Oh, I didn't say that I thought 10 to 12 degrees was a good idea, just that that's what I was brought up to do. In actual practice, I probably put on an edge more like 15 degrees.

A true story about my brother and a knife he sharpened.

Being unemployed, Ted often substitute teachs. And one of the regular teachers asked him to come in dressed as one of the settlers of the area would have dressed around 1820.

Arrangement were made that he could carry his flintlock, axe and knife into the classroom. So Ted, a drama major and an actor, went "on stage."

The kids were wowed. He demonstrated the rifle (without powder and ball, of course), explained the use of a corn boiler, discussed parched corn, and so on. Then one of the kids, a real smart-ass, said to Ted that since his rifle had no loads, obviously his knife was a fake too.

Now, Ted had made that rifle. And to imply that he was faking it was more than he could take.

He simply looked at the kid, pulled out the rifleman's knife (similar to this one), turned it edge up, and slowly lowered a piece of paper to the edge of the knife, paper edge to knife edge. It sliced the paper quite nicely. The punk then just sort of gulped and shut up.

A knife? You call that a knife? Now, this is a knife! -- Crocodile Dundee