All the Konos have these faint parallel lines from the factory that (I believe) would be super hard to polish out. Even worse: The newer Kono BY knives (among others) are too big at the heel to fit in the 2″ ABS pipe I bought for etching. Crap.

–Looking at getting a Leica D-Lux 8 100 Years. Thought they were newish; they’ve been out since 2024. You can’t win for losing, though: eBay used are $2,500 plus tax; Malaysian new are $2,500 plus tariffs. Crap.

–Worked on plants a while.

–Paul Newman sourdough meatball pizza for dinner. Okay, but once is enough.

–Got out sharpeing stones and played with a couple of Grace’s knives. Turns out the coticule is a fabulous stone, while the gorgeous Japanese natural is terrible–hard, no feedback, etc. Will toss, along with a bunch of synthetics.

–Bought/won all kinds of stuff: a Clean EDC ultem spinner, a quite rare Shun/Kramer chef’s knife, and a Gareth Bull Wolf Mouse. Crazy.

–Much dialog with an eBay seller of a custom Kramer. Long story short: Offered at $18,000, I bid$10,000 which was automatically rejected, then bid $14,000. That offer expired. I scolded the seller, who came back with “it was eBay’s fault; I never saw the offer.” He in turn offered $15,000, which I quickly declined. To be fair, these silly Kramer prices have held for years; just 2x-4x what I might be willing to pay.

–Went to Costco to pick up the new Philips hearing aids. All went fine and I totally understood everything the audiologist woman said. Back at home with Grace, though, it doesn’t seem to have made much of an improvement.

–Stopped at Grocery Outlet for Grace’s odds and ends, to drop off our votes, and to pick up a couple of cheap pizzas.

–Went outside around 5 PM with Groucho glasses and candy. Saw Sherry, Kenny, Ann Haas, the Stults, and a whole bunch of parents and kids (Stults buddies I believe).