What Can't You Do?

I have half a dozen "steels" from over the years, and I have never been able to get a knife sharper by using one. I always have to correct my work with another method.

 

It took me a while to be able to sharpen a knife correctly but once you get it a stone and a strop is the only way to go. @melbo look into using a strop, it is the only way to get a knife super sharp, stropping takes off the wire edge off.

 

I sold my stick 2 years ago. My oldest son was able to drive it no problem but he had been riding dirt bikes for years so a clutch was nothing new.

What can't I do- I don't know. It is more of, "what have I not tried to do"? I always try to do what needs to be done. I am not to full of pride to ask for help when needed or admit that I do not feel safe doing a certain task. I tend to take the hard way in many tasks. I just went through fixing the fish pond. I emptied the water out with a homer bucket. It was a lot of work and I could have used to pump at work to empty it in a jiffy but I was determined to use only what I had. I didn't cut the dead trees in my yard. I am glad I didn't, one tree went the wrong way when the experts did it.

I have a list of skills I have not tried but want to learn and hopefully perfect. I have determination and optimism which IMO is a plus. Isn't there a saying, "don't say you can't until you have tried". (except for shooting people who are breaking into your house, can't practice that one.)

 

I just shipped my brother a part, and will be talking him through the repair on Monday. He has no idea what to do, but it is a simple repair, so he will learn something new he can do...

 

Looks like a late 50's Dodge...

 

Hmm could be ... I was looking at pics with my father. He said this was from a Studebaker. .. pic of a pic

 

Apparently I can't grow a garden for beans...or carrots or broccoli or a bunch of other stuff. I'm hoping it's just the weather but not sure. That and we tried heirloom seeds and sprouts.

I could go on and on about things I can't do because I don't know how, not to mention the things I can't do because the wife has said "NO!" (broke the crank shaft in a Ford Tempo trying to replace the harmonic balancer and cost us several thousand dollars).

For me, a lot of the time it boils down to not being willing to sit down and take the time to learn/do something for the first time. Things that I am not confident I have the current ability to do: weld, auto body repair, "pretty" woodwork (functional okay, NOT pretty), undo my aborted upgrade to windows 10 (don't ask, neither of us has the time), household electrical wiring, field dress a...well an anything, manual reloading, eat insects.

 

I remember those.

 

Studebaker Picture Ofthe 1952 Push Button Shifter - - Yahoo Image Search Results

Actually Description Chrysler imperial dash push button transmission.

aka 2 speed slush box.

 

R number of the knife steel must be part of the sharpening formula.

"Steels" are intended to redirect/realign the existing blade edge.
If the blade was not sharp to start with then you do not have a chance.

Also the steel must be of a higher R number than the Knife.

 

"He says it's really kind of simple, keep your mind in the middle
While your butt spins 'round and 'round
Take heed to Sankey's preachin', keep liftin' and reachin'
And ridin' like there ain't no clowns".. BTDT

 

Well, I can't sing fer $#!* although my Mum has a beautiful voice and has sung for years.
I can't seem to write a story, let alone a novel, although I've been an avid reader since grade school. I'm truly envious of those who have that gift.
I have a hard time sharpening a chainsaw freehand. I can do it, but not as well as I should.
Same thing with laying brick/block. I can do it, but not very well. I seem to have much better results using stone.
I'm really not very good with these computer things. Again, I can do enough to get by, but I wish my skills were much better. We really do need a new computer, and I want to try building it myself-I just don't want to trash a bunch of pricey new parts so I've been lurking on the tech board,lol.
I have a hard time learning some things from books. If I can SEE it done, then I'm usually GTG.
I have a hard time with all the PCness today. I most often tell it the way I see it and I don't care who hears it at the time. While that trait has helped me, it has also cost me a few contracts and a couple of friendships over the years.
Because of some things that have happened in the past, I am slow to give my full trust to folks-I've developed a bad habit of keeping my cards close to the vest a lot of the time. Honestly, I have opened up on this board much more than I do in person.

I have seen "welding" mentioned a few times in this thread. If we could ever get a bunch of us together, I could make welders outta the whole bunch of ya by the time the weekend was over

 

I have never built a roof from palm frongs but took a really good look at how it is done, no palm trees here but plenty of saw palmetto, could be done just take longer. Also can make rope from them, learned that saw saw palmetto was used to tie meat up for curring and look for it when out metal detecting as it shows where old house places were.

 

me too...65 Chevy Biscayne station wagon...and I used to drag race that sucker too!

I'm pretty much a jack of all trades...and I suck at most of them...the common thread being a lack of patience combined with an abundance of laziness and procrastination. So those are the areas that I continue to work on.

 

I hate going to any range other than my own or one where nobody else is there.

 

I have a great voice (spent a few years singing in honky-tonks with a band) and a great talent for writing (published here and there)...but for some reason I no longer have the will to put any effort into doing more than singing while I do yard work and writing short paragraphs in online forums. I dunno, maybe I have just lost my heart and/or my soul...perhaps that is something I need to try to work on more than all this practical stuff.

 

Another thing I have not done is build a smoke house, been around them when I was young. The house is simple, preparing the meat is another thing. I remember the last time the smoke house at my grandmother's house was used gonna ask my mother if she remembers, she is 80, I bet my aunts her older sisters one late 80's the other early 90's will know. I observed something about the old smoke houses down here in the south before most were gone, they all had a fig tree planted behind them I asked why, nobody could tell me did some research and found out fig trees need a little salt. Guess that wasn't passed down one of those things you just did when you built a smoke house.

 

When I was about 17 bought a 46 Chevy no problem using three on the tree, learned to drive with it anyway the starter petal was on the floor found it difficult to start when on a hill so I installed a push button, don't remember if I had to change the starter was a long time ago.