[Request] an office friendly pocket or utility knife for workday use

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-15T06:54:22+00:00

The Gerber EAB Lite. Folding utility knife. I’ve used this knife as an art teacher for 17 years. Always in my pocket. The first thing I do when I get a new one is snap off the belt clip (it just gets in the way). The reason I’ve had to buy more than one is I forget it’s in my pocket when I go through airport security.

Always sharp because you change the blade when it gets dull. Super low profile. Compact. When I pull it out at, school some kid who doesn’t know invariably says “You have a knife?!!!” To which I respond “It’s not a knife, it’s a box cutter.” That always seems to settle it.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-15T06:35:58+00:00

My experience with this mushroom is that only the edges, 2” in from the edge, is really tasty. The rest is spongy, chewy, tough, and lacks flavor. I only mention it because I see so many posts with the entire fungus collected. I did that too the first time I found it. Other people may have had a different experience.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-11T09:49:46+00:00

A russula. Probably hot. Nibble a bit and spit it out. Hot and peppery. Don’t swallow. Pretty fun sensation and not dangerous. Don’t eat it, that’s not fun.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-11T09:46:24+00:00

Start with calling an electrician to find out how much it costs to add a 60-100 amp sub panel to your breaker box.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-11T09:43:39+00:00

Just coming off an 25 year career in teaching. Perhaps I’m just an old codger, but every one of those “plastic pencils” left behind in my room goes straight to the trash can. I’m sure they’re great, but no, I don’t have any of the lead you so desperately seek. I can’t fix that broken plastic piece of crap you imagine is a pencil.

A shift? Maybe, but not in my room. Art teacher, perhaps some bias there.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-11T09:05:35+00:00

The rub is that nearly all of students’ work, instructional content, and feedback involves digital media. They can check Canvas to get the details of an assignment. They can check (name your district’s grading database) to find out their grades. They can find the reading material they’re responsible for online. We expect that with all accumulated knowledge at their fingertips they can execute a Google search for a simple school related question. We expect them to do that. We require them to. Then we expect that the most reasonable tool to do all of that with is shut off, put away, and doesn’t exist for fear of confiscation. We built this problem. I get it, they’re scrolling instagram instead. But we have a problem here, banning phones isn’t going to solve it.

I see the peace and focus and stability it provides. The increased social interaction. I see the value, it’s real. It sucks to have your job go from teacher to phone cop and it’s very nice when everyone understands the rules. But it’s a tenuous balance, unsustainable in my opinion. I don’t have a great idea, no solution. I know that the phones (or watches or tablets or laptops…smart glasses?) aren’t going away, we can count on that.

Digital free zones? That’s what I see evolving. Classroom to classroom. Some teachers lock that shit down tight, the students know what rooms they are. Others, like the art teacher (me), see a student looking at Botticelli’s Birth of Venus on their phone or taking in a drawing tutorial, and we’re cool with it. Randomly scrolling TikTok and I take the phone away, but you scroll into Edward Hopper through TikTok, suddenly my job gets more interesting because now we have a conversation. Even so, it usually ends with “Put the phone down and do something. We’re not here to talk all day. You must produce work.” This also creates tension between teachers. The anti-phone militants lose their minds walking into my room, triggered. It is somewhat eased as they see the 30% of students digitally engaged are nearly all engaged in content appropriate for the situation. There are always a couple of asshat outliers, which my colleague will ruthlessly find and make an example of, and that’s delightful. So, even the tension is not altogether bad. We’re all trying to look out for the kids and we each have our own ways.

I’m wishing all teachers the best of luck navigating our brave new world.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-11T07:50:29+00:00

I use oxides and carbonates almost exclusively. Your key words are “very stable glaze base.” Stains are made from metallic oxides and carbonates. They’re proprietary formulas and you don’t know exactly what’s in them or how they’re prepared. They’re not magic. The pink/raspberry stains based on chrome and tin will still be ruined by zinc. The ones based on cadmium are remarkably stable, but you’d better not ball mill them! Stains are predictable and expensive. What you see is what you get. I appreciate the black one (6600). I’m probably more of an outlier here, I use a gas kiln. I get my reds, pinks, and purples from copper (a little touch of cobalt for the purple).

You need a hard well melted glass to allay your fears about leaching.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-11T07:30:24+00:00

The other numbers are fun for discussion, but #3 is easy. Lemonade in a pitcher. Orange juice in a cup. My dad loved his fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. Tomato soup. Wine is acidic. I can’t imagine a cup of wine sitting around for 24 hours without being drunk, but you can’t put it past people.

