The grinder's whistle

"This is the sound of the knife grinder, who walks along with his bike, offering his services. In Portugal they are called "o amola-tesouras" which translates as the scissors' sharpener. In a fast consumption era, this is the sound of a disappearing profession - the man who sharpens knifes, scissors, fixes umbrellas, making himself heard by potential customers through the unique yet (almost universally?) recognizable call of his whistle, echoing through the streets. This sound was recorded from my window, back in 2014, when I was living in Rua Miguel Torga, in Costa de Caparica, writing my PhD thesis at the time."

Recording provided by Alexandra Baixinho.

This is part of the Obsolete Sounds project, the world’s biggest collection of disappearing sounds and sounds that have become extinct – remixed and reimagined to create a brand new form of listening. Explore the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/obsolete-sounds

IMAGE: nborges from Portugal, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons