Running Club Isn't The Only Uphill Struggle

Mrs Bushwacker has been taking a sudden interest in my blog and blogging activities.
She looked into my recent conversation with the American Bushman regarding the usefulness of crooked knives.

Mrs SBW “what do you use them for?”
SBW“ They’re essential for making spoons and kuksas”
Mrs SBW “You idiots, you can just buy them at Tescos”

What was I saying about bear bait?
Bushwacker
Bear Claws Bushcraft are getting kuksas
Nordic Bushcraft have them in stock

Unrolling My New Blog Roll

I’ve just reorganised my blog roll, and I thought I’d tell you a bit about what I think is cool about each of these writers.
I correspond with some of them, and join in the discussions on their comments sections.
Bloggers: If you didn’t get a mention it was either because you don’t post often enough, or that I’m saving you and your blog for a day when I’ve got very little happening in my own life, but fancy doing a post.


Bushcraft and The Big Outdoors

The American Bushman
Kit reviews you can believe in, and if you were wondering about the rising price of steel, its because its all been made into knives and he’s bought them all!

Pablo’s Nature, Wildlife and Bushcraft
Very cool blog with lots of great content. Pablo’s posted regularly since 05 and has taken some really nice pictures of plants and animals. His bushcraft and web design skills are very good.

Mungo Says Bah!
Set against the backdrop of Canada; the adventures of a chap and his dog.

Dynamite Skills
One of the first bushcraft blogs I started following. He took a course with Tom Brown’s school and it changed his life. He’s not posting as often as he used to but is still well worth a look.


Living Off-Grid

The Hobo Stripper
A great blog with an unusual mix of stuff, in any given week she’ll be talking about anything from home canning Elk meat to the psychology of getting bigger tips when dancing in a strip club, and everything in between. If she can post as often as she does, while living in a truck in the woods, what possible excuse do any of us have?

The Adventures of Urban Scout
He’s young, he’s idealistic, he’s opinionated, he’s unafraid. And if you were ever wondering what bushcraft and blogging have ever done for anyone, they’ve brought him the affections of Penny Scout.

Adventures in Feral Failiure With Penny Scout
She tells many of the same stories as Urban Scout but from her perspective, giving you that soap opera vibe, but with a bushcraft twist. PS. She’s cute.

Fishing

Urban Fly Fisher
Urban is stretching it a bit, (just look at the photos on his site - not a building in sight) but he certainly fly-fishes a lot and has a very entertaining style.

Mike Ladle
Doc Ladle is THE MAN for fly and lure fishing in the UK and in the Caribbean.
The perfect counter point to the ‘technical’ fishing writers, his philosophy is to use as little gear as possible and to have a really good understanding of fish behaviour. Clunky site with fantastic content

Sea Fishing Blog
A chap called Jamie fishing the Cornish coast mainly from a kayak. People send him fishing questions and he gives good, clear advise on how to catch more fish.

Fflogger
A few people post on this one. Have a look at this article on hiking in to Colorado’s Gore range to fish for cutthroats, adventure fishing at its best.
http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/fishing/photogallery/article/0,13355,1566070,00.html

My Neighbourhood Bloggers

The Boudica of Suburbia
She’s very funny.

The Greenwich Phantom
Current affairs: if it moves in Greenwich he knows about it
Local history: if it moved in Greenwich............
Very, very well written.

Hunting

The Hog Blog
Prolific, well written and most importantly, he gets out there and does stuff, creating a window for us suburban types to gaze longingly through.

Firearms

The Gun Nut
After twenty five years writing about things that go bang and spit lead David E Petzal knows a thing or two about the subject. The discussion board is often hilarious. Sometimes intentionally so.

Check 'em out
Bushwacker.

Those Thirteen Little Words Every Dad Wants To Hear

If you read the discussion boards on the Outdoor and Hunting/Fishing sites you’ll be familiar with the problem so many of us are wrestling with: how can I pass my enthusiasm on to my boy, get him to share in my obsessions?

