Wow, that got a little intense there. I see the value of both a knife and EMS shears. I love my EMT shears, leatherman and my folder. Though he made me cringe (our code is to be respectful, right?) Alex does have (had?) a good point - learning to sharpen, and take care of our tools - no matter what they are - is a smart move.

BTW - nice to see OBG again. I did a double-take when I saw his name.

Of course I need to take care of my tools. I keep them clean. Do I need to sharpen any of them?

Jeanette Isabelle

Probably not in regular day-to-day life, as long as you have dispoable income to sharpen/replace the sharp ones when they get dull. Knowing how to sharpen them could be indispensible in an extended use situation, especially if finding somewhere to have them sharpened/replaced becomes difficult or impossible.

Knives dull as you use them. A dull knife is a dangerous knife. If you don't use knives much I guess you can send them out to be sharpened or replace them, but I prefer to save the money and time by keeping my knives sharp myself.

I brought this up after years have passed that even with an additional three years, they still do their job. Is having them for five years enough to prove my point or do we need to wait an additional five years?

Jeanette Isabelle

I totally agree! (I should have said "sharpen or replace".) There are a lot of things that it pays to know how to do yourself.

Oh, I agree. I'm glad to know to check and replace a vacuum tube, run a number of disk utilities in DOS, configure DOS, build a computer out of junk parts, flash the BIOS, perform a low-level format on an SCSI hard drive. . . .

Jeanette Isabelle

If your point is that in your experience and for your specific needs, EMT shears are a good choice, that point was made three years ago.

The other, equally valid, point from the thread is that nothing lasts for ever and stuff happens to even well cared for and carefully used equipment. Having the skills and means to repair and restore your equipment as it wears or if it gets damaged is one way to mitigate that eventuality. There are several others and individuals will need to pick what works for their circumstances.

Thanks for resurrecting an enlightening discussion - Seeing OBG in a discussion again was a nice surprise.

-Eric

That point was made three years ago. Time, however, was needed to determine if a certain skill is needed for everyone.

Jeanette Isabelle

Instead of posting a direct reply, I defer to bacpacjac and Eric who have demonstrated outstanding diplomatic prowess today.