Old timer at the shop in Wichita told me to quench in warm oil, not cold

Back when I started out about 15 years ago, I was quenching everything in ice cold oil because I thought it would harden the steel faster. There was this older guy named Hank who worked at a shop I visited in Wichita. He watched me dunk a knife blank and just shook his head. He said son you are going to crack that piece or warp it bad if you keep doing that. I ignored him for like two more years until I ruined a batch of six blades in one afternoon. They all came out with hairline cracks and I was out maybe $120 in materials. I switched to warm oil around 120 degrees and I never went back. Has anyone else been given a piece of advice that sounded wrong but turned out to be dead on?

My neighbor in Portland warned me about that hidden surveillance law across the border...

He told me Canada's new online hate bill could flag stuff I post here, I thought he was being dramatic until my friend got a notice last month for sharing a meme in a hockey group. Anyone else run into issues with content getting flagged overseas?

Used to just eyeball my lift radius until I dropped a load of rebar 12 feet last July in a parking lot

Now I double check every measurement with a tape and a level before I even signal the rig, has anyone else had a close call that forced you to change a habit on the job?

Blew $200 on a cheap tile saw that couldn't cut straight

I picked up a budget tile saw from a big box store last month thinking I'd save some cash on a bathroom remodel... biggest mistake. The blade wobbled right out of the box and every cut was off by at least 1/8 inch. I ended up wasting half a box of $40 subway tile trying to make it work before I gave up. Had to rent a proper saw from a local tool library for $60 and finished the job in one afternoon. Anyone else get burned by a tool that seemed like a good deal at first?

Switched my mind on dry aging after a mistake at the shop

I was trimming a ribeye last Tuesday and noticed this funky smell coming from our dry aging locker. Turned out the humidity sensor was off by 12% and we had been ruining about 40 pounds of prime beef over two weeks. Now I check that gauge with my own eyes every morning before I start breaking down anything. Any of you guys had a similar issue with your aging setup?

Hit $50 a week on groceries for a family of 4 and I'm torn on if it's genius or just sad

I managed to feed us for exactly $50 last week using rice, beans, eggs, and frozen veggies, but my wife says we're basically eating like college students while our neighbor spends $200 on steaks and organic kale, so what's your take does frugal mean boring or am I missing something cool to cook on the cheap?

Warning: stop skipping the intro episodes of shows just because they're slow

I kept seeing people in here saying they jump ahead 3 or 4 episodes into a series to get past the boring setup. I did that with The Expanse and missed like 5 character introductions and a key plot point about the protomolecule. Took me 8 episodes to figure out who was who and why anyone cared about the Cant. My buddy Matt in Denver warned me last year about doing the same thing with Dark and I laughed it off. Ended up having to rewatch the whole first season anyway because nothing made sense. If you skip setup you're basically reading the last chapter of a book first. Has anyone else ruined a show by trying to speed through the early episodes?

Got banned from a teacher forum for saying classroom management isn't a one-size-fits-all thing

Heard a guy at a scrap yard say 'you're ruining good steel' about my rebar hooks...

Last Saturday I was digging through the pile at Johnson's Scrap in Nashville and this older smith heard me clanking around with some rebar. He just shakes his head and says 'son, you're ruining good steel with that junk, learn to read the scrap first.' I was honestly a little ticked off but he walked me over to the spring pile and showed me how to spot high carbon stuff by the bounce and ring when you tap it. Now I'm questioning half the stuff I've been forging for the last year. Any of you guys have a method for sorting scrap that doesn't involve a spark test every time?

PSA: I just found out how much water a single coffee farm can use

I was reading a report from the University of California, Davis and it said a coffee farm in Brazil can use over 2,000 liters of water just to produce one kilogram of roasted beans. That's wild to me because everyone talks about the beans but not the resources. Has anyone else looked into the water footprint of their daily cup?