We will now interrupt the regularly scheduled program for this good old boys micro podcast. Hand grinding versus jig grinding. Uh a hot button issue inside of knives, and there are all sorts of camps that will uh uh get you in trouble if you argue too much with them. And I I will first say that uh file guides, drilling guides and jigs, um you know, you name it, there is a jig or a tool of some sort or a fixture to do just about every element of knife making. And typically, if it has nothing to do with the bevels of a blade, they are generally accepted. However, there is some very campy tribal um ideologies about whether you should hand grind or grind on a jig when it comes to your bevels, as if that constitutes you being able to make a blade or not. Um I will tell you that I personally don't care one way or another. Uh I don't think that you should probably take that as the ultimate blessing, but hear me out here. Again, there are all sorts of tools, fixtures, jigs, everything, in order for you to get from a point of having no blade to the point of being able to produce a blade. And I don't think that the concept of grinding the bevels on a blade is enough or compelling enough for me to think that if you didn't, it's not yours, or you cheated somehow. Um, there are some knife makers out there that I know because of uh tremors or because of disabilities that cannot grind a traditional blade. And yet nobody questions the authenticity of the work that they're putting in. The same can be said for I know a lot of tool and die makers who and machinists who will prefer to use um their mills or uh specialized jigs for grinding where there is no question about the authenticity or the quality of their work. Uh no argument at all. So the point that I will make to the benefit of hand grinding is that hand grinding allows you to learn the mechanics of grind geometry, and it also gives you the versatility of being able to grind a knife anywhere. So if you're going into somebody's shop or you're doing a demonstration or a hammer in or any of those things uh where you need to use somebody else's equipment, but in general, the setup is pretty similar. You know, you have a contact wheel or a flat platen or things like that. You can work your way around grinding a blade and it doesn't matter what the equipment is. Whereas in a grinding jig scenario, you have to have a work rest of some sort, you have to have the right plot or wheel, and if those things don't add up and you have to go somewhere else, then well, um, you might not be able to accomplish your work. Being dependent on fixtures and tools to be able to perform work makes you less versatile. However, it does not make you incompetent. There is still a completely different set of skills that you have to learn in order to be able to produce really good work with a grinding jig. Um, there are certain things that you can't accomplish very easily on a grinding jig as well. For instance, uh when you're doing uh compound grinds or um you know special types of hollow grinds, it is very difficult because if especially if you have curves in your blade, it's it's very, very difficult if almost not uh if almost not impossible to do that on a grinding jig. But if you have pretty straight grinds, if you uh you know are bevels that you intend on having on your blade, then I there's really not that much of an issue. In fact, it can lower the learning curve and the producibility of a good blade by a long time, because the only thing that will accomplish really good grinds by hand is a lot of practice, and your muscles in your hands and your body will naturally remember those things, but like riding a bicycle, uh, even though you will get back into it if you haven't been there for a while, um, it can take a while to re-reacclimate your hands and your muscle memory so you uh you remember uh how to do everything. So um I I would say ultimately I prefer the idea of being able to use grinding jigs because it's like any other tool. Um, there are certain operations that I will use a grinding jig for just because that's just the way it is. It's a tool. I I'll admit to using it, I don't care. Um, but again, it should not illegitimize any of the work that I perform because for one operation on some knives or some handles or things like that that I might use a grinding jig on, uh, there's 90% more of that blade that I'm still fashioning uh in other ways. Um if you can use a tool and you can gain a lot of accuracy, and there's not um an incredible dependency that you're not um willing to accept uh of that tool, then go for it. And don't feel bad about it either, because your work at the end of the day, nobody's gonna ask whether you hand ground it or not. Um, at least most of the general public won't. Um other makers might, and some might scoff at you, but those are the people that you probably shouldn't care that much about their opinion, anyhow. Hope this helps.