During our recent adventures in the Languedoc region of France Bushwacker jnr and I wandered down to the bank of the Canal du Midi which connects the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of France. While we were feeding the ducks we sat on a drain outlet were rain water (and being France probably other kinds of water) ran into the canal. A four-inch perch (?) swam into view, exposing itself in about three inches of the clear warm water. It looked just like you could reach in and grab it.
My lad kept trying to, and to his frustration Mr Fish kept swimming off.
His frustration built up as Mr Fish kept taunting him by coming back, and swimming off, coming back, and swimming off.
On our third visit he said
“Dad, I don’t care what I have to do, I’m catching that fish”

I know that feeling little dude!
Bushwacker.

Canal du Midi on wikipedia

Sofa King Whacked

It’s that time again: your pal SBW was forced off the sofa and the TV remote prised from his chubby little hand – “Off to the running club fat boy” said Mrs SBW.

And oh what torture it was, Greenwich Park is steep, way steep, and the guys from British Military Fitness had us hopping, (yes Hopping, you know travelling on ONE foot!) up the hill before we were allowed to run up the hill, it was murder. But as mentioned in a previous post at least it keeps the existential angst at bay.
I’ve taken to asking other victims, I mean participants, about their motivation. “ I just don’t want to be last” is quite a common one – myself I’m too busy not wanting this to be my last breath to care about anyone else.

After the hill-climb came the long jog, I’d have thought it was a long walk, but no we ran – well for most of it anyway. As we jogged we passed a rosy-cheeked young couple, enjoying the warm evening air, sitting on a park bench, happily drinking what looked like a bottle of whiskey. As people ran past they shouted encouragement. “You can do it” and “faster you’re winning”. I like to think of myself as the master of the witty retort, but all I could muster, through gritted teeth, was a “that’s easy for you to say” as my hart tried to leave my body.

The thought of tromping the hills of bonny Scotland with a pack and rifle in search of Red Stags and then later more of the same with a compound bow in my sub arctic search for the Elk of my dreams was all that kept me going. I’d rather die now than face coming home with no meat due to general laziness.

When I got home Bushwacker Jnr was eagerly awaiting my arrival: “Hey dad there’s a new film coming out, mum says you’d like it, its called Run Fat Boy Run!!

You’ve gotta love ‘em haven’t you? It’s not legal to use them as bear bait!
Bushwacker.
run fat boy run trailer
www.britmilfit.com/

Diagnosis Spot On.

I saw this one on unbeatentracks.com the dude i bought my hat from, he's got some great kit.
Bushwacker.

Battue: French For Bushwacking.

Battue: Whacking (or battering) bushes to flush out game animals.


I’m back, the sojourn to southern France is over and I’ve a few tails to tell you about, some of them fishy and some of them boorish.

But first the bad news; bad news for the boars, the french boar-hunting season gets under way next week and there are more double express rifles heading into the woods than ever stalked the African plains. And it’s bad news for me. I’m a long way from the Languedoc. Bah!

Like most things french, hunting ‘french style’ is very different to the aristocratic traditions of their english neighbours. Airs and graces are unnecessary, as are bespoke red coats and pedigree horses. No one is wearing a necktie. Where (and whether) you went to school is of no consequence. This is hunting ‘come as you are’. In France la chasse (the chase) is a great leveller. It’s for the rich and the poor, its enthusiasts are from the town and the country. The doctor with his exquisite double rifle stands alongside the barman with his great granddaddies under and over. While people with American hunting experience will recognise the camo and the slug guns, the french attitude to health and safety during le Battue will leave you, if not shaken, certainly very glad you brought along that blaze orange vest.

