Excellent!
Good knives are essential. I struggle with keeping a fine edge, but it takes a lot of practice.
I’m fortunate that I know a person who grew up butchering with his father. Last year we had a Memorial Day hog butcher party and he brought all the big boy equipment. Several families filled their freezers that day. God bless rural America.
Your point about heritage hogs is spot on. Dirt raised heritage hogs are 100x better eating than concrete raised.
I raise grass beef finished with corn for marbling, free range flock of chickens, hunt deer, vegetable garden and can it, and buddy down the road grows dirt raised hogs. I’m a very fortunate person in these aspects.
Glom on to people who know butchery and knife care like white on rice.
Sharpening begins with learning the Work Sharp, for most people. And the next step for most people (in my experience) is learning the value of and proper use of a REAL leather strop. Beyond that you get into weird Zen practices with stones that have been blessed by putting them on the thighs of Thai virgins and all of the rest of that hoo-hah. And to be clear: I do like my hoo-hah. ;)
The corn for marbling is a temptation. It adds so much flavor. But if it comes with the need for an antibiotic shot, then no thank you. And I am herein not being a phaggot hypocrite: I eat it and I love it. I just try to "be best" (heh) and go for grass fed grass finished where I can.
Rural America needs to buck up. Rural America is the only America worth saving. They need to carry themselves with that level of pride. And I say that as a New York City Boy... who learned.
Congrats on being NYC and aware of all of this! As far as corn finished, it doesn’t come with any extra shots. When calves are born (mine anyway) they get a “7-way” vaccination to protect against lethal illnesses such as blackleg. (That’s a whole different conversation). I don’t do implants or hormones etc. And I sure enough love the end product!
I’m good at sharpening, my issue is the touch ups on the steel while working and using a strop. I lack there a little.
Yes the corn-finished can be done without shots, as you seem to know much better than I do. A sort of "last minute cheat" to enhance marbling and flavor. Some day would love to see a study on what that does to the Omega 3/6 balance. Nothing good, of course. But possibly "still acceptable".
And yes, the strop. It's all about the strop and its proper use.
And yes, I am a NYC Boy. But what happened after that was that we moved away from NYC and to America. So I learned.
You seem to know this better than I do, so if I am telling you something you already know, then "that's just that problem we have with the internet". Or one of them, anyways.
I carry a stone. I use it for touch ups. It works well.
Wranglerstar seems to attract a lot of critics. I think all of those critics need to demonstrate to me/us that their opinion is worth a damn. I like this guy, and whenever people throw rocks at him I am reminded of verses in the Bible about He Who Is Without Sin. As a Garden Variety Sinner, I am able to say that those detractors should kindly fuck off. More Godly people don't get to be as much of an asshole as I can be, here. So I'll do it for them.
He says this one is good. So I trust him. And so I bought it. Have not set it up yet. Am pushing it to you for your consideration, given your comment about the struggle to keep knives sharp.
Also though, "You can Give Peace a Chance, I'll cover you in case it doesn't work out." So that means that, yes, I bought this. But I also have stones and make sure I know how to use them.
Excellent! Good knives are essential. I struggle with keeping a fine edge, but it takes a lot of practice. I’m fortunate that I know a person who grew up butchering with his father. Last year we had a Memorial Day hog butcher party and he brought all the big boy equipment. Several families filled their freezers that day. God bless rural America. Your point about heritage hogs is spot on. Dirt raised heritage hogs are 100x better eating than concrete raised. I raise grass beef finished with corn for marbling, free range flock of chickens, hunt deer, vegetable garden and can it, and buddy down the road grows dirt raised hogs. I’m a very fortunate person in these aspects.
Glom on to people who know butchery and knife care like white on rice.
Sharpening begins with learning the Work Sharp, for most people. And the next step for most people (in my experience) is learning the value of and proper use of a REAL leather strop. Beyond that you get into weird Zen practices with stones that have been blessed by putting them on the thighs of Thai virgins and all of the rest of that hoo-hah. And to be clear: I do like my hoo-hah. ;)
The corn for marbling is a temptation. It adds so much flavor. But if it comes with the need for an antibiotic shot, then no thank you. And I am herein not being a phaggot hypocrite: I eat it and I love it. I just try to "be best" (heh) and go for grass fed grass finished where I can.
Rural America needs to buck up. Rural America is the only America worth saving. They need to carry themselves with that level of pride. And I say that as a New York City Boy... who learned.
Congrats on being NYC and aware of all of this! As far as corn finished, it doesn’t come with any extra shots. When calves are born (mine anyway) they get a “7-way” vaccination to protect against lethal illnesses such as blackleg. (That’s a whole different conversation). I don’t do implants or hormones etc. And I sure enough love the end product!
I’m good at sharpening, my issue is the touch ups on the steel while working and using a strop. I lack there a little.
Yes the corn-finished can be done without shots, as you seem to know much better than I do. A sort of "last minute cheat" to enhance marbling and flavor. Some day would love to see a study on what that does to the Omega 3/6 balance. Nothing good, of course. But possibly "still acceptable".
And yes, the strop. It's all about the strop and its proper use.
And yes, I am a NYC Boy. But what happened after that was that we moved away from NYC and to America. So I learned.
You seem to know this better than I do, so if I am telling you something you already know, then "that's just that problem we have with the internet". Or one of them, anyways.
I carry a stone. I use it for touch ups. It works well.
https://www.amazon.com/Fallkniven-DC4/dp/B004731IBG/
I assure you... the Swedes know something about knives and steel. :)
I also carry the little Worksharp, if I am really using my knife.
https://www.amazon.com/Work-Sharp-Guided-Field-Sharpener/dp/B009YKHZ96/
Submitted respectfully, for your consideration.
Thanks for the suggestions. I will certainly check them out.
Also I will add a new thing (to me).
Wranglerstar seems to attract a lot of critics. I think all of those critics need to demonstrate to me/us that their opinion is worth a damn. I like this guy, and whenever people throw rocks at him I am reminded of verses in the Bible about He Who Is Without Sin. As a Garden Variety Sinner, I am able to say that those detractors should kindly fuck off. More Godly people don't get to be as much of an asshole as I can be, here. So I'll do it for them.
He says this one is good. So I trust him. And so I bought it. Have not set it up yet. Am pushing it to you for your consideration, given your comment about the struggle to keep knives sharp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK9B1_NXujs
Also though, "You can Give Peace a Chance, I'll cover you in case it doesn't work out." So that means that, yes, I bought this. But I also have stones and make sure I know how to use them.