Mobile Sharpening Rig

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By Dale Dougherty
Posted 2011/12/21 @ 12:30 pm
Category Fun & Games, Home

While on a trip to Mendoza, Argentina, I came across a man sharpening scissors using a bicycle to power his grinding wheel. It’s a clever lo-tech combination.

He was performing this service in a pedestrian mall. After filming him, I walked away and when I looked back, he was gone, in pursuit of another place to ply his trade.

BY Dale Dougherty

I'm founder of MAKE magazine and creator of Maker Faire, and now President at Maker Media, the company that produces MAKE, Maker Faire and Maker Shed. I am Chairman of the Maker Education Initiative.

In the Maker Shed

9 Responses to Mobile Sharpening Rig

Danko Miocevic on December 21st, 2011 at 1:01 pm said:

We are used to this guys, I remember when I was a child here in Argentina and they ride across the neighbourhood playing a whistle to make us know he was working around!!

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Anonymous on December 21st, 2011 at 1:55 pm said:

Es una profesión tradicional de Argentina. Es muy común en los pequeños pueblos de interior, y su llamado se hace mediante una especie de ocarina.
Saludos desde Córdoba, Argentina.

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Simon Jansen on December 21st, 2011 at 2:06 pm said:

”
After filming him, I walked away and when I looked back, he was gone, in pursuit of another place to ply his trade.”
Either that or his stand collapsed when you had your back turned and woooosh, off he went!

James May just did a similar thing with his ‘Swiss Army’ bike on his Manlab programme.

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CoskiBukowski on December 21st, 2011 at 4:59 pm said:

In Argentina it’s a common practice, mostly in the “suburbs” or “barrios”, you hear the “afilador (sharpener?)” blowing a plastic whistle, with different notes like a sort of harmonica that sounds like a whistle, to announce he’s working. You would go to your door with your knife or scissor.
Now I usually see sharpeners with bicycles quite older than the one in the video… you just found a “premium” service haha , but they all have the grinding wheels pedal-powered

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- GCM on December 21st, 2011 at 5:11 pm said:
  
  in Brazil it’s the same thing… this is their typical ‘whistle call’:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9aPBdzekfc
  
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Paul Gwilliam on December 21st, 2011 at 6:31 pm said:

I remember that when I was a child in North London (UK) there used to be a man on a bike with a similar setup. That would have been about 44 years ago.

Now excuse me please as my CoCo is getting cold.

[edit=typo]

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pmst on December 22nd, 2011 at 1:13 am said:

This was common here in Italy long time ago, they are called “arrotini”.

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anand jeyahar on December 25th, 2011 at 3:47 am said:

It used to be common here in TN, India too till about 8-10 years ago… But seem to have lost…. either that or my hometown has upgraded big time and these have moved on to smaller villages…:)

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Order Taking Service on December 28th, 2011 at 2:03 am said:

This is amazing and best way to use a bicycle. This is the old technology with new gadgets but still working perfectly.

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