Originally Posted by
BlacknTan
A little funny story that applies here... Others with a machine shop background I'm sure can relate.
Folks would often walk into our shop with a piece of material that they wanted to identify. Some of them engineers, some techs, some just regular folks.
They would hand over the material... I'd perform some useless tests, depending upon how far I wanted to "reel them in." I often had a good idea what the material was from looking at it, but i never let on.. After I was done with the "Show" testing, I'd put the material to my nose and take a good whiff. They often looked at me as if I had two heads! Sometimes other guys would be looking on in amusement. Sometimes they would come over, and I'd hand them the material to sniff also.
Then I would declare the material to be so and so, and ask my compadres who also sniffed if they concurred... They always did!
The engineers often walked away in amazement, or just shaking their heads...
I wish I had a nickle for every time it worked... :)