What keeps you sharp?

[Lorien]

The title of the thread only says part of what I'm after, I'm also interested in the demographics behind CPK's base, see please fill out the poll while you're here. This info may be useful to CPK going forward, so your help with this is appreciated

So, tell us about your interests! What do you do in your spare time? For yourself, for your family?

I'll start out; most every Sunday morning, I try and get out for a mountain bike ride. The rest of the day is family time, which means hanging out mostly, playing Zelda or drawing with my 12 year old daughter, or building stuff like shelving or what have you around the house. Sometimes we'll get out for a drive to a local beach or trailhead, although this time of year it's hard to motivate my ladies to leave our cozy little home.

On Mondays, the efforts toward building stuff are ramped up somewhat, and if I can get something done, my patient and supportive wife lets me go out for a hike- which usually means working on trails. Friday nights are sometimes trail building nights, and pretty soon I'll be back in the local MTB club, helping them devise a way to conduct trail maintenance legally, with local land managers. The rest of my time is spent running my bike shop, which is sort of like work, and sort of like a hobby.

What about you? As always, photos are more than welcome.

 

[JustinFournier]

2 young kids, one of which is only a few weeks old so I do almost nothing but work and parent. Free time between whatever needs to get done is spent on a never ending list of chores, house maintenance needs and projects I have on the go renovation wise. I try and get on the forums daily to pursue my interest in knives. I have a fancy Wicked Edge sharpening system that I was planning on using regularly but with the shop renovation still incomplete I've resorted to sending my knives out for maintenance and sharpening. Hopefully by the end of the year I'll have renos complete and get to putting hair whittling, mirror polished edges on everything.

 

[TRfromMT]

The energizer bunny around our house is my (2 weeks shy of) 5 year old. Her energy knows no bounds, and keeps this 45-54 year old dad pretty much on the go. Did you ever read A Piece of Steak by Jack London? ...I feel like Tom King. I have to rely on wisdom and experience, because I'd don't have the bottomless reserves of energy. She is getting to the age where I can start to teach her about some of the outdoors I grew up in. That's gonna be fun!

To stay sharp I love to woodwork. 3rd generation woodworker, and if you cut my arm off, sawdust would come out. I can't afford to invest in pistols and rifles as much as I would like, so I turned to knives a couple years ago, and only this last year and a half got serious about connecting the woodworking and the knife hobby. I LOVE working out the details of each little step in hand-making my handles. I'm also an engineer and I geek out on how to do something like keeping two holes concentric without a pilot hole to work with. It's a real trick and I'll spend hours figuring it out. My forum time is here or woodbarter.com. As far as actually keeping my knives sharp, I just started using the Spyderco Sharpmaker with the full range of rods. I got the sharpest edge I've ever personally achieved on an AEB-L hollow-ground blade the other day. Now it has me "chasing sharp", as they say. I'm told this can be the next black hole of the knife hobby (sharpening systems...).

For work I manage the project management department at a fabrication company. Just started there this past August, and it is exclusively in the electrical/power industry. I'm a mechanical guy so I have really enjoyed the electrical learning curve. It's a great company and I've loved the new challenge.

Married 20+ years to my beautiful bride. She keeps me pretty busy too. I still dream about the future with her, so that's a great sign. We are trying to adopt again, maybe through the foster system. We had a new little guy with us for a few weeks this fall and he went back to be with family. We are trying to figure out if we really have what it takes to do this.

 

[DJC72]

I workout 6 days a week, sometimes two times a day. I gave up drinking almost 4 years ago and now try to live a clean life. I'm lucky enough to have a job that I can truly make a difference in the community that I work in.

 

[ManOfSteel89]

I ride my mountain bike, hunt, fish, bowl, golf, shoot, and hike. I just sold my bike so I'm no longer drag racing but that was a big passion of mine. Of course I could elaborate on each but I basically do anything you can think of that involves being outside, active, and competitive.

 

[betzner]

I'm retired. My life before retirement is what informs my current doings. Work necessitated constant relocation throughout life. So I've lived in many large cities. And at certain points I've needed to live in two or three cities at the same time. As a consequence, travel was also a constant, but with it came lots of airline miles and hotel points, both numbering in the millions.

One year I spent 287 nites in various cities, but always in the same hotel chain. When taking time off, I wasn't staying at home. I was taking a vacation spending those miles and points. One hotel chain and one airline loved me to a point that vacations were free and in style. And that pretty well sums up my life before retirement. I once, for good reason, felt I would never live past 35, but am now twice that age.

