Sharpness and shavings and the third element

Many times it feels that a steel blade takes some time to grow accustomed to the wood it works upon...

For instance, when you first take up a knife and place it on the surface of a piece of wood, it seems that it is distant to that wood...  Standoffish..  Awkward...  Like a child trying to hide confusion underneath the veneer of a haughty sort of disinterest...  The wood shavings that are drawn from the wood are just as awkward, flaking off with no sense of grace...

Slowly, the blade seems to "warm to the wood" and starts to slide through the grain more easily; the hand holding the blade gets more comfortable, the wood merges into the movement, and the shavings begin to show signs of softening towards a dancing sense of flow...

Like with many relationships, the merging of motion of a steel blade and a piece of wood does not necessarily build upon solidity, but upon the warmth of their flow of exploration towards the moment of a peaceful coexistence, when their elements can find ease, possibly even rest, within the simplicity of their dance of joined purpose.

Sometimes it's nice to take the piece of wood and the knife and hold them together for some moments of time.  The third element, hands, bringing their own warmth to the dance...