Scary Sharp 1950's Style

[mikefab]

So I may be new to posting around here and realise that sharpening threads can get pretty horrific but I thought that people might be interested to take a look at this...

Here is a book which came from my mother-in-law, published in 1950:


It's a series of projects to get boys (not girls, please note!) woodworking using a minimal tool set and scrounging wood from abandoned grocer's boxes etc. I find the style that it is written in really quite entertaining, but appreciate that this may just provoke nostalgia for some members :lol:

Have a look at the two pages below which seem to be a very early description of the 'Scary Sharp' method.



Could this be the earliest reference to this method?! Most people seem to credit it to Mike Dunbar in 1998 (from my quick skim of the internet). Looks like he was almost 50 years late!

Cheers,
Mike

 

[bugbear]

Beyond question "scary sharp" was created in a single poetic post by Steve Lamantia.

http://www.woodbutcher.net/scary-origins.shtml

However, sharpening with SiC or Emery is known to go back to the 1920's. I'll see if I can chase that down.

BugBear

 

[Dangermouse.]

Well it frightens me all right !

 

[mikefab]

Thanks Bugbear, now you remind me I do remember reading that post a year or so ago but had forgotten all about it.

Interested to hear that it's documented back to the 1920s but I guess it's not that surprising really and probably goes back further than that!

 

[bugbear]

Thanks Bugbear, now you remind me I do remember reading that post a year or so ago but had forgotten all about it.

Interested to hear that it's documented back to the 1920s but I guess it's not that surprising really and probably goes back further than that!

I imagine it followed "abrasive sheets hard enough to cut metal, and fine enough for the result to be called sharp" fairly closely. It's a pretty obvious idea.

Edit; here's most of the back story.

http://swingleydev.com/archive/get.php? ... t_thread=1

Thinking on, I've seen several bits of wood in toolboxes (at car boots) with leather on one side and SiC or emery on the other.

BugBear

 

[SammyQ]

Thanks BB; I remember the original S.L. post being described as "Steve Lamantia's blabbering stream of conciousness", but it was a great read!

Sam