==snip==
Brent Beach asked for "A bit further explanation, please." I'm going to break my
reply up by his questions. It gets long, I'm afraid.
==unsnip==


Tom,

Thank you for taking the time to describe so clearly your experience with
sharpening and using knives for paring leather. From your description of working
with leather, wood seems to be a much more forgiving material than leather. With
wood we can sometimes compensate for a not-quite-sharp edge with a bit of brute
force. Apparently that doesn't work so well with leather.

I'm reminded of the words of that great philosopher Yogi Berra (American
baseball player of yore, Jeff): "In theory, there is no difference between
theory and practice. In practice, there is."

Chuck Taylor
north of Seattle