scarlson 

Aye, NO check engine light, and it had fuel and spark, no immobilizer, it would crank and sputter but it wouldn't start! So I did EFI diagnosis the old fashioned way, by pulling the plugs to various sensors and then seeing if that made the engine work better or worse. Helped to have an OBD scanner to see if there were any weird readings from any components. Turned out the MAF meter was the culprit, basically reading way high as if the car was pulling at WOT even though it was just at idle. The ECU would feed in massive amounts of timing advance and richen the mixture to compensate. The car would start and run much better without it plugged in. Got a new rebuilt one (the car's xmas present I guess) and now it runs great. Fingers crossed for the long term.

I also got myself these knives at an antiques market. They are Sabatier Thiers-Issard "4-star elephant" logo. Some of the finest carbon steel for cooking, and a great price. I spent part of new years eve putting on a 15 degree bevel and sharpening/stropping them to a razor's edge and then we forced a patina on them using minced shallots.




I'd been missing having a midsize knife, having only the huge chef's and a rogue's gallery of tiny parers so these fill in the collection nicely.

RustyJames 

scarlson I’m all about high carbon knives. OA works miracles on old high carbon knives.

I have some newer stainless Henckels and they get little use.

ShannonM

Naughty:
My early Christmas present was unwrapped at 2:34 AM on December 20th... a magnitude 6.4 earthquake.

Nice:





Carradice Lowsaddle Longflap

--Shannon
​​

AdventureManCO 

Your son's use of color is refreshing! How old? I've got a 9 and 11 yr old.

scarlson 

Yeah, same. Got a couple Oneida stainless that I use for very corrosive work like lemons. Sometimes I will use a polishing rag wheel or scotch brite wheel to remove corrosion on the carbon steel, but I've never had to resort to chemicals - yet. My specialty is taking dings out of blades, so I often rescue/salvage knives that others throw away. A few minutes on the scotch brite wheel and they are good. And on Christmas of 2020 I got a bunch of Thiers-Issard Sabatier blanks, which I have to grind into proper knife shape, heat-treat, and then put handles on. That will be a fun project if I ever have time!

People have seen my collection and they try to give us knives, they say, "to replace all those old corroded gray ones". But instead I ask them to give me sharpening equipment. I got a leather stropping wheel last year. Not quite sure what I think about the results yet, but it's great fun!

rccardr 

Love my Sabatiers! Paring knife with the rare white handle purchased in Sarlat (not far from Lascaux) in 2017, still the best go-to small blade in the kitchen.
For Christmas, my sister imported a pair of new Sabatier 8 inch Chef’s knives to replace some lesser ones we’ve had in the kitchen for almost 50 years.
A good knife is a great tool.

merziac

Well his style never matured too far but that's part of what makes him the character he is today, love him to death.

And he gets the whole bike, C+V thing, rode his bike from about 12 to 27 when he finally got a car.

He's 29 still going on 16-18 half the time.

AdventureManCO 

Aren't we all??

Collecting bike is just like Hot Wheels, right?

merziac

Yep, funny you should mention that, the Christmas fleet grew by several this year.

xiaoman1 

To All,
It seems as though there were many members that were both "naughty" and "nice"......Until Next Year...Remember"He's making a list and checking it......
May Your Best Be Yet To Come, Ben.

AdventureManCO 

That's the stuff!!!



My daughter got me one for this Christmas - above is a mish mash of ones that I've collected and ones I've gotten as gifts, mainly from the kids.

The grail of the collection? Top left. 2014 multipack exclusive '67 GT500 in metallic gray. It is nothing special, not a Super, or a Car Culture or anything else. But I looked for that one for months after I saw one and then missed out on it.

I'm sure you'll notice I've run out of slots and multiple cars stuffed into single bays? It reminds me a little too much of the hangars in my garage

merziac

Very cool, yep I have to restrain myself from buying them at Christmas, wish I had my originals, Red lines and all.

Read an article a couple of weeks ago about them being the most recession proof toy and one of the most things period.

Avacodo VW Thing, a rockstar auto painter/guru friend is restoring one that color as we speak. Its about 2/3 done, going to be very good when he gets done, he does great work.

Those "Things" go for even stupider $$$$$ than many other crazy things.