We were invited to Thanksgiving dinner at an old friends home. I thought it would be a good idea for me to show up a little early with some stones and sharpen at least the carving knife and a few others if I had time.

Knowing the host I expected the worst and I was correct. The first knife was butter knife dull and very old stainless. Early stainless knives are not known for taking a very good edge and this was gummy soft stainless. Well I got that knife into reasonable shape and then went to work on an inexpensive German style kitchen knife. After grinding away for a while to get a bevel I did finally get a very good edge on the second knife. It was my job to carve the turkey and at least I had a very sharp knife for that. I'm sure that both knives were just thrown in a drawer the next day.

Anyway my point is that given what I had to work with, this wasn't nearly as rewarding of an exercise as I had imagined. I will try this again with another friend who I suspect has much better quality knives to start with.

The host was surprised when I didn't need electricity. She thought I was going to plug something in and go zip zip.