Wrong distribution of “power”

Today, I worked on some sharpening repairs and did a Honbazuke finish. The repairs weren’t too difficult, so I started sharpening with a clear idea of the final result. But for some reason, I wasn’t in my usual state of mind—I ended up putting way too much force into the sharpening. And when I say ‘putting force,’ I mean I went full power mode.

Normally, I let the whetstone do the work, but today, I arrogantly thought, ‘I’m going to sharpen this!’ That mindset led to overexerting myself, and I ended up straining my arm, shoulder, and lower back.

You might wonder just how aggressively I was sharpening, but it wasn’t about raw muscle power—it was more like my body was just tensed up in all the wrong ways.

In the end, the knife turned out just as good as always, but my body didn’t fare the same. It’s hard to explain, but imagine gripping a car steering wheel super tightly for two hours straight—that’s what it felt like. Exhausting.

You need to hold onto a car’s steering wheel and a knife’s handle firmly, but if you apply too much force, it’s not a good thing… So here I am, writing this blog post, surrounded by the unmistakable scent of medicinal patches.

• 2011-06-18