the gold colored part is the stone , you can put the stone a different angles , and you move the stone accross the blade ,

I have one as well , it works well

Bruce is right on. I've used one of the Lansky kits for years. But only time I use mine is when I do all my knives. You shouldn't let your knife get so dull before sharping. I touch mine up ever few days with a ceramic from a big light bulb. Rain tomorrow I'll lay out all the junk I've bought, stole and accumulated over the years to sharpen with and make a photo. OH BOY, bet ya'll "cain't" can't wait. BTW don't buy one of the clamps. You can get a small c-clamp and tack a bolt, all thread to it a lot cheaper. IMHO.

Curious: what material do they use to make decent knives these days? I've noticed that most manufacturers never even tell you what material their blades are made of.

I dislike non-serrated blades, unless someone can tell me how to slice through a section of polypropylene braided rope with a non-serrated pocketknife blade without struggling like an idiot. Using a saw motion with a normal blade seems like a lot of work with little to show for it.

Well your not shopping in the right place, but you're right about cutting any kind of rope, it's hell on a knife. Rubber also. Me I don't cut rope and hate serrated blades. For poly rope, burn it into or hacksaw, save your knife.
I've seen an un-scientific contest preformed offshore as to who's knife would cut the most rope. As in manila rope. Hell they would @#$%up 300 feet of rope. BTW the strongest man won. Had nothing to do with how sharp the knife. :smack: BTW google is your friend :lol: http://users.ameritech.net/knives/steels.htm

Well, here's an interesting for some of the Cellar 'womyn'.

My dad used to just spit on a stone. I think this makes me a hick.:blush:

Just look at all those contraptions.oooh and I want one of those voodoo knife holders
richlevy :)

This SOG Flash has been my knife of choice for awhile. The blade requires you push on it to open, but after it gets started it springs open something akin to a switchblade. The one-handed open has proven useful and convient. I haven't bothered to sharped the serrations, yet, and with as sharp as they seem to be despite all the abuse there is a chance I might never do it for the life of the blade.

I find this article both amusing and disturbing.

My god! Those poor children! Wait-- wha? Why is this a big deal? Should we all be concerned that children own and carry knives? I was given a pocket knife when I was six (as was every kid my age that I knew), as it was considered an important tool everyone should learn to use and carry.

So, then, I started to wonder if the British were absolutely crazy. The answer: Yes, they are.

What happened to our friends across the pond to make them fear pointy objects?

So, uh, does this absolutely baseless study actually indicate that everyone that owns a pointed knife is very likely to stab someone? What the hell is wrong with these people?

So my kid carrying her foil into school might be problematic in the UK?

Britain is quickly reaching the point where "Defending yourself against an attacker armed with fresh fruit" is no longer satire.

Yeah, but you can do it with a gun.

...Not by much at all.

I've always bought Gerber knives, and I've gotta say the factory edge they put on them is quite astounding. Sharp as fuck. You can really ruin it though if you're not too great at sharpening knives yourself. As far as only one side of the sharpened half being actually sharp, I';m not sure about that. Maybe it's just the type of Gerber you bought? Either way, you should'nt have a problem chiseling your way through stuff with it.

"Now, it's quite simple to defend yourself against a man armed with a banana. First of all you force him to drop the banana; then, second, you eat the banana, thus disarming him. You have now rendered him 'elpless."

but then there's the noise police.....:eek:

Noise police? Heh, shoot 'em. :D