Yes, knives are sharp.  At least they should be.

This is a cautionary tale.  Yours truly got just a bit careless last night and let’s just say that it bit me, though thankfully not on the posterior.

One of my various knives is this wonderful little Leatherman e300.  I’ve had it for a couple of years now and it’s served me well.

The blade is pretty standard, but it works quite well.  The little silver thing on the right side on the back of the knife helps to extend the blade if you don’t want to use the thumb stud.  The clip on the left comes in handy for hanging the knife, opening bottles (yes, I’ve used it), and the extra part on the side of it is a flat head screwdriver.  You can also see the grippy rubber inserts in the handle that make this knife easier to hold.

So it’s nothing all that special, but it’s been pretty nice to have with me.

I bought this kit at Wal-Mart a while back.  A nice little kit, it’s not too big, not too heavy, and works pretty well.  The clamp holds the knife securely and the three stones each have a different purpose.  The yellow one is a coarse diamond stone used to repair a damaged edge or to set a new one.  The red stone hones the edge and polishes it, finishing the sharpening process.  The blue stone is different from most of the others you’ll find anywhere.  It’s triangular and is made specially for sharpening serrations.  There’s also a bottle of honing solution that floats the metal chips away from the stone so it keeps sharpening longer.

I pulled the sharpening set out a few days ago and resharpened all my knives.  Here you can see how it looks “in action” with the knife clamped in the vise and the stone on the edge.

The blades seemed to be quite a bit sharper, but I haven’t really had the chance to test them on anything yet.

That is until last night.  I was closing my Leatherman and didn’t get my thumb out of the way quickly enough.  I found out the hard way that the sharpening kit works really well and my work with it was definitely not in vain.  It didn’t even hurt at first…

Yes, it was a bleeder.  This picture was taken this morning and it’s had a bit of time to heal.  Remember that first aid kit I showed the other night?  Well, it sure came in handy last night!

Be careful out there!!!