Wow, Bob was petty enough to write a whole note about a lamp!

I hit something similar around 300 blades. Kept a log of grind time per knife and the average dropped from 90 minutes down to 45 once I quit chasing a perfect plunge line on every single one. What got me was seeing how many I scrapped in month 3 versus month 10, way fewer once I let the steel tell me what it wanted instead of forcing it. My advice is track your hours per blade, not just the count, because that number will show you way faster where the curve actually bends.

Gary pawn shops are a whole different game, that's part of the problem. My buddy bought a $95 used Milwaukee drill at one of those places on Broadway and the chuck wobbled so bad he couldn't drill straight. There's this whole world of stuff that gets flipped fast with no real testing, and tools are the easiest thing to unload because they look fine on the shelf. It's the same story as buying a used car off a corner lot versus a dealer who at least has to stand behind it. Cheap up front always finds a way to charge you later.