They Say Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Palmetto Bella Staff

December 5, 2020

“Our need will be the real creator.”
Plato’s Republic, c. 375 BC

“The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention.”
Jowett’s loose translation, 1894

“I love knives and almost always carry one with me,” he says. He has spent countless hours sharpening his knives but could never achieve the “perfect” edge or replicate the factory edge. But necessity is the mother of invention, they say. “I came up with the idea of The Sharpener’s Edge when one day a picture popped into my head and I drew it on a piece of paper. Then I fabricated it out of metal in my garage. It worked and it was so simple to use!” It has taken years, but Jim and Colleen have received both utility and design patents for The Sharpener’s Edge, and the first one was manufactured, in the United States, in 2018.

The magic of this sharpener is that it holds just about any sharpening rod or stone at just the right angle for each blade, and it takes just minutes to get a razor sharp edge. The Sharpener’s Edge works on all straight-blade knives, scissors (including surgical scissors), PVC pipe cutters, goat hoof trimmers (useful for the afore-mentioned goats), some hand pruners, and wire cutters. If you are able to cut a tomato or slice a cucumber, you can sharpen a knife with this tool.

Jim and Colleen are a loving team. Colleen is obviously proud of Jim’s invention and convinced it is the answer to keeping Jim from having to commute to Savannah. Jim credits his Colleen with giving him the motivation to keep going through years of obstacles.

Now Colleen and Jim, and the children when Jim is not available, faithfully attend hunting and fishing shows to demonstrate and sell the sharpener; they offer to sharpen visitor’s knives while they wait. There is always a crowd, but a sceptical one, because we all have sharpeners that don’t work. Between shows, the family offers sharpening services. And gradually, from groomers to chefs, hunters to goat breeders, surgeons to cooks, pipe fitters to hair dressers and barbers, the product is catching on.

To learn more about The Sharpener’s Edge, and see how and why it works, visit ProductsByJCS.com.

Palmetto Bella Staff

Staff writer for Palmetto Bella Magazine

Palmetto Bella Staff

Staff writer for Palmetto Bella Magazine

In the know

2020 Financial Vision

Where do you want to be at the end of 2020, or three years from now, or five years from now? One of the basic needs that we desire for making good decisions is clarity. Until my mid-forties, I had 20/20 vision. Today, clarity comes with the help of my glasses. Sometimes we need a professional to help with clarity in other matters of life. When it comes to making decisions about investing for the future, clarity is a challenge. Just read my article from December. Multiple money managers were recommending that we prepare for single digit returns in 2020 and that volatility could be significant. That could still be

Social Media In Balance

It’s January and your New Year’s Resolution is to give up social media entirely. You spend one day feeling virtuous, then a few more days feeling anxious as you wonder what you’re missing out on. By the end of the first week, you’ve caved, reinstalled all the apps on your phone, and spent hours binging on Facebook and Instagram. Spending too much time on social media isn’t healthy, but you don’t have to give it up entirely. If you’re worried that your virtual life has overtaken your real life, try going on a social media diet instead. When you go on a food diet to lose weight, you don’t stop

Money Matters | As 2019 Closes & 2020 Begins

What to Expect? You Need to Know! We have just experienced one of the best years of investment performance, and that is both good and bad. It is good if you benefited from the performance, but it can be bad if you don’t face the reality of what 2020 and the future can bring. How many times have you heard that past performance does not indicate future performance? I don’t want to throw cold water on your parade, but there are clouds on the horizon that we should pay attention to. In our firm, we often consult with a financial analyst who communicates with multiple money managers each week to

Creating a Social Community

There’s a common misperception that Twitter is nothing but a cesspool of hate, celebrity worship, and advertising. While all those things do exist to some extent, wonderful special interest communities also thrive on the platform. One example is the writing community. Made up of both aspiring and successful authors, this group uses the hashtag #writingcommunity to connect with one another. Writers ask for advice about their current projects and writing careers in general, promote their latest work, and sometimes just chat. Members frequently do something called a #writerslift, where new writers with not many followers describe their work, and other members of the community follow them. This lets people who