A human sets up a shop on board a particularly large station within Alliance space. Before too long, the person has a lot of other humans visiting their shop, especially chefs. What is their profession? Sharpening blades. And instead of using anything electronic, they have a large whetstone, a strop, and some pieces of material to test the sharpness of the blades. He's one of the best in his profession, though his alliance friends sometimes see all the blades, and get a little nervous. -- Fighting Fit
Small businesses usually have a mayfly existence in large stations, mostly because what worked in a small station doesn't necessarily work anywhere else. A bored transient can find, for example, a little hole-in-the-wall cafe that does the Alliance's best Haargin Dragonfruit[1] Toasted Sandwich. In a station where even the people living there know perhaps two percent of the total available territory, there's almost no chances to find a little hole-in-the-wall anything.
It pays to advertise, but you have to be able to afford it first.
This little hole-in-the-wall is not leading a mayfly life. In fact, there's something of a queue winding its way towards the door. Some in the queue are curious to see what the rest are queueing for, but are too polite to interrupt a stranger's thoughts and just ask.
There's just enough room for the equipment, which is a very large and almost alarming assortment of rectangular stones. There are some bottles lurking amongst them, but they are relatively rare.
Welcome to Fay's Whetstone. Knives and blades sharpened while you wait.
Once in a while, some wag comes in with a flint blade. Fay, unfased, will merely take out their flint knapping kit and delicately remove atom-thin flakes from the extant edge. They will also, on surgeon's requests, create obsidian scalpel blades[2].
Of course, every chef worth their salt knew about Fay in a cold second. News like traditional knife sharpening gets around. Those who align food with art rarely rely on molecular reconstruction of their blades.
It's the testing that gets them in. Some shave their arms. Some cleave a sheet of cellulose paper. Fay pulls a single hair and, with some showmanship and under a magnifier, splits it.
Customers are advised to have a sheath ready, or spend an extra handful of Minutes getting one printed. In Fay's words, "You won't know it's cut you until someone hands you your fingers."
[1] Very, very different from the Terran Dragonfruit. For starters, it comes from a living being. Think, "prarie oysters". And yes, they are grown in clone tanks now.
[2] No word of a lie, these are sharper than many steel blades available commercially. I think I saw ceramic edges being used as well.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / trancedrumer]
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