u/Impressive-Awl

Finally decided to polish my most experimental (read abused) Aogami 2 Hatsukokuro Petty (I liked to call it Ko-Santoko).

Progression was Shapton Kuromaku #320 - Shapton Kuromaku #1000 - Nanina Advanced Super #3000.

I'm changing hands between the sides and for some reason getting nice polish on the left side was really tricky.

I suspect it might be due to the knife being slightly uneven, but I ultimately had to raise the left side slightly to get nice hagane.

Does it look acceptable?

Any recommendations for attempts?

First proper attempt on ramen.

Broth: corn-fed chicken stock (2 carcases + feets)

Noodles: Nagasaki somen

Tare: Shitaki infused Shoyu (had to skip fish related items for a friend with allergies)

Oil: celery and spring onions infused chicken fat

Topping is of course shio koji marinated roasted corn chicken breast

Surprisingly happy with this attempt and want to try more

Hi, I decided to finally pay more and buy birks, but sizing is killing me (despite reading the size tables and manuals)

My foot is ~269 mm and 96-98 mm wide and I normally wear 42

I feel comfortable in the normal fit 42 Arizona, but official fit instructions say about 10mm space at the toes. Is it really needed?

Should I go for 43 or is this fit fine?

I recently found out that pruning plants is very relaxing, so after watching some videos and reading a couple books I decided to experiment on a couple of Juniper procumbens nana (they were surprisingly hard to find offline in Poland).

I think I'm still slightly struggling with composition and applying the wire, but I like the final results.

What do you think? What have I done wrong? What can be improved?

I live in Poland and those rufas were looking green and fine throughout the whole winter until the week we had warmer weather. After that they started looking worse and worse, but some leaves/stalks are still looking green and alive.

Is there something I can try to do to revive them? Or is it just impossible for them to survive winter in boxes in my climate?