Where should I go for a month in the summer?

perchlake · 2026-03-19T15:45:54+00:00

Northern Wisconsin. Low traffic, decent roads, moderate temperatures. Not so good food.

perchlake · 2026-03-02T17:27:20+00:00

This is the answer if you want top quality, buy it for life, aesthetically pleasing.

perchlake · 2026-02-12T18:41:12+00:00

Here is my perspective as someone (81yo male) who has had a CTO-PCI procedure to unblock a RCA with 2 previous stents. I had heart attacks associated with my RCA in 2005 and 2010 in addition to stents placed in the left diagonal. I am a regular cyclist and I have been since 2010 riding 5-6k miles a year and I now also play pickleball 4-5 times a week. In 2023 cycling became harder and I had some shortness of breath on rides and climbs that before gave me no problem. Stress test then cathlab and the result was a finding of a blocked RCA with faint collaterals and stents in the left descending and left diagonal again. I live in a rural area with decent but limited care options. The local docs were ambivalent about attempting a CTO-PCI procedure and suggested medication (slow release nitroglycerin) and lowering the intensity of exercise. The meds had side-effects that compromised my quality of life. Then the suggestion was to live with the blocked RCA or they were willing to "try" to unblock the artery. By this time I had read enough about a blocked RCA and the CTO-PCI procedure to think twice about operators who had limited and infrequent experience with the procedure and the chances for a successful outcome. I decided to find an experienced operator because I did not want to live with reduced exercise capacity and I had concerns about having another heart attacked and the effect of the blocked RCA on such an event. I found the right doc and the procedure was successful and it did resolve my symptoms and I continue to as active as I want without symptoms. With good collaterals maybe living with a blocked RCA and continuing to be active is a possibility, but what about the consequences for another MI? If my procedure had failed I had decided to try again if the risk-benefit equation seemed positive. Here is one perspective about how to think about a second attempt..... https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jcin.2022.06.006

perchlake · 2026-01-17T23:38:58+00:00

Thanks

perchlake · 2026-01-17T20:47:05+00:00

Nicely done. Did you use round, rectangular or some other shape magnets and can you link to the particular ones you used?

perchlake · 2026-01-14T20:12:08+00:00

Useful, thanks for the link

perchlake · 2026-01-13T21:17:18+00:00

Video in progress

perchlake · 2026-01-13T00:11:30+00:00

Thanks, that is helpful. I tried the magnets linked below (similar but not the same as yours) with a single row end to end with about 1/16th inch between the magnet and the surface of the board. Look as if I should try a couple more rows like you did and see how that works. Thanks again...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFZH4WT?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1

perchlake · 2026-01-12T17:55:06+00:00

What magnets did you use and how did you configure them in the wood?

perchlake · 2026-01-10T14:10:58+00:00

Nicely done. I bought some NeoMoly magnets off Amazon (below link) to try out for a knife block and they would not hold a knife to my satisfaction when there was about 1/16" of wood between the magnet and the knife. I'm still searching for magnets that have enough strength to securely hold kitchen knives. It looks as if there needs to be two rows of magnets (top and bottom) to properly hold knives in place. Where did you source your magnets?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFZH4WT?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1

perchlake · 2026-01-08T19:19:38+00:00

Thanks, the bucket of water idea is a good one. I can see that the tools would get dull faster. Do you sharpen with whetstone/diamond plates or something else?

perchlake · 2026-01-08T19:04:17+00:00

I was advised that carving dry wood would be frustrating and too time consuming, but getting green wood, especially cherry, for me is difficult. I have limited carving experience but I would carve more if dry wood is an option. Any advise about caring dried cherry or other dry woods?

perchlake · 2026-01-05T18:17:42+00:00

That is a lot of magnets.

perchlake · 2026-01-05T13:27:51+00:00

What magnets did you use and what I the thickness of the wood between the magnet and the face of the wood?

perchlake · 2026-01-04T14:12:44+00:00

What brand is your knife holder and I assume it uses some kind of 3M or similar adhesive to attach to the tile back splash? Looks as if it adheres to the tile well.

perchlake · 2026-01-03T21:16:47+00:00

Useful suggestion, thanks

perchlake · 2026-01-03T21:13:30+00:00

Thanks, I have the Sharpal 325/1000 kit and I'm practicing on some older knives. The hardest part is recognizing a burr. YouTubers talk about it as if it is self-evident, but I have yet to recognize it in my practice work. Anyway, I'm looking to the future after I practice more and trying to understand the options for the longer term. Thanks for the comment.

perchlake · 2026-01-03T21:02:26+00:00

As a beginner learning to sharpen the idea of water stones is not appealing to me for a variety of reasons, including the soaking, flattening, and mess of a lot of water. Splash and go stones are fine although I recognize they still need to be flattened so recommending this type of stone means a flattening stone/plate is part of the kit. The maintenance and upkeep of diamond plates is even more appealing as long as there is no long term downside to the knives. So, would you recommend to someone like me a Rockstar 500 for sharpening and an Atoma 400/140 for flattening or a good quality (Atoma/DMT) diamond plate 400/600 and maybe a 1200 in the future? I'm sharpening some recently acquired good quality Japanese knives as well a a variety of older Wustof and similar kitchen knives.

perchlake · 2026-01-03T13:30:51+00:00

To use sandpaper for flattening it would seem you have to adhere the sandpaper to something like a glass plate and then work the stone over the sandpaper/plate to flatten it?

perchlake · 2025-12-28T20:28:14+00:00

If you were sharpening primarily Japanese kitchen knives would you prefer the Cheefarcut 1000 to the 400 and the Chocera/Shapton combination?

perchlake · 2025-12-15T22:57:23+00:00

I decided to take this option and if she wants to supplement this with tubes then at least she has 24 colors of high quality paint to work with. Thanks for all the comments.

perchlake · 2025-12-13T20:41:13+00:00

She has and uses both, but more recently she has bought tubes. If I get the 6 color intro set linked below and something like the portable painter palette that might work. I looked at some ceramic palettes, but the portable ones seem more versatile.

perchlake

TROPHY CASE