Nice Things

[buler]

Been into antiques/vintage of all kinds since I was a kid working auctions with my parents. During the 90's I had quite a bit of glassware and porcelain. Still have a handful of pieces. Here is a Durand goblet I've always loved. I'll get around to more "manly", hashtag ruff, things.

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by buler

[smoothsailor]

Lamp by ingo Maurer. All interior is by my wife , I like the contrast here, with the old ceiling and the lamp. It’s dusty.

While cleaning it one time, balancing on a ladder, the red ring counter weight went flying down. Luckily I managed to safe my ass and the lamp.

 

 

[Double 0 Soul]

'Such' canvas

Such (Marco) was part of the mid-80's wave of Sheffield graff artists, ive got a few photo's of his Kelvin flats pieces but i haven't seen him paint for quite a while..

 

[Duke Mantee]

I enjoy art, I don’t collect it. Here is more of my ‘nice things’ - good stuff that I use. A nakiri, a gyuto and a deba (a gift which is inscribed ‘Duke’ )

Edited January 4, 2021 by Duke Mantee

[JDelage]

Two acrylic paintings which were done to be the cover art for the French MMPB edition of 2 Sci Fi books, Heinlein’s “Citizen of the Galaxy” and Brin’s “Sundiver”.

Artist’s pseudo is Manchu.

[redragon]

@Duke ManteeMantee

Do you sharpen those yourself?

Always been fascinated by japanese cooking knives, but can only stare from the side as I am not the cooking type 

[youngofthesoonest]

On 12/29/2020 at 12:19 PM, shredwin_206 said:

My other expensive hobby is guitar. Here are a couple photos. 
The acoustic guitar is a Cole Clark Fat Lady 2. It’s made in Australia with sustainably sources wood. 
It is Queensland maple and bunya. 
I had a good friend of mine do the artwork on the guitar. 
The bottom guitar is a telecaster style made here locally by Joe Riggio. He is the go to for vintage guitar restoration he builds them the old way. How they were built In the 1950s. 
This is completely built to my specs. I chose the hardware, neck shape, body color, amount of wear/aging, pickups, etc   
Think of it like your custom made to order CSF. Every detail can be made custom to your liking. 

we need more photos of that telecaster

Edited January 4, 2021 by youngofthesoonest

[shredwin_206]

 

[Double 0 Soul]

8 hours ago, redragon said:

@Duke ManteeMantee

Do you sharpen those yourself?

It's a fine art sharpening, if he does i'd be interested in his method, they look superb!

Being one o'them wood carver types.. ive done my fair share, ive let things slip over the last decade and some of the edges have dulled but there was a time when i would pride myself on every carving tool being razer sharp before i put it away (i can shave my face with my chisels ) Ive tried everything over the years from Japanese whetstones to modern diamond sharpening plates as fashions dictates but imo nothing beats the traditional oil stones which i always revert back to.

...from left

Indian Oil Stone which is man made (like a grinding wheel) this is only used for removing the flash after grinding and setting your cutting edge

Charnley Forest

White Wichita

I don't actually know what stone this is, it was given to me by the widow of an artisan wood carver, i don't want to clean it to investigate, it takes years to get them to a perfect stage.

Hard White Arkansas

Hard strop (a thick piece of leather stuch to a block of wood) Soft strop and numerous slip stones...

... There was a time in the late 90's when good stones would change hands for big bucks fueled by demand after the seams ran out.. nowadays due to lack of demand (folks using disposable tools) you can pick them up for less than £100 if you're lucky... I remember driving to Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire to sift through the leaf litter for fragments of what was affectionately called Charnley Forest, where there was an old seam, it's a lovely green stone with a rusty, orange/red vein running through it, ive still use the piece i found in Charnwood for sharpening my axe at home.

...anyhow, everyone develops their own sharpening style.. Unlike a trad chisel you would buy from the shops, i undergrind mine like a knife blade before adding a 25° cutting edge.

