"Sharpen the scissors, pick up the kitchen knife..." The tone is long, and it also has a charm, mixed with the sound of the knife and the stone in the hand rubbing each other.
How long have you not heard this cry?
"A pair of thick palms of the elder cocoon, an oil stone grinding years, grinding scissors to pick up a kitchen knife, a roar for decades, walking alleys, stringing streets, the family's livelihood is on the shoulders."
The scenes in this oil poem can often be seen in the 1960s and 1970s, and have become a symbol of the times that is unforgettable.
In the past, the manual work in the countryside was heavy, and scissors and kitchen knives would become blunt after a long time, and people would find a sharpener to make the knives sharp again. With the change of the times, the craft of sharpening knives has become less and less common.
A long wooden stool, two whetstones, and a wooden box full of tools are standard for sharpeners.
They wandered around the corners of the city and the countryside, remembering that the last time they met a sharpsmith was more than a decade ago. Now that I have encountered it again, it is somewhat surprising: it turns out that this craft still exists in our lives.
The knife sharpener, named Cui Fuxing, a native of Heilongjiang, sold vegetable seeds, shoes and sugar gourds in his youth, and worked in small business for many years, starting the knife sharpening business in 1991. Four months ago, I came to Weihai from my hometown and brought the knife sharpening craft that I have been doing for thirty years to Weihai.
When he heard the shouting, soon a resident came out and handed him a kitchen knife or scissors. Seeing that there is work, Cui Fuxing's mood will also be good, while chatting about the sky, while sharpening the kitchen knife, and from time to time using the thumb of his right hand to try to grind it fast or not.
A young mother, with two children, watched with great interest as Cui Fuxing sharpened her knife. Cui Fuxing said that because there are few knife sharpsmiths in Weihai, many young people simply do not know that there is such a profession, and his sharpening of knives on the street has become a unique scenery.
Kitchen knife, first look at the knife edge, whether the steel is soft or hard, hard to use a grinding wheel to beat, soft to use a knife, and then use a whetstone, which requires four or five processes from thick to fine.
Cui Fuxing rode on the bench, squeezing the back of the knife in his hand, staring at the blade, first using the blade to thin the thick knife edge, then grinding it roughly on the sand and stone, and finally using a smooth whetstone to grind, brushing water while grinding, in ten minutes, the blade was as sharp as ever.
And grinding scissors is more difficult than sharpening knives, because when grinding, in addition to sharpening the blade, it is also necessary to bite tightly, tighten moderately, and be very exquisite.
After grinding a pair of scissors, Cui Fuxing had to open and close several times next to his ear to listen to the "rustling" sound of whether there was any slightest buckle.
Sharpening the knife seems simple, but it is a technical job, and if you are not careful, you will be hurt by the sharp knife edge. Every day, with your fingers against the sharpening knife, especially discarded gloves, a new pair of gloves can grind out holes in ten days.
Cui Fuxing sharpened a knife thirty years ago to earn fifty cents, and now it has risen to five yuan, an average of about twenty a day. This income is relatively stable for Cui Fuxing.
Cui Fuxing said that most of the people who are looking for him to sharpen the knife now are old people, and the young people use stainless steel knives at home. His patrons, apart from these old men, were restaurants and tailors.
In his 30-year grinding knife career, eight pieces have passed in the friction of water and iron, and the ancients said that the "iron pestle grinding needle" is probably the same.
In the business of business, years of walking the streets and alleys have allowed Cui Fuxing to summarize his own way of soliciting customers.
The entrance to the community is a necessary passage for people to enter and exit, and then next to the garbage bin, everyone will casually put up a sentence when throwing garbage, which may promote a single sale.
Times are changing, lifestyles are changing, and many traditional crafts have lost the stage of existence, but sharpening scissors still seems to have stood up for a long time, making some traditional elements of modern life still retain.
"I'm 70 years old, I can work for another three or five years at most, young people don't do it, this craft is lost to my generation, and it will not be easy to find a kitchen knife on the street in the future." Cui Fuxing said helplessly.
The world is changing every day, new things are constantly emerging, and old things are constantly dying. Knife sharpeners seem to have become the "past" in the memory of many people, perhaps this is the irreconcilable contradiction between modern life and traditional craftsmanship.
But Cui Fuxing still did not stop, still shouting: "Grind the scissors, cut the kitchen knife..."
Producer: Yin Hongjun
Chief Editor on Duty: Wang Lan
Review: Sun Meiling
Image/Text/Video: Liu Bin
Editor: Zhou Zongyue
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