Once I retired, I tried never to travel again. Life became a time more of contemplation. I moved to my present location, a town of 10,000, and began taking advantage of about 1000 sq ft of balcony overlooking what's in the pics, with a community that even had the good sense to locate the high school and sports fields on the ocean.

Throughout my life I collected abstract expressionist art, so have walls filled with more contemplative subject material. What do I do? I do whatever is next. I like to "be" and to behold. I suppose the only thing that REALLY keeps me sharp are numerous 97 mile drives to lunch at a restaurant called Nepenthe in a place called Big Sur. Always on every "Top Ten Drives" list that exists, and the reason I located where I live - right where it really begins.

 

[rodriguez7]

I'm 36, engaged with a 2 year old boy, who's my life! I'm right on the edge of the gila national forest in New Mexico. And spend the majority of my free time out in the woods, hiking, hunting, riding my horses, or taking my boy riding on my side by side. I like guns, and sharp things. I have a lot of animals, and different projects around the house to keep me plenty busy. Plus I work a lot! Sadly. But it means I can afford to buy more knives!

 

[rodriguez7]

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[ExtraBaconPlease]

I'm currently 20, single, no obligations. Life is pretty chill right now

I honestly just try to keep fit and keep myself busy to relax my crazy overloaded brain.

Every morning I wake up at 5am, go for a quick bike ride to get my blood pumping, come back home and do a light work out then start the day. Soon to start work in carpentry but right now, am having time off for at least another month. That means I can get out in the bush and beat on my favourite blades and act like a caveman whenever I please

Seriously though, my days are mostly spent at the gym training Jiu Jitsu and Boxing. Or cooking. I love cooking. And eating. Mostly eating.

I'm very curious to see where life takes me in the next 5-10 years. I currently live a pretty selfish lifestyle and wouldn't mind changing that up one bit for a family. I'll be buying my first house in 2-3 years if things continue as they. I'd love to have kids when I'm young and grow with them. I'd also like to travel more. I've been throughout Asia but would love to check out Europe and the US, Canada as well.

Can't wait to see what the future holds for me and what I can accomplish!

 

[J_mcrane]

I work as a school administrator by day. I have 2 girls under 3 that keep me honest and occupy my evenings.
When We decided to move from Texas to Canada, I stoped collecting guns and got serious with knives. In the summer I bike and hike, in the winter I ski. If I'm good I hit the gym a few nights a week.


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[jimmay]

48, married for 19 years to my best friend (she truly is), 16 year old son and 14 year old daughter. My son and daughter are my fishing buddies. Either one can outfish any grown man willing to be shamed! I was a fishing guide out of Galveston before they were born and they grew up inshore fishing. My son is my hunting buddy. I went back to electrical contracting when my son hit 5th grade. When I'm not working I'm doing my farm chores, fishing or taking care of my hunting property. Past 6 years or so I've been getting into long range shooting but finding time to dedicate to it ( or anything else for that matter) is hard to come by. Knives have been an amateurish hobby of mine since I can remember. Didn't know much about custom knives except for some of the really expensive "art" knives til I joined BF. I've been upgrading and adding to my collection for about 3 years now. I was the shop foreman at a company where we made electrical apparatus for land based drilling rigs and made friends with the guys in the machine shop. I have great respect for machinists (true machinists) because they can pull off being anal retentive without looking like an ass! And their patience is commendable.

 

[evltcat]

Right now I'm stuck working way too much... Doing 2-3.5 hr commute and working 10 -12 hrs a day.
When I can carve out some time, I like going to the range, taking a leisurely hike in a nearby open space canyon park, and stopping by the Ferrum Forge Shop for a visit with the guys and/or hitting the San Diego Knives shows whenever I can.

I'm hoping to get some help at work in the next few months so I can back the schedule down to something more manageable.

 

[Lorien]

thanks for making this a great thread, you guys! Really interesting to read about your interests and lives. Please keep it coming

 

[rodriguez7]

a couple more pics of my adventures


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[Lorien]

I've really started to enjoy making jerky, it's almost like a hobby at this point

[video=youtube;piEfT2CvovY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piEfT2CvovY[/video]

 

[TRfromMT]

Lorien,
What dryer do you use?

 

[Lorien]

Lorien,
What dryer do you use?

it's an Excalibur I think. We borrow it from my folks every now and then. There was a ton of apples on our trees this year, so I dried a lot of them- so good in oatmeal!

 

[TRfromMT]

I was just looking at dehydrators the other day and want to start doing this!

 

[Lorien]

you won't regret it

 

[JustinFournier]

I was just looking at dehydrators the other day and want to start doing this!

Use your oven cracked open for now Tony. Improvise, adapt & overcome.