Knife Man

[uhohjim]

Sounds like the stories my parents told me. They were from the Back of the Yards. There was a knife guy, a umbrella guy, ice man, rag man, etc. I'm 45 and grew up in Brighton Park and remember the fruit guy, Mr. Stien. Drove a big red truck and sold fresh fruit off the back.

I'm 46 and lived in Brighton park til the 6th grade,,,,,,,,,,,Did you go to Davis by chance?..........Small world..........

 

[Tech Guy]

Brings back memories of the truck going around our neighbourhood when I was a kid.

 

[ClayW]

This reminds me a lot of the Cuban mechanics and bodyworkers in the documentary, "Yank Tanks." If you haven't seen it, you really should. Thank me later.

Watch it here.

 

[Hootbro]

Nowadays, stuff like this in the USA is regulated out of existence in many cases. Guy like this in many municipalities would need a permit, which would need a business license, which would need a tax id and his little setup would not be OSHA approved.

 

[junk4dummies]

I admit that this isn't really on topic to the Garage Journal, but I figured some of you fellas might dig it. The idea of such a simple profession using such simple methods is really kind of dreamy to me. I like the idea that somewhere in the world, ...
To read the rest of this blog entry from The Garage Journal, click here.

""Dreamy"?
That is nothing new. We had a a tool shed and wood shed out to the side of the kitchen on the farm. We had a pedal powered large grinding wheel. The wheel is at least 30 inches. I sharpend the kives as a kid. I put the wheel in the tool shed and it is still there. The farm and house have been in the family sense 1804. The wheel goes back to the 19th century. This is old hat. Have you all seen the one where the man hooked a generator to the biked and if the kids wanted to watch TV they had to pedal to get the power. That was over 20 years ago. There is not much that is new under the sun.

 

[Michael Bryce Winnick]

When was the last time you saw a T.V. repairman? Just an analogy. The greatest one in the world was in Rockaway, New Jersey. He spoke like Donald Duck.

 

[RWD]

I'm 46 and lived in Brighton park til the 6th grade,,,,,,,,,,,Did you go to Davis by chance?..........Small world..........

No, I went to Shields.

 

[duke182]

When was the last time you saw a T.V. repairman? Just an analogy. The greatest one in the world was in Rockaway, New Jersey. He spoke like Donald Duck.

my town still has a tv salesman/repairman. his storefront is a couple blocks from my moms house. tv's from japan are cheaper to buy at wal mart than to repair. when he dies or retires, nobody will do what he does anymore.

the sharping guy lived in my old neighborhood. he died and chineese knives are cheap. nobody does what he did anymore.

the shoe repairman retired and the city razed his building.
goodyear welts and shoes from india are cheap.
nobody doeswhat he did anymore.

see a pattern.

i have a young friend that bought a really old print shop.
lets hope he can compete with digital prints and break the pattern.

oh yeah,
my great grandmother had a sharpening stone wit a hand crank.
you would spin it and the momentum would keep it spinning for a while as you touched the edge on your knife or what ever.
too bad one of my cousins beat me to it when she past.
oh well, i got a few of the guns.

 

[DIYKiah]

Good old fashioned ingenuity! That really is a neat idea! I grew up on a farm in rural NC and it is amazing some of the genius ways people do simple things when they lack the money or resources to go out and buy it from a store.

 

[Papa Tango 213]

What an interesting thread. Knife or scissor sharpening using simple jigs or machines is still a viable service opportunity. Last year I was asked by a client to consider offering a basic sharpening service for a major tire manufacturer that has hundreds of knives in daily use for tire building. The tire maker is using "Old Hickory" brand butcher knives much like those found in nearly every kitchen around here. At one time they had a backlog of over 800 of these to be sharpened with a requirement to hone about 200 to 400 per month.

I could do that job but they still haven't decided to farm it out. It'll be interesting to see if this pans out.

 

[peghead]

Actually I looked into buying a scissor sharpening business, where you go to the customer and sharpen the scissors. But no bike, just a van. Cool little tool box!

 

[Dmar836]

It's amazing what many in less fortunate circumstances can do with out of round tooling and makeshift things while I will often squander a day off sitting around all the **** anyone could ever need.
These types of stories make me think for sure.
Dave
KC

 

[FastKat]

BTW, This American Life, the radio show that broadcasted Mike Daisy's story (linked below) retracted parts of Mike's story because they were not true. I did not get a chance to listed to the retraction episode, so I do not know what was true and what was not. When asked to comment, Mike did not deny that parts of his story were false.

Lots of people think that things made by hand are cooler than things made by robots and machines. You may get a different perspective after listening to the first 48 minutes of this story. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/play_full.php?play=454