This is the Hard White Arkansas, the seam ran dry 30 years ago but you can still buy it, alas what you're actually buying is smaller pieces which have been ground up into a fine powder and bonded togather with a resin, it's not the same as the natural stone which is like glass with a very fine cut for your finishing touch prior to stropping. Final strop is done on the palm of the hand in a similar style to using a steel, i'm not sure HSE would approve

Ive even tried the same process myself by mixing tungsten carbide powder with polyurethane resin and casting it into a mould like a homemade ceramic stone

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by Double 0 Soul

[Duke Mantee]

12 hours ago, redragon said:

@Duke ManteeMantee

Do you sharpen those yourself?

Always been fascinated by japanese cooking knives, but can only stare from the side as I am not the cooking type 

I do - I’ve got a set of water stones. It’s very therapeutic. When I started it was scary because you worry about everything/anything that could wrong ... but in fact there’s little that can.

These days I really only need to use the 8000 stone unless I’ve been lazy. I’ve got a 12000 but it’s pointless - there’s a stage when you end up sharpening for sharpening’s sake. It reminds me of some of the knife forums where the chat is about the knife edge instead of the food

Edited January 4, 2021 by Duke Mantee

[Geeman]

I have some flint and flame knives that I use daily. Not japanese but decent, around 100 quid a knife I think as they was a gift  few years back.They came with a little wet roller sharper that's easy to use and does a good job but I'd like to try my hand at a sharpening stone.Duke/Neal, any links to decent reasonable priced ones to have a look at?

[Duke Mantee]

1 hour ago, Geeman said:

I have some flint and flame knives that I use daily. Not japanese but decent, around 100 quid a knife I think as they was a gift  few years back.They came with a little wet roller sharper that's easy to use and does a good job but I'd like to try my hand at a sharpening stone.Duke/Neal, any links to decent reasonable priced ones to have a look at?

Workshopheaven are just down the road from you I believe 

[JDelage]

Unless you know what you're doing, I really recommend something like EdgePro...

[Double 0 Soul]

2 hours ago, Geeman said:

I have some flint and flame knives that I use daily. Not japanese but decent, around 100 quid a knife I think as they was a gift  few years back.They came with a little wet roller sharper that's easy to use and does a good job but I'd like to try my hand at a sharpening stone.Duke/Neal, any links to decent reasonable priced ones to have a look at?

 

I prefer natural stone over man made any day, but i'm sure you'll do just fine with Duke's recommendations... I'm a bit of a kitchen knife philistine Gee  regarding what we tend to prepare, ive never come across any type of food i can't cut with the 30yr old set of Made In Sheffield knives my Mrs bought at catering college.

Don't get me wrong, if i was a working chef, i'd insist on a set of swanky knives...

All i tend to do is when they're blunt ie- if ive been using them to open tins and chop kindling (don't tell my Mrs) i take them to work, re-grind and resharpen using the oil stones above.. one thing i would recommend would be a good strop, barbers have been using them for 100's of years for good reason.

[chambo2008]

Few of the work knives, these are just Japanese, have about the same that are not 

[julian-wolf]

A few layers of newspaper on a very flat surface work fine as a substitute if you don't have a leather strop

[Duke Mantee]

1 minute ago, Double 0 Soul said:

 

I prefer natural stone over man made any day, but i'm sure you'll do just fine with Duke's recommendations... I'm a bit of a kitchen knife philistine Gee  regarding what we tend to prepare, ive never come across any type of food i can't cut with the 30yr old set of Made In Sheffield knives my Mrs bought at catering college.

Don't get me wrong, if i was a working chef, i'd insist on a set of swanky knives...

All i tend to do is when they're blunt ie- if ive been using them to open tins and chop kindling (don't tell my Mrs) i take them to work, re-grind and resharpen using the oil stones above.. one thing i would recommend would be a good strop, barbers have been using them for 100's of years for good reason.

I just couldn’t afford natural water stones at the right quality. I suppose it’s about trying to find a balance of good quality and good value - the ones I use aren’t the one’s I’ve recommended to Geeman but he’s looking for a decent priced start, and I know the King brand are fine.