For la chasse there is no need to hang a tree stand and get to it before dawn, in france the hogs and bucks come to you. Every Sunday during the season at 8am, you down a couple of stiff drinks in the village square, then a drive out to the forest. The hunting association for the area will have elected a captain, and he will nominate who takes up position in the line, where the guns stand and wait, usually about fifty yards apart on the edge of the forest, and who runs with the dogs in le Battue or the team of beaters.

The beaters follow the dogs, which like their masters vary in temperament from the highly trained pedigree terrier, to the farmyard mutt. Brambles and bushes must be whacked, spiralling french horns are used for calling and despatching the hounds, with more blasts to signal to the line. This is hunting for the cooking pot. All game is fair game so as boars, rabbits and stags break cover they are turned towards the guns. Some of the beaters are also armed to insure nothing gets away. Chaos reigns. As the beaters near the line, and hopefully no one on the line has been shot this week, the horn blasts to tell the beaters to stop shooting and the line to turn to follow the fleeing prey.
Then its back to the village restaurant for a massive lunch with anything upwards of four courses and lots of wines and spirits before the whole thing begins again.

The season lasts until February – There’s still time to get out there. Wish me luck.

Asterix models

Foxes Love Shoes?!!

R&E of stoke newington emailed to report being the victims of continued harassment by local foxes. They’ve also seen the family's shoes baring the brunt of the attacks. Several pairs of their lad’s shoes, left by the backdoor after garden play, have been torn up. In the most recent outrage a pair of E’s poshest shoes were snaffled. With their smelly footprints and our chewed shoes, urban foxes are annoying. But in fairness their screeching is probably the worst of it. At least they don’t have rabies! Oh and they eat rats.

Meanwhile On The Other Side Of The Pond...

Things ain’t so cushy in Salisbury, reports Earl Holland for The Daily Times of Salisbury, Md.
At Chef Fred's Chesapeake Steakhouse, Bar & Grill, the manager Sara Hall was called with claims of a wild fox in the parking lot. As she went to investigate customers were beating a retreat into the building pursued by the fox.
In what must have looked like a moment of high comedy, punters anhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifd staff were jumping up on the tables to escape the invader.
She was bitten on the hand, and even with one of the bouncers holding the fox in a neck-lock it still managed to bite a punter who was trying to prize open its jaws.
Ms Hall had to attend a local medical centre where she received seven shots in case the animal was rabid, and must re-attend twice a week for three to four weeks for supplementary shots.

Rumors that E would gladly endure the shots if she could keep the shoes are unconfirmed

For the full story

For the Jimmy Chews

The Shoplifting Seagull

Each morning the feathered felon stands outside a corner shop, in Aberdeen Scotland, waiting for the owner to open up.
When the door opens, he struts in, bold as brass, and helps himself to a bag of spicy Doritos. In the spirit of Robin Hood the gull is then seen sharing them with his pals. Gulls are seldom popular birds but this one seems to be becoming something of a local celebrity.

Full story from the 'current bun'

Hitch Yer Skateboard To The EcoTech Bandwagon

A while back The Northern Monkey and myself were in Venice beach CA for a few days, and were very impressed with some of the locals, and their commitment to finding new answers to old problems.

TNM is big into EcoTech and he pointed this store out to me, unfortunately it was shut when we passed by, so this isn't so much a review, as a pointer

“Bamboo is an amazingly renewable, environmentally friendly material. It’s incredibly strong; yet light, flexible, and resistant to compression. The natural bamboo deck-ply improved return and resilience, while adding a clean, Zen flavor.”

Arbor Sports also do a clothing line. I’m not sure if I’d endorse their fashion sense (“you know nothing about fashion” Mrs SBW) but their 70% bamboo 30% cotton blend is a great idea.

www.arborsports.com

What The Fox Happening?

Three hundred and ten days ago, while I still lived on the other side of the hill.
I was sitting in my living room working on my laptop, when I heard a noise downstairs.
It wasn't very loud, just the sound of something falling over.
Then there was a tapping sound on the stairs, not loud enough to be an adult, but defiantly the sound of someone coming up the stairs. I looked down the stairs and found myself face to face with an urban fox, the cheeky little toe rag had come right into the house!

