I keep two old box knives in the kitchen junk drawer. One has a regular blade on it, and the other has a hooked blade because I think they’re safer and run less risk of damaging the stuff inside the box. But sometimes, you just need a regular box knife. They’re both old and handle rough, but they have seen a lot of use.
Last night I was painting. While trimming some masking tape against a hard edge I realized the blade on the regular box knife was a bit dull, so I went to change it. While flipping the blade around to the unused side, I noticed there were no more spare blades in the handle.
Today I bought a new pack of blades. They purport to be better quality and will stay sharper longer than the original set of blades that came with the knife, but I guess we’ll see how that holds up with use.
While adding the new blades into the handle, I decided to go ahead and clean up both knives - get all the tape residue out, and clean the internals. Then I gave the slightly rusty patina’d slide mechanisms a couple drops of 3-in-1 oil. I also gave the blades in the handle a drop along their sharp edges for good measure.
They open and close very satisfactorily now.
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What a comfortably satisfying series of events
It was pointed out to me one of the downstairs doors was squeaking. So I took some WD40 down. I know it’s not a proper lubricant, but it seems to have always worked fine. I applied a squirt to the outside of the hinge expecting to then have to work the door back and forth to work it into the mechanism. But to my surprise the squeak went away instantly, no door swinging required!
You well be the most popular person during present opening.
So many people I know have no concept of maintenance - if something is not working correctly they’ll just keep using it, and when it breaks put it outside to rust (doors that don’t open, gates that don’t close, bikes that don’t shift well, mowers that won’t start…)
I was given a leather ottoman last weekend which came from a $10k plus sofa set, which had sat in a sunny room for 8 years without any maintenance. Almost a full tub of conditioner and about 2 hours of labor went into that piece and now it looks and feels amazing
A few years ago I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and while I understand the mental health journey of the protagonist, I really liked the basic conception of Quality which has at least some alignment with Zen - whatever you are doing, that’s what you are doing, so do it with focus and care
“sharpen the saw” is one of the 7 habits of highly effective people.
Abraham Lincoln is quoted* as saying “If you ask me to cut down a tree I’ll spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.” (There’s no evidence that he actually said this)
It’s a skill I try to teach everyone that I teach anything to. It’s the reason why I’m almost always seen standing around at work instead of running around like crazy. If I have a problem, I stop, figure out the problem and move on. Other people will have a problem, and keep having the same problem over and over again without looking into it and have a bad day.
“let the tool do the work” Whatever that may be, set it up, let it do it’s thing don’t interfere with it.
However, at the same time, don’t be fooled by random events. Sometimes you just need to turn off the computer and turn it back on again and move on with your day.
Verify the concern, replicate the problem.
When there’s a verifiable problem you work on finding the root cause of the problem. That means, don’t fire the parts cannon at it. Taking the time to properly diagnose and fix the issue will save you time.
Learn to walk away. It’s important to take breaks every so often. It’s more productive to take a 5 minute break every 20 minutes than it is to work continuously for 8 hours. If you’re really having a hard time figuring something out, go to lunch. When you come back you’ll figure the problem out right away. If you don’t figure it out right away, talk out loud about the problem. You might talk to someone else about it, but it’s better if they don’t try to throw out suggestions while you’re talking. It’s called “rubber duck debugging.”
Lastly, If it’s stupid but it works, then it’s not stupid. I’ve seen many people start tinkering with something because they don’t like the way it looks. This falls into the category of “if it’s not broken, then don’t fix it” There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s working fine, they just don’t like something about it. It’s not “the way we’ve always done it.”
Can’t do it any other way. People follow all kinds of mindfulness courses, but I’m just naturally wired that way. Luckily.