The Duchess is a cook by profession, and for a lot of cooking prep we both just use her ‘catering quality’ knives - tough and durable and rough chopping and that kind of stuff. My two big knives I use for more accurate prep - for example, if you try to chiffonade basil with a knife that’s not sharp enough, you’ll cut it but you’ll also bruise it and so you lose a lot of the valuable oils (and discolour it). Horses for courses ...

[Duke Mantee]

4 minutes ago, chambo2008 said:

Few of the work knives, these are just Japanese, have about the same that are not 

You use all of these?

[chambo2008]

I tend to use one, get dull, pick out a new one, most are of a similar profile, of course some are dedicated to slicing some for butchering. 

 

 Mac, miyabi, shun premier and kasumi and a few other obserce Japanese brands 

[Double 0 Soul]

17 minutes ago, Duke Mantee said:

 ..for example, if you try to chiffonade basil with a knife that’s not sharp enough, you’ll cut it but you’ll also bruise it and so you lose a lot of the valuable oils

I'll take my chances

[Duke Mantee]

5 minutes ago, Double 0 Soul said:

I'll take my chances

I though Mr Marks & Spencer would appreciate that 

[Duke Mantee]

58 minutes ago, JDelage said:

Unless you know what you're doing, I really recommend something like EdgePro...

[bartlebyyphonics]

wondered how long this might take b4 getting to knives...

for sharpening @redragon I began using 1000/3000 combination synthetic whetstones... king or other totally suffice... lotz of YouTube out there to advise 4 general technique... use a cheap knife and experiment,,,  

when getting better then go lower and higher (ie to 400 for re-shaping an edge, to 6-8000 for better honing [yes, totally understand about last stages using bare skin, newspaper, etc ] ... yet lower stages make sense for certain food groups... ie a toothy edge - ie 1000 edge - is good for thick skin veg [tomatoes], but not for fish protein...[sashimi etc]) - as discussed, 10K stones and above is pretty irrelevant for anything home cooking related...

to repeat; before buying posh knives, invest in basic stones and invest in your own aptitude in sharpening...

and then, IMO, get nakiri and and something pointy tipped for prep / slicing [nakiri allows best chopping vs knuckle skin loss techniques.. it is liek the best bit of a 240mm gyuto]

(ie I use an Oshihi blue steel / stainless clad nakiri and a Sheffield steel sabatier slicer)

this gives options of cuts/cutting techniques but allows ease of use...

I have tried many knives for home use, including a lot of single bevel, and something around a solid nakiri, gyuto and slicer/line knife fit the bill for me...

@Double 0 Soul - much respect on the sharpening stones... in terms of natural whetstones cost, this site definitely makes one feel the burn... so own found is best found for sure.... have done a wee bit of carpentry [stabbed myself with chisels in the thigh and all that non-HSE] ... so yes to sharp tools that actually work... for chisel meets knife, do look at yanagiba/kiritsuke/deba/usuba as knives that are basically long edged chisels... [yet hyper specialised...]

@Duke Mantee - those knives look great; I use a much cheaper deba [but do enjoy use of yanagiba along with other quite low rent butchery knives if needed]: never enough opportunity for fish filleting to warrant a good mioroshi deba no matter my delusions: is yours a benefits of your local life? [for smaller fish I have a good sabaki] I have a usuba which can achieve molecular level salad cutting, but it chips like a wee bairn if it as much as touches the board too hard...

@chambo2008 - enjoying your collection yass: have used a bit of kai outputs, find that their lower grade stuff is great to learn to sharpen on, but the shun prices are equivalent to more basic {yet esoteric} hand-made prices, so, fwiw, have avoided... [but this is the kind of critique offered at LVC which I am happy to wear, so ignore and burn me... I get their reliability and solidity, particularly in a professional environment, I am shithead shitbasiccorechef] ... for knife profusions, this account  is extra noodle kitmadness... first saw his madness from here... which has its own patina thread here ]]]

... and cooking tool talk relates to menus: I have shifted to curry / ramen / burritos-tacos/slowcooks as main events: slow cooking over thin slicing: a cook book thread anyone? [Duke, given your obs skill in baking, do look at the Magnus etc Nordic Cookbook.. went there looking for pickled fish, stayed for the baking goodness...]

