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http://www.robswoodworking.com

"D. A. Clark" wrote in message
om...
"Rob Stokes" wrote in message:
We do it tomorrow because we did it today, and there's the natural
challenge
to make our next product better than our last. The trade lives because
as
intelligent as the human race is, a true craftsman can always make "it"
better...

Hello Rob,

Hello DA. Can't stay long on this, but I'll stick for a bit....


In seeking an answer to living trade, I cannot accept the 'just
because' or the 'natural challenge' thesis as the whole of
understanding.

Don't discount the strength of a natural challenge; it's been the father of
the majority of the world we know today and continues to be thr driving
force behind the very payckecks many people spend in an attempt to re-find
their roots. Come to the edge of a cliff and don't look over. Perhaps you
will prevail through will, but your mind will paint the picture for you.

And while common sense and manual dexterity can
enhance individual accomplishment in pursuit of trade, I do not adhere
to a belief in the natural craftsman's ability for improvement.

The Craftsman's natural ability for improvement is spawned from many core
ideals however the prime mover for improvment, as it