Sharp side down

[mklotz]

A flat will keep the knife from rolling off the bench but, unless the handle is weighted, it won't necessarily bring the knife automatically to an edge-down rest position when placed unthinkingly on the bench. I tend to get involved in what I'm doing and lay tools down without thinking about tool placement so anything that automatically adjusts position is appreciated.

I think it was Einstein who originated the term "gedankenexperiment". When he was doing his early work on special relativity he imagined himself riding on a light beam at the speed of light - clearly an experiment that could never occur in practice. His deductions about how his view of his surroundings would change on such a ride led to the earliest equations that describe relativity.

I'm fortunate to have a better than average ability to mentally visualize complex geometric relations. I hardly ever make drawings before building something. Sometimes I'll make a simple "fag packet" sketch to work out a dimension but that's about it. I tell my wife that this mental design ability accounts for my vacant stare when waiting somewhere, although the stare is often nothing more than numbing boredom.