Fully realized I've been sharpening my climbing spikes wrong for years

I've been using a flat file on my spikes for like 5 years, just running it along the edge the same way every time. Then a climber I sub for watched me do it yesterday and said I'm actually rounding them off instead of keeping the bevel right. Has anyone else been botching basic maintenance stuff without even knowing it?

2 comments

2 Comments

ramirez.caleb20d ago

File sharpening is just one of those things nobody teaches you until you mess it up in front of someone... I've been noticing that pattern everywhere lately. Like how half the people I know have been seasoning cast iron wrong for years without realizing it. Or how everyone I've ever seen fold a fitted sheet is just making a lumpy ball and calling it good. It happens with tools too, I watch guys at work use torque wrenches backward or try to cut with a dull blade and wonder why it's struggling. Nobody sits you down and says "here's the right way to do this basic thing" because everyone assumes you already know it or it's not worth mentioning. Then one day someone happens to catch you and you realize you've been wasting years of effort on something simple.

cora56220d ago

Right, the fitted sheet thing is a perfect example. I used to just ball mine up and shove it in the linen closet, thinking that's just how it goes. But then I watched a YouTube video for like 5 minutes where someone showed the trick with tucking the corners into each other, and now it takes me 30 seconds. It's wild how many things we just accept are hard or annoying when there's actually a dead simple way to do it that nobody bothers to share. The file sharpening clicks with me too because I bet half the people who own files are just pushing them back and forth like a hack saw, which ruins them. It really makes you wonder what other basic stuff we're all messing up without realizing it.