JeffieBoy

Me as well. Bought my Akorn in late April of 2012. Joined about a week or three later in May 2012. When I looked on the members map that was on the site, there were only a handful or so members in Ontario and maybe double that in Canada. Sorry to see it go. Thanks to you all for your guidance and positivity. Special thanks to John for his foresight and willingness to create this welcoming place.

Welcome from another Akorn nut. Many happy cooks!

I have been known to disassemble the chimney, clean and reassemble when it gets bad enough. Replaced the screws with stainless at one point.

Sorry @MikeRobinson, I know this will sound sacrilegious but I do very few of these steps and whilst my Akorn can look a little dirty at times (okay, regularly), it’s almost 11 years old and still going strong. I do the deep cleaning and chimney rebuild once a year, scrub the cooking grate well at temperature after the cook, and use the grate lifter as a hammer to bang the chimney open and closed once grease builds up and tightens it. The plastic protector for the chimney opener is long gone. Oh, and it sits in my garage with both vents opened. That said, I do promise to reread your document a few times and consider adding some cleaning steps to my process.

When you talk to a bicycle racer and ask how many bikes they own the answer is standardized. “N+1 or N-1” where N equals the number of bikes it would take their partner to divorce them. Nothing more needs to be said, everyone understands…

At the end of the cook, I wash my knives by hand, dry them carefully then steel them before putting them into the block or their sheath. Ready to go for the next time. I only sharpen a few times a year.

@willys1 I have tried some no-name (but highly ranked) belts off Amazon with poor luck. Belts were too stiff and the motor wouldn’t turn them. Be forewarned.

I own a Ken Onion and have been loudly and soundly cursed by my wife ever since I got it. She will be working in the kitchen and I am elsewhere in the house when I hear yelling “You and your damned sharp knives! Get me a bandage…”. I bet she has cut cut herself 5 times in the last six months. Time for some knife handling safety training… I love the Ken Onion. I have bought about a dozen used and abused knives from the local thrift stores to practice on. I then give them away afterwards. I have also spent an afternoon at the local food bank kitchen working on their knives. Many of them had never been sharpened. The kitchen manager was so happy when I handed them back to her. They decided to keep the knives locked up for a time so that each person using them gets a personal warning about the sharpness. John, if you do decide to move forward on your plan, consider local farmers markets as your venue. We have a gentleman who shows up at our local farmers market on the first Saturday of each month. He charges a dollar per inch of blade and most mornings has a group of people standing around waiting for their turn to have their knives sharpened. We were also at a farmers market in Bluffton SC and a gentleman had a table set up with a cane onion and was sharpening knives as well I watched him for about 10 minutes and he was quite busy. Hopefully these ideas will work for you.

Took my wife to an RMT appointment about 30km from home this morning. When she hobbled out afterwards the first thing she said was that she was starving and ready for early lunch. Directly across the street was a BBQ joint called the Lancaster Smokehouse. I pulled into the parking lot, walked into the restaurant and ordered a brisket sandwich for myself. It was more expensive than a quarter pound cheeseburger combo and didn’t include a drink but I felt it important to bite the bullet for you, loyal Guru viewer! Probably the best brisket sandwich I have had in several years (that I did not make myself). Let’s consider this research for future cooks. Look at those slices!

If you are that concerned, possibly consider a custom made tarp cover from a local boat tarp mfr. You will pay more, but the life should be considerably longer.

Actually, I was just rereading this article and realized that we can no longer get dark roast peanut butter. Kraft discontinued theirs about a year ago and I just noticed Jif is no longer on the shelf as well. Is it just me or does the original Kraft peanut butter taste just like sugary gunk? To me the Kraft dark roast peanut butter tastes like the peanut butter of my youth. It’s slightly savoury and less sweet.

I have to agree with @mike echo. Split chicken breasts. Skin on, bone in. First time in 40 yrs that I have none in my freezer and aren’t really seeing them in the stores.

@kappclark I believe that you can order replacement cooking grids and grid centres online through the acorn website or even Amazon if I remember correctly

You might check this out.

Our house is approximately 80 years old and last summer I tore off all the eavestroughs, facia and soffit in order to reinstall fresh wood and new aluminum trough etc. In tearing off the wood so that I could check the joists behind them I must’ve removed close to 200 dried out wasp nests that has accumulated over those 80 summers. Every time I pulled off a board I dreaded the fact that I was going to find a fresh yellow jacket nest, but thankfully I found only one or two. This year we had a noticeable reduction in yellow jackets around the house I believe because the house is now sealed up better than it’s been in decades.