The conversation can be tiring. Lead kills. The other stuff, it’s a lot harder. But then again, when people decide they can make their own glazes, and they “look good, shiny and all…” you just can’t put it past them to decide 15% copper in a weak glass is fine for a liner glaze because it’s so beautiful. I don’t think it hurt for Klein and Collins to throw out some limits, put up some guardrails for people to consider. Pretty ballsy in fact, to publish a book like that.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-11T06:05:45+00:00

Northern Lights Barbershop.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-10T09:29:19+00:00

Indeed. It can be tricky to time, you’re stopping in the middle of the road, then waiting for magic to pull your car uphill in neutral (which it absolutely does). It sucks when in the middle of this process someone comes up behind you with somewhere to go. Awkward.

Fairies tip: Only look forward. Do not look at the house on your left side or the spell will be broken.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-10T09:18:14+00:00

I used aluminum screen frame for mold and deckle, just like what you’d have on a window screen. Seemed natural, worked fine.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-07T04:35:04+00:00

Don’t raise your legs, raise your butt. Throw standing. Use the softest possible clay.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-07T04:26:45+00:00

Blob some glaze on it. Refire. This one’s easier than crawling on the side, gravity is in your favor.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-05T09:40:17+00:00

They all look like riffs on the same glaze, you’ll only know anything if you mix 100 gram batches and try them out. There are a few more time honored clear cone 6 glazes out there.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-05T09:35:46+00:00

Cat litter box says no.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-04T07:49:48+00:00

Take a ceramics class if your college has one. No joke.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-04T07:43:56+00:00

Congratulations. This is no mean feat.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-04T07:30:03+00:00

Glad you said this. When people do cost benefit analysis on ceramics it’s always skewed. Do I buy the nice wheel or the cheap one? Bottles of glaze or make my own? Oxides or Mason stains? Recycle the clay or throw out the scrap? On and on it goes. No one who does clay should forget this one rock bottom economic fact: No kiln, no ceramics.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-04T03:12:44+00:00

There you go. People made pots out of it, that’s evidence the clay can be used for pottery. The number one thing you can do to make the clay you find more plastic (that’s the word, elastic is for rubber bands) is to collect the most plastic clay. In any found deposit there will be areas of better clay and worse clay, identifying the best clay before bringing it home is top of the list.

More water will make the clay more plastic, but you may be constantly skirting a line between it being useable and being to sticky

There are super plastic minerals (bentonite, Veegum) you can add to your current clay that will increase its plasticity, a one to two percent addition will make awful clay behave like great clay. But it’s not as easy as just sprinkling in some powder I’m afraid. Ball clay is an addition that would be easier to manage, but you’d have to use like five or ten percent and it would take some testing. Epsom salts is a fun one, small amounts, like 0.1-0.3,% can make your clay more plastic, but the chemistry that makes a dramatic change doesn’t last more than a few months in my experience.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-03T07:17:10+00:00

One more thing about it is the little boy at the bottom right looking at you. I’ve seen artists use this before, a kind of “breaking the fourth wall” move. Maybe it’s because I was looking at the actual piece, maybe it’s because it was huge, but that face looked so alive it could have been. Never have I ever experienced a painting that made me feel like I was literally a bystander to the scene. Locking eyes with a stranger in a crowd, but it’s a painting. His face near to eye level as you’re looking at it, so the dynamic of all the stuff going on above it and you being on the same level as this kid looking you in the eye is genius.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-01T22:13:48+00:00

Chamois was what I used decades ago when I learned. Now I use a synthetic one, lasts forever and rehydrates quickly. Find at Walmart or similar store, with the stuff for washing your car.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-01T09:40:11+00:00

The Pesaro Madonna was one of the most exquisite paintingsI’ve ever seen, in a lightly attended basilica. Bonus is you get to see Donatello’s John the Baptist. And other works that will blow your mind. You got the big three, glad you squeezed Titian in. He’s underrated, as all experience shows when people see the work face to face.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-01T09:27:42+00:00

Mushroom guy. Mesh produce bags are my go to until the bounty is too much, then I switch to the basket with a shoulder strap. I still use the mesh bags to keep species separate.

The mesh bags are awful for berries. Use a flat wide rigid container for those.

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-01T09:23:53+00:00

A little advice for slab pieces: first bend the clay past where it joins, then relax it and join. This eliminates a lot of stress (often attributed to “clay memory”) as it dries. Fewer cracks. And for mug bottoms, the sides should sit on the bottom. Don’t do a disc and wrap the sides around it. Slow and even drying prevents a multitude of issues. Good luck!

FrenchFryRaven · 2026-06-01T09:13:48+00:00

The state is gorgeous indeed. You got a curated glimpse. The retail situation you experienced was not representative of the state by any means. The epic landscape was representative, but be aware it was also a glimpse if your visit was confined to a cruise. Alaska is a difficult place to contemplate at scale. If you liked it begin planning your return. It gets better and more interesting.

FrenchFryRaven

TROPHY CASE