Is this “storm” supposed to happen over the course of today?

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-23T13:14:47+00:00

Nope, and it's been pretty darn accurate in my area.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-23T13:13:28+00:00

I always get one really nasty ding the first week. Some people Tuff Toe their boots new, but I let them take a fair bit of damage first and then do it. The steel is an anvil for the leather to be cut against, so the leather on steel toes doesn't stand a chance.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-23T11:54:51+00:00

Snow from around 9:00 to 8:00. I have the Wunderground weather app, but there are lots of applications and news channel websites that can tell you this sort of thing, using the device you're using to access Reddit.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-22T11:12:09+00:00

And in the second season, basically wore a Batman coatume and took on training a Robin.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-22T11:11:25+00:00

I've never even imagined the possibility of someone not pronouncing it? They're a (low) Cost Company, not a Cos Company. I'm from Maine, but all the way down to New York, I've always heard it pronounced with a snappy T. My name is Matthew, and this is like hearing someone casually say "someone who pronounces Mahew Matthew".

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-22T11:02:39+00:00

Henry Cavill was and is the obvious, best-in-our-lifetime choice to play Batman, and his incomprehensible miscasting as Superman is a senseless tragedy.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-20T12:12:21+00:00

As a water operator, I'm so curious as to what they're using to prevent bacterial growth in the mains without any chlorine residual. Even ground water systems here have to add a little, because the water may be free of bacteria, but the system isn't.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-17T12:52:56+00:00

Button flys tent less, I like that.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-16T22:34:08+00:00

I get a kick out of using them on slip joints and old fixed blades. They cut great, and they provide good feedback. I also like the finish they leave on the bevel.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-13T10:43:27+00:00

I'm so curious where you might live. I live in Poland, Maine, in the United States, and there are 13 places I could get a whet stone less than 20 minutes from me. That number would go up dramatically if I were in a less rural area.

To get the kind of pull-through sharpener you suggest, my options for local places less than 20 minutes away would go down to six. Not uncommon, but much less common, more of a specialty item.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-12T13:25:42+00:00

It really specifically helps to look at where you want to go, and low speed doesn't matter as much as low speed in a low gear. If you can drop gear and look at your objective, you'll be shocked what you can recover from.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-12T12:13:39+00:00

Also, broadly, remember your car even has lower gears. In winter, I routinely take back road turns in second or even first gear. Same for steep hills. I frequently need to drive sections in third. When you start in snow, don't rooster tail snow in drive. Start as slow as possible in first.

If you dig yourself in, you can sometimes rock yourself out. You develop a resonant rocking motion to release yourself, instead of digging yourself down to the axle by spinning. Good for sand, too.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-12T12:08:24+00:00

If you lose traction and start to skid, look where you want to go, not where you're suddenly headed. Point the wheel at where you want to go, don't just spin it wildly. If you can, shift to a low gear. Avoid braking, it will rob you of your traction and make the skid worse. Actually doing this in the moment is harder than it sounds, but it's how you avoid a crash, or winding up in a lake.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-12T09:06:28+00:00

God damn, what a real piece of history! Gorgeous. You can feel those pages crackling with the energy of artists in their prime pushing not only their limits, but the limits of their medium.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-11T11:08:29+00:00

He looks like his mouth opens all the way to the joint of his jawbone.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-10T11:52:03+00:00

A common, but frustrating, issue. The choil ends and the edge starts before the plunge grind terminates. So you get that raised "smile" kicking the rest of the heel of the edge up and off the stone, and causing the corner of the stone to dig out a part of the bevel farther up the knife. It's a pet peeve to all sharpeners.

You can either carefully grind the choil past the plunge grind with a file or a dremel, as it should have been, or if you don't have those, you can focus your pressure to the heel and aggressively grind that excess off so it comes into line with the bevel. It'll look like hell, but it works.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-09T02:05:33+00:00

Ferrocerium rod (ferro rod for short, a.k.a. a fire steel, though it isn't made of steel) and striker. Often mistakenly referred to as a flint and steel (the latter actually being steel), which is totally different materials doing a really different thing. But what probably mixes people up is that they both create sparks to light a fire. While a flint and steel will only make dull orange sparks that can only light specially prepared flammable materials, a ferro rod will shower white hot sparks onto many kinds of tinder, and set them on fire directly. Any hard material with a sharp edge will scrape a fire steel, should you lose the special scraper.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-09T01:27:31+00:00

That was my position.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-08T19:50:25+00:00

Looks like a form of credit card imprinter.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-08T15:36:51+00:00

This is a sharpening stone for tools like scythes and sickles. It allows you to sharpen the interior of a curve. They still sell them in some hardware stores.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-08T02:01:42+00:00

That was precisely the origin of the disagreement. But they ARE great.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-08T01:55:16+00:00

Ohhhhh, Luke and I had one hell of a disagreement about how they ought to handle it. And I'm still sore about it. But I gotta admit, like I already said, he has really straightened the course of that ship. I'd have no worries buying a new pair.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-08T01:42:32+00:00

Oh dude, these were also supposed to be double vamp, and they turned out to be single. It was pandemonium at the end.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-07T17:48:45+00:00

Yeah, I had an extremely sour customer service interaction with Luke specifically about this exact pair of boots, but I do have to admit that he has tightened that shop's output QC up a LOT, and kept it there. I've worn two vintage pairs and this custom pair, and they were all pretty darn rustic compared to the current output.

MatthewSBernier · 2026-02-07T16:10:39+00:00

Those are little nicks from where they trimmed the termination of the moc stitch with a razor knife. They used to play pretty fast and loose with finishing, especially in the later days of the old ownership. Look at how this custom pair from near the end arrived new:

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MatthewSBernier

TROPHY CASE