To Sharpen a Knife, You Have to Hurt It

I heard this idea the other day, Tim Allen was talking about knives. I have always enoyed listening to Tim speak about life, cars, machines, etc. He has a very unique (in this day in age especially) view on the world.
Speaking of knives, he said something that really stuck out to me:
“In order to sharpen a knife, you have to hurt the knife.”

At first I didn’t get it… of course you do. You drag the knife across a stone…
But the longer I sat with it, the more I realized, this isn’t about knives.
Not really.

It’s about us.

See, when you sharpen a blade, you don’t add anything to it.
You’re not coating it, you’re not building it up.
You’re stripping it down.
You’re scraping away everything that can’t cut.
You’re wounding the blade, on purpose, to make it dangerous again.

By stripping off the dull parts. By hurting it, on purpose, until what’s left can cut clean through.

And man… that feels a little too familiar, doesn’t it?

Because if you want to become something sharper, something real, you don’t build up the weak parts.
You tear them off.
You take the dullness, the softness, the excuses, and you put them up against the stone.

And yeah, it hurts.
It’s supposed to.

I don’t know… maybe that’s why most guys never get there.
Maybe they think they can outsmart the grind.
Maybe they tell themselves they’re “good enough.”
(And hey, sometimes you even start to believe it, until life reminds you that you’re not.)

Truth is, if you want an edge, you gotta bleed a little.

You have to hurt yourself, not in some weird reckless way, but in a refining way.
You have to let the parts of you that can’t handle pressure… die.

And no one really warns you about that part.
They tell you about the glory. They show you the trophies.
But they don’t talk about the moments where you’re standing there, looking at the scraps of who you used to be, wondering if you’re even cut out for what you’re chasing.

And honestly, maybe you’re not.
Maybe you have to become someone else first.

You sharpen a blade by grinding it.
You sharpen a man the same way.

Rough. Painful. Repetitive.
And most days? Pretty fucking thankless.

But… and this is the part nobody can take from you…
when you’ve paid that price… when you’ve dragged yourself across the stone enough times…

You don’t need anyone to tell you what you are.
You’ll know it when you feel it in your hand, steady and sure.
You’ll know it when the world pushes… and you push harder.

Not a blunt instrument.
Not a polished fake.

A weapon.

A man who’s sharp because he chose the pain over the comfort.

A man who bleeds… and still cuts deeper.

I don’t know about you but i’ve been “dull” before…

Never again.

⚔️Adam Niall