[Beliar]

I just got a Xperia Play does that count?

[cerveza_fiesta]

HELL YES IT COUNTS

That is some nice tech beliar.

But if you want to be gloriously geeky, you gotta start quoting features and reasons why your tech gives you nerd chills.

EDIT

@rooster

WOW. 500 USD for a pandora???

I think I could do better with a netbook and a Logitech USB console controller.

This post has been edited by cerveza_fiesta: 22 July 2011 - 01:15 PM

[Gust Hubb]

Upgrade:

 41hNLPR7JjL._SL500_AA300_.jpg (10.09K)
Number of downloads: 1

[Macros]

Ps3, with guncom 3 (alas nowhere NEAR as good as the original gun for the psx) and rockband
That's about as geeky as im likely to get for quite some time, laptop was upgraded a few months ago

[cerveza_fiesta]

Yay!!! My new VHF handheld comes in today. Check the spec list on this motherfucker


standard horizon hx851


Been looking forward to having this for the sailboat, which until now did not have a radio on board (boo). Now I have GPS location, waypoint navigation, digital distress calling, speed over ground, marine weather forecasts, and the ability to chat with my buddies in other sailboats over the analogue airwaves while we enjoy the lake (YAY!).

And it floats. And it's waterproof. And as an added bonus it lights up when you drop it in the water so you can find it (double yay!)

I know this is only slightly less nerdy than HAM radio, which itself is third in nerdiness only to "bronies" and model train collecting, but yay nonetheless.\

EDITED for extra nerdy joy

This post has been edited by cerveza_fiesta: 16 July 2012 - 05:00 PM

[Adjutant Stormy~]

cerveza_fiesta, on 16 July 2012 - 04:57 PM, said:

And as an added bonus it lights up when you drop it in the water so you can find it

This feature makes so much sense it's preposterous.

[tiam]

This seems to be a good place to ask as you guys seem incredibly tech savvy. Ino its early days yet but what kind of laptop computer devicey thingy would i need to run rome total war 2 when it comes out. Im literally saving up for it now so just wnt to know when i buy one. Thank you in advance

[cerveza_fiesta]

I think it beeps when dropped too. And it isn't one of those bullshit "waterproof for 30 minutes" jobbies, where if you don't completely disassemble & dry it after getting it wet, water works its way in and wrecks it....If VHF signals carried underwater I could call my boat buddies whilst sitting on the bottom of the lake, 45 minutes after sinking*. They even fully warrant the thing for 3 years against drop/water damage. A good feature for one such as me.

*provided I grow Costner gills of course

Too bad they don't make a battery that can power so much awesomeness for more than 10 hours, but that's easily fixed with a connection to the boat's 12V main power and a few scrap wires.

This post has been edited by cerveza_fiesta: 16 July 2012 - 06:02 PM

[Satan]

Not techy at all, but definitely geeky; I just spent about 120 GBP on a couple of knives. Check these bad boys out!

[cerveza_fiesta]

Don't worry man, that shit totally belongs. Knife geekery is one of the best kinds IMO.

What are the specs on those bad boys? Steel type? Any cool manufacturing methods used? Place of manufacture?

[rhulad]

Jean-Claude Van tiam, on 16 July 2012 - 06:00 PM, said:

This seems to be a good place to ask as you guys seem incredibly tech savvy. Ino its early days yet but what kind of laptop computer devicey thingy would i need to run rome total war 2 when it comes out. Im literally saving up for it now so just wnt to know when i buy one. Thank you in advance

This if it is in your price range. It would run any modern game. Actually, any Asus gaming laptop would do the trick.

[Satan]

cerveza_fiesta, on 17 July 2012 - 01:09 PM, said:

Don't worry man, that shit totally belongs. Knife geekery is one of the best kinds IMO.

What are the specs on those bad boys? Steel type? Any cool manufacturing methods used? Place of manufacture?

I admit, it's much more gimmickry than geereky on my part. I have, to a smallish degree, taken up cooking as a hobby these past few years. Can't say I'm really good at it, but I try out new things and it pleases me more often than not. So, after getting my first grown-up job with accompanying grown-up money while still living on a student budget, I decided to splash out on some proper kitchen knives. I've never had any, so I figured it would be fun to try. And it is! These things slide through everything like there's nothing there. I've cut myself to blood twice in one week - one taking some flesh off my left middle finger. I fucking love it.

As for specs, they're Masahiro stainless steel knives - one with European kitchen knife blade, the other with traditional Japanese Usuba vegetable knife blade. Both about 18cm. It said that they were honed on one side only (or whatever it's called in English), but as far as I can see that's not true. That's all I got for you, sorry.

[cerveza_fiesta]

Satan, on 22 July 2012 - 05:27 PM, said:

cerveza_fiesta, on 17 July 2012 - 01:09 PM, said:

Don't worry man, that shit totally belongs. Knife geekery is one of the best kinds IMO.

What are the specs on those bad boys? Steel type? Any cool manufacturing methods used? Place of manufacture?

I admit, it's much more gimmickry than geereky on my part. I have, to a smallish degree, taken up cooking as a hobby these past few years. Can't say I'm really good at it, but I try out new things and it pleases me more often than not. So, after getting my first grown-up job with accompanying grown-up money while still living on a student budget, I decided to splash out on some proper kitchen knives. I've never had any, so I figured it would be fun to try. And it is! These things slide through everything like there's nothing there. I've cut myself to blood twice in one week - one taking some flesh off my left middle finger. I fucking love it.

As for specs, they're Masahiro stainless steel knives - one with European kitchen knife blade, the other with traditional Japanese Usuba vegetable knife blade. Both about 18cm. It said that they were honed on one side only (or whatever it's called in English), but as far as I can see that's not true. That's all I got for you, sorry.