We looked at each other for a tenth of a second before he turned tail and scampered out of the back door.
Further investigation showed that the bushy-tailed-interloper had come in through the back door, gone into the bathroom, and then (what is euphemistically called) 'scented' our bathroom floor, Phew!!

To add insult to injury the little sod then did a victory lap of the bedroom, leaving 'scented' footprints all over the bed.
Not content with this chemical attack he then chose one of Mrs Bushwacker favourite boots and dragged it outside for a chewing session on the deck.

In the words of the late Bill Hicks
Who'd-a-thunk-it?
Bushwacker

Ceramic File Set

At the same time as I got the SharpMaker (see Really, Really Sharp Knives) I ordered these ceramic files.

Ceramics may clog quickly, but they scour clean even more quickly. No file ever wears less. In this set the profiles are round, square, triangular, and teardrop (with a groove for sharpening points on fishing hooks and darts). They come in a comforting suede pouch.
I would have liked to see a conical file included in the set. But, for the money,they are what they are.

£41 in the UK
$31.95 (£16) from the usual suspects
Spyderco SP-400F ceramic file set

Non illegitimis carborundum
Bushwacker.

Speaking of France

Harvested (picked?) from a pile of slates in a wooded, but still inner-city (zone 2) garden, these snails were delicious. Kept in a bucket and fed on salad trimmings for five days they purged all the grit accumulated from their natural diet. Then they were fed for two days on white bread. The bread passing through the snails and staying white, tells you the purge is complete.

Boiled, rinsed and boiled again (approx. 10 changes of water) until the slime and froth were gone. Simmered for an hour. Baked in parsley, garlic and butter.
Served with rustic bread.

Bushwacker.

Keeping The Dream Alive - Get Reel (From Japan)

Sitting at my desk dreaming of the next time I’ll light a little fire for a brew and sit by the estuary, watching a cork float pull out into the current, carrying it’s cargo of Ragworms out to the fish. Or when time and tide permit; making the steep walk through the park, and down to Fairlight. Where I can offer a splashing, spitting YoZuri topwater lure to the Sea Bass as they patrol the weed-strewn rocks.

In the meantime I, like suburban fisherman the world over, have to settle for the sad truth.
I don’t so much go fishing, as collect fishing equipment.
And it’s justified. Really it is.

Repeat after me
‘Quality will be remembered long after price has been forgotten”

For small baits (5-20 grams) the Biomaster C3000

5.0 gear ratio
4.0kg drag
245g weight
Mono - 0.330mm-115m
Braid #2.0-180m
70.7 cm or 5/1 retrieve
19,000 yen
Double handle Option 3,150 yen
Spare spool 2,940 yen
All in £106.73 or $218.65

Repeat after me
“The Pain Of Equipment Failure Lasts Longer Than The Thrill Of A Bargain”

For bigger baits (20-50 grams) Biomaster 6000

4.6 gear ratio
4.5kg drag
365g weight
Mono - 0.330mm-240m
Braid - #3.0-280mhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
76.6cm/ retrieve 5/1
21,000yen
spare spool 3,675yen
All in £104.92 or $214.94

Repeat after me
‘Quality Will Be Remembered Long After Price Has Been Forgotten”

Japanese fishing kit from Plat:
Amazing Kit! Clunky website, Good prices, Rapid shipping
Plat.co.jp

Keep your dreams alive and your lines tight
Bushwacker.

Free Lure with Every Beer! Well Sort Of.

