–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.