Now you're going to have to pick up some Japanese whetstones and a honing guide to keep em nice and sharp. If you're on a budget, 1000 and 2000-grit wet-dry sandpaper (any automotive repair store should have it) glued to a thick piece of glass makes an excellent knife honing station. Stainless holds an edge pretty well but once you lose it the knives will be just as crappy as any other walmart brand kitchen knife. Constant honing with fine grits also seems like a lot of work, but if you're dilligent with it, it's much less work than occasionally sharpening a very dull edge.


Honed-one-side usually means they're sharpened like chisels. Flat all the way to the edge on one side, beveled on the opposite. I'm not sure what the purpose of that is is in a kitchen knife (other than looks) but it does make them much less of a pain to hone. You only need to set up the honing guide once to do the bevel side and the other side you can do freehand with the blade laid flat on the honing surface..


You also need one of those cut-resistant kitchen gloves.

http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/B001QXZORE

for your off hand. A buddy of mine is super into kitchen stuff and has a bunch of nice knives. He said this thing has saved him some serious pain. It seems like it would not do a thing when you first look at it, and it won't protect from stabs and outright slices, but it deflects the occasional shaved knuckle......and no, not the malazan type of shaved knuckle. Nothing prevents that!

[Satan]

I looked a bit into buying a Japanese whet stone when making the initial purchase, but it honestly seemed more hassle than the gimmick was worth. I much rather go for a regular steel honing stick as it seems both easier and safer. But if your friend says that's no way to go, let me know.

But that brings me to a question i had: can I use ceramic steel sharpeners on regular steel knives? It seems obvious to me that this should work, but I'm on unknown territory here.

[cerveza_fiesta]

RE the honing stick, I'd be careful. I have one for my relatively inexpensive kitchen blades and stopped using it because it makes such a mess of the edges. My knives now work best if you saw back and forth because the stick has turned the edges into a finely toothed sawblade for the most part. Functional and stupidly easy to maintain, but not ideal, and they all need to be re-ground.

If you want an knife that will slide through anything without effort or sawing, and an edge that will do justice to the knife's quality, I would get some kind of flat sharpening abrasive and a honing guide. My sandpaper-on-glass + $15 honing guide has been an excellent instructional tool and I've gotten half decent at honing woodworking tools. Concepts are the same with tools. Hone often and you should almost never have to fully re-grind the edge.

I would go cheap with the stone at first until you learn how to sharpen right. A $1000 whetstone kit in the wrong hands will do as bad a job as a honing stick, and whetstones are stupidly easy to ruin. One wrong swipe and you can put an irreparable gouge in the stone's surface. Sharpen too much in one spot and the stone loses its flatness. Don't get me wrong, they do a wonderful job, but the improvement is pretty marginal over cheaper alternatives and doesn't justify the cost IMO.



Steel and stainless differ in carbon content and heat treatment. You can generally use the same sharpening equipment for both. The main area you get into trouble is using softer metals on stuff designed to sharpen steel because it clogs the grit on the sharpening medium. This should never be an issue unless you start using copper knives or something unnecessary like that.<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">

[Satan]

Shit, I was afraid you'd say something like that. What angle did you have relative to the sharpening stick? I've heard a lot different angles here, some grinding their knives at as much as 30 degrees, while other swear to 10.

*sigh* I'll have to look into this a bit more now.

[cerveza_fiesta]

As for angle selection, it's a matter of preference. A 10deg edge is very difficult to maintain and sharpen. It will cut the shit out of anything when sharp, but it will dull much more quickly than steeper angles - hence the debate over angle: Sharpness or durability. Depends on what you need the knife to do I guess.

The typical thing to do with chisels and utility knives (eg hunting knives) is to bevel the blade at primary angle. At the very end of the honing session steepen the angle it by 3 degrees or so and make 4-5 passes over the finest grit abrasive. This final bevel sacrifices a bit of the sharpness, but increases durability/longevity of the edge a lot. It also makes the burr on the edge (the little piece of metal that curls off the edge as you hone) easier to remove.


The trickiest thing about angles is keeping a consistent one with no guide. It takes a lot of practice to develop the steadiness of hand and consistent stroke needed for freehand honing. If you are aiming for 10deg you will have a razor thin edge, but the second you twist the knife 5 degrees by mistake while running it across the stick, it will gouge chunks out of the edge and you'll be in for a re-grinding session, which is very tough without a flat stone. I think my biggest problem with the stick was lack of consistency and possibly too coarse of an abraisive. If I'd known at the time I would have just bought a guide and sharpened all my knives that way.

I was surprised how many little videos there are of sharpening techniques on youtube. Axes, throwing knives, kitchen knives, woodworking tools...it's all there. Check out a few before you commit to a system. It would also be a good idea to buy a cheap stainless knife to practice on. Re-grinding edges is a pain in the ass.
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">

[Satan]

I saw some but the sampling was rather narrow, hence me thinking (hoping) honing wouldn't be a big deal. As I said, I guess I'll have to look a bit more into it now. Cheers for yours response, though. It's been really helpful.

[HiddenOne]

I think you should box those knives up, ship them to CF along with 20 of whatever currency you favor, and let him show you how its done.

[cerveza_fiesta]

Nah, that's no fun.

When you do a good job of it and actually succeed in putting a razor fine edge on a blade, it's very satisfying.

Especially when you can hand your jackknife to a friend and say "careful that's mega sharp", after which they inevitably run their thumb over the edge and slice it like a dumbass. My favourite.

It's probably worth looking into a cutting board that will do minimal damage to the blade too. I've never really looked into it, but there are likely some woods/plastics that are better suited than others for not dulling your knife.