I'm off to south west France in a couple of weeks so I’ve been getting my fishing kit together.
I’m been hoping to spin for trout while I’m there. So I bought some new 5-10g (quarter ounce) lures and was about to buy some spinning blades too when I remembered bottle cap lures. I'd seen these things in action as a kid, and like so much stuff you can make at home for nix, they match the stuff you can buy bite for bite and you get the added satisfaction that only home made kit brings.
Best of all they are very easy to make. OK. Correction they really are very very easy to make.
First the hard bit - drinking the beers. Mission accomplished.
Then retrieve the caps from the recycling bin - you and I would call it interference (or sabotage) Mrs SBW calls it tidying up.
Use a nail to make two holes in the cap, near-ish to the edge, exactly where depends on the size of split rings you have to hand.
Fit split rings
There are two (or more) schools of thought as to what shape to make the lure
A. a tunnel or shell shape that creates turbulence and bubbles as you pull the lure through the water.
B. a Z shape, which will act as a propeller as it moves through the water.
Now for the technical bit: ring one gets a swivel, ring two gets a hook.
Jobs a good 'un.

Beer-Fishing-Recycling. It's All Good

I though I’d have quick look online, in case anyone had really innovated with a 17 bend design, and boy did I get a shock.
People actually buy them!! They pay $30 for Six -THAT'S $5 EACH!!
Only in real life - you couldn't make this stuff up!!!
A guy has set himself up in business selling them. Shrewdly exploiting the brand loyalty many of us feel towards our favourite brewski he sells them by beer brand.
I can't see the fish thinking 'oh no I’m a brand X fish, I’d never bite for brand Y'. But people just ain’t that smart.
He's also tried to play the recycling card, but missed the point by packaging each lure in it's own plastic and card display pack. Hmmm.

Give a man a fish he eats for a day.
Teach him to fish and he sits in a boat drinking beer all day.
Bushwacker.

Luring Customers AKA Nikwax's Cunning Plan

This post is a little outside the realm of my usual theme, but I was fascinated by how my own behaviour had been (benignly?) influenced.
I need to waterproof a coat and I remembered that my brother used to use Nikwax.
I saw a thread with Nikwax in the title on Bushcraftuk.com. The thread told me I could get a free sample by entering a quiz, it also said that I would be able to confirm my answers before entering, to guarantee a win.
I was intrigued.....

‘Advertising: the art and science of rattling the stick in the bucket to call the swine.’

Imagine you have invented something you need, and you’re convinced all the other outdoor people will need it too.
You’ve jacked in your job, set up production, put up a website, and now you need to sell a few to avoid going bust, and a few more to pay for that dream trip to________. Now you're out in the consumer wilderness, competing withthe other prediters, trying to harvest customers for the great migratory herds of outdoor lovin' types.
But how do you get ‘em to bite? Then tell their friends to bite, and then bite again?

Nikwax have a cunning plan..........................

The outdoor community: Hunters. Fishers, Hikers, Bushcrafters, ect.
These groups pendulum between the extremes of: ‘money-no-object’ gear freaks, and ‘I-made-it-myself’ anti consumerists. The gear freaks are hard to convince, but will spend big money before looking for the next innovation.
The anti-consumerists, also hard to convince, are probably the ultimate loyal customers.
Whichever pole they are nearest to, the outdoor community contains some of the best-informed mavens and most committed evangelists of any retail marketplace.

Attract their attention
“FREE STUFF!! FREE STUFF YOU ‘WOULD’ HAVE BOUGHT ANYWAY!!!”
Ground bait the area
“YOU CAN ENTER THE QUIZ AS MANY TIMES AS YOU LIKE.”
Teach them what they like
“READ PRODUCT INFO - ANSWER THE QUESTIONS - GET THE FREE STUFF”
Get them to come back to the same spot to feed again
“FREE STUFF EVERY THREE MONTHS
(OR GET A FRIEND INVOLVED TO GET FREE STUFF SOONER)”

Outcome
I emailed BoB (Brother of Bushwacker) he emailed back to say that he was entering from his UK and NZ address’s.

