Knives and tinysizing

This is (most) of my current knife collection, trotted out last night for a good thorough cleaning with q-tips, cotton balls, and rubbing alcohol while watching netflix. As longtime readers know, I like to keep my tools clean.

It's kinda like your kids: you love them all, but if you're being honest, you love them differently. Each one of these has a specific role and purpose. Yes, there's a little redundancy with the three Leatherman Waves, but one lives in the car, one is EDC on my belt, and the middle (with the lanyard) is both a really nice tool, and has some sentimental value.

While it's a lot of knives, it doesn't add enough meaningful bulk to my tinysizing project to worry about it much. What's this tinysizing project, you ask? Making everything I own fit in, or on, my car. Used to be everything I owned fit in a two door Ford Festiva. Now the project is to get somewhere back close to that.

In case you're wondering about any of these, you should ask! The weird looking pull knife, second from the right, is the largest blade I could legally carry in Boston, and is pretty wicked looking open:

Another installment about treating my tools well.

I only spent about twenty minutes with rubbing alcohol and Q-tips to clean this one up. 

Tools

As any of my readers who have ever watched me painstakingly clean one of my leatherman multitools (with rubbing alcohol and Q-tips and occasionally chopsticks) I really love my tools, and try really hard to take good care of them. I have hand tools that date from the 40s, 50s, and 60s that are still in good shape (not to mention my collection of manual hand tools that can stand in for power tools when, ummm, there is no electricity.)

With all of the moving I've done in the last couple of years, sadly, a few things have fallen into the void.

I had a bunch of drill bits and driver bits, as well as a beloved pair of needlenose pliers that had gone the rusty route. (And some of you know the biggest story behind the history of these needlenose pliers. Hint: it partially takes place near an alma mater of both of my parents as well as my sister.)

So I soaked them in a vinegar and water solution for a few days, then scrubbed them with 0000 steel wool, then neutralized the vinegar in a baking soda & water solution, then scrubbed them again with steel wool, then wiped off the excess, then wiped them with 100% acetone.

I guess many people would have just thrown most of this stuff in the garbage (or thrift store donation pile.) Not me.