[which reminds me, before investing in steel, invest in decent [enouff] boards and general cookware, for me, cast iron pans/skillets are a big yes, as is good pestle and mortar...]

pics may follow...

Edited January 4, 2021 by bartlebyyphonics

[Double 0 Soul]

16 minutes ago, bartlebyyphonics said:

@Double 0 Soul - much respect on the sharpening stones... in terms of natural whetstones cost, this site definitely makes one feel the burn... so own found is best found for sure.... have done a we bit of carpentry, stabbed myself with chisels in the thigh and all that non-HSE... so yes to sharp tools that actually work... for chisel meets knife, do look at yanagiba/kiritsuke/deba/usuba as knives that are basically long edged chisels...

 

That site is hillarious! if i was splurging £1800 on a stone i would expect a better description "super nice, super uniform, super clean" it sounds like they haven't got the foggiest..

All of my chisels are antiques bartles, the most recent carving tool i own is c1944, most are c1912-14, imo you just can't get hand tools of this quality steel anymore.

[bartlebyyphonics]

 

11 minutes ago, Double 0 Soul said:

That site is hillarious! if i was splurging £1800 on a stone i would expect a better description "super nice, super uniform, super clean" it sounds like they haven't got the foggiest..

All of my chisels are antiques bartles, the most recent carving tool i own is c1944, most are c1912-14, imo you just can't get hand tools of this quality steel anymore.

good to hear yr sanity! good tools are worth caring for... but yup 'artisan idyuts' will charge extra for 'nothing-gubbins' if they can reach in yr wallet...

[Double 0 Soul]

Indeed, the c1912-14 tools were handed down to me by one of the old master pattern makers who i trained under, he himself acquired them the same way, sadly, i think i might be the last...

[Suitedupmon]

An artist proof from one of the MFA Photography students at the university I work at. Waiting to be framed...

Edited January 4, 2021 by Suitedupmon

[Duke Mantee]

54 minutes ago, bartlebyyphonics said:

is yours a benefits of your local life? [for smaller fish I have a good sabaki] I have a usuba which can achieve molecular level salad cutting, but it chips like a wee bairn if it as much as touches the board too hard...

... and cooking tool talk relates to menus: I have shifted to curry / ramen / burritos-tacos/slowcooks as main events: slow cooking over thin slicing: a cook book thread anyone? [Duke, given your obs skill in baking, do look at the Magnus etc Nordic Cookbook.. went there looking for pickled fish, stayed for the baking goodness...]

[which reminds me, before investing in steel, invest in decent [enouff] boards and general cookware, for me, cast iron pans/skillets are a big yes, as is good pestle and mortar...]

pics may follow...

A lot of what you say is why I chose/have those knives. My baking is basic (so I’ll check the book), I’m much better in other areas - but I’ve no interest in going Japanese for fish knives, for me it’s more use having a good flexible boning/filleting knife then use the gyuto for portioning.

re. the other stuff, those knives are on nice end grain walnut boards and totally agree with your view on pans/skillets - I get mine here https://www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

[buler]

Fender DuoSonic from 1964. Neck and pickups are dated. Was Dakota Red until some moron (not this moron) rattle canned it blue. Started taking lessons and then had 2 kids. Now those kids are in their 20's and on their own. 2021 is my year to start learning again.

 

[mondo]

ouch, @buler..! considering it was sprayed a solid colour originally, it looks like nice wood in the body (Fender often used less appealing bodies under custom colours because they wouldn't be seen anyway)...I'd be tempted to refinish as a sunburst or Mary Kay and relic to fit in with the rest of the guitar, but if you know it was DR it would be good to return it to its former glory. Shredwin's friend could do it.. MJT do good work, too, I've a nice La Cabronita from them. Probably Brazilian rosewood on that neck, too... nice.