I posted his mention and looked up the nearest stockist

"It is as cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University"
Edmund Blackadder

See for your self - Get some free stuff

http://www.nikwax.com/en-gb/webquiz/index.php

http://www.nikwax.com/en-us/index.php

Found Myself; Thinking About Ishi

"He looked upon us as sophisticated children -- smart but not wise.
We knew many things, and much that is false.
He knew nature, which is always true."
Saxton T. Pope (see 'Getting Inspired' on this blog)

Mud Larks of Deptford

Mud Lark - ‘A fellow who goes about by the waterside picking up coals, nails, or other articles in the mud.’
Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue - 1811

On its southern bank, were it meets the Ravensbourne, the river Thames has a natural dry-dock, known as Deptford Creek.
On Sunday afternoon in response to claims of a ‘spawning ground for Flounder’ and ‘squillions of Mitten Crabs’ your pal the Bushwacker and accomplice Deej joined the Creekside Centre’s snappily named ‘Spring/Summer Low-Tide Walk Programme.’
And big fun it was too.
We were issued with thigh waders and broomsticks to use for wading poles and for nearly two hours we were led up-river toward Lewisham.
There were many signs of life, not all of it the stuff vandals leave behind. Between the shopping trolleys and torn down road signs Nature has reasserted herself, the guys who led the walk must have pointed out 25-30 different plants that had self-seeded in the creek and on its walls. Nothing was introduced by the regeneration project; everything there has arrived under its own steam.

The Creekside was the site of many a slaughter house in the century before last, (Tanners Hill is just round the corner) and the sawn bones of cows, sheep and horses poke out of the mud here and there. The Creek was also the launch dock for many a colonial endeavour / piratical raiding party and handmade shipwrights nails litter the site. We had a great time poking around in the mud. Just in case any of the group forgot we were in ‘sarf larn-den’ the guides told us how one school trip to the creek was enlivened by one of the kids finding a handgun sticking out of the mud.

After a few moments to get your eye in, looking through Polaroid sunglasses there are loads of juvenile Flounder in the crystal-clear water and the cast-off shells of Mitten crabs are everywhere. The water must be in good health as Mirror carp, Tench, Trout and Eels have all been caught in the creek.
The chaps showed us how to ‘kick sample’ the bottom, collecting up slit in a white observation tray, we could see hundreds of aquatic creatures swimming about. Londoners are habitually sceptical about the quality of the water in the Thames and its tributaries, but after seeing just how much is living in it I started to believe the guys claim that the Thames is the cleanest metropolitan river in europe.
Would you Adam an Eve it, me old china?

£5 very well spent – if you’re in the area, you gottta go!

"Mud-pies gratify one of our first and best instincts.
So long as we are dirty, we are pure".
Charles Dudley Warner 1800's

creekside centre

Get stuck in
Bushwacker.

Mitten Crabs

Seen in the River Thames since the 1930s, the Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) first arrived in Blightly as tiny larvae in ballast water in ships from China and Korea. Now there are loads of the bastards!
By burrowing into the rivers banks, (which causes rapid erosion) and eating enough stuff to put pressure on native plants and animals, they haven’t always received the welcome the deserve.
The good news is they’re not only delicious, but also very easy to catch!!
These hairy-clawed-snax-on-legs are rated 'proper delicious' in china.
The shell of a large one can be eight centimetres across. Making them perfect for the BarBQ.
You'll be please to hear the scientific community is united in its praise for this culinary delight; one serving suggestion, that sounds both thrilling and practical, comes from Richard Tullis, biology professor at California State University,
"Fixed Asian style, stir-fried with garlic, soy and ginger... it will also turn on non-Asians."
Who could ask for more than that?
Philip Rainbow (keeper of zoology at the Natural History Museum in London, England) concludes:
"The culinary route may represent our best culling strategy if we are to limit its potentially damaging environmental effects." Yummy!!
Bushwacker.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/other-invertebrates/chinese-mitten-crabs/crab-control-help.html

PS FOR READERS FROM THE USA (especially on the east coast)
If you catch or find a mitten crab: please keep it, frozen is best, on ice second choice, or preserved in rubbing alcohol.
Take a close-up photo of the beastie, and email your picture with
the precise location and date of the find to SERCMittenCrab@si.edu If you can’t take a photo, contact the
Mitten Crab Hotline on (443-482-2222).
PLEASE DO NOT THROW IT BACK ALIVE!!

Stay Calm Boys, It's Not That Kind of 'Bush' Craft

Italian stoners 'grassed up' by deer

A student and a his pal both in their twenties were caught growing the wacky baccy on a mountain top in northern Italy last month. Local forest rangers were puzzled when normally shy deer were seen frolicking during the day, when they went to investigate they found a mostly eaten pot plantation. With most of evidence already devoured the boys may not have to face charges.

For the full report see
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/06/28/frisky_deer_lead_police_to_marijuana_farm/7016/

Pic from www.villainouscompany.com/. ../baddeer.340.jpg

Really, Really Sharp Knives Spyderco Sharpmaker Review

Being a bit of a lummox with a whetstone I wanted to try one of the sharpening systems that have proliferated in recent years

The Lansky system received a glowing recommendation from my cousin T, but honing oil and a clamp to attach the system to a table top have little place afield, so ruled it out for me. I settled on the Spyderco SharpMaker, as it looked more portable, less complex and is a ‘dry’ sharpener.

While I don’t currently own any Spyderco knives I’m a fan, for the most part their blades seem well made and with a few exceptions the designs are well thought out.
And being a lover of the simple direct self-explanatory sales pitch, I’m very taken with their slogan:

“First we made things sharp, then we made sharp things”.

Loads of glowing user reviews on the net tell how the new owner sharpened everything in the house, then the shed, and nearly all of them report how much sharper their nail clippers are!
I’d like to be more committed to sustainability, but it had never occurred to me to give a new lease of life to my nail clippers, until I saw the instructional DVD and book that came with the SharpMaker. Presented in an irony free infomercial style it gives you clear instruction and uses nail clippers as an example of how you can use the SharpMaker on anything with an edge.

If you use braid fishing line, you'll know just how much some people are charging for 'braid clippers', the SharpMaker means you can make your own from even the cheapest nail clippers.

The design is a very simple and ingenious mix of freehand and guided sharpening. Two ceramic hones fit into a stable plastic base, two brass rods stop you cutting the back of your hand open.
The base has 30, 40, 12.5 and zero degree settings. The 40 setting gives you a 20 degree edge – acute enough for sharpness yet obtuse enough to withstand extended use. The 30 degree (2x15 degrees) setting lets you ‘thin’ the profile of your blade. The presenter of the DVD suggests that you wont have to use this feature that often, but if like me you've got a whole variety of different edged tools in varying states of sharpness, you might be pleasantly surprised at how good this feature is. It had the most fantastic effect on one of my kitchen knives. The 12.5 degree setting is for scissors and the zero degree setting lets you use the stones as a conventional flat grinding area. The hones are formed by mixing synthetic sapphires (alumina particles) with a ceramic bonding agent, then kiln-firing at temperatures around 1,600 degrees C (3000 degrees F). Ceramic upside: very hard will file almost anything. Ceramic downside: clogs easily. Spyderco also offer two other sets of hones that fit the SharpMaker, a pair of steel hones with very course alumina particles stuck on the outside for rough shaping work ( I’ve not found a price for them) and an ultra fine pair for an even finer edge.
List price $75
Rip-off Britain a laughable £75 (yes $150!!!!)
Best Knives have them for $42.95 (£21.50p) Or about the same price as a 'high end' braid clipper!
The ultra fine hones are $57.95

The bit where Spyderco have missed a trick is the additional hones don't fit into the case.
http://spyderco.com/

http://bestknives.com/spydtriansha.html

For the last word in sharpening have a look at this guy.
the guys who know say he's the guy who knows
Old Jimbo
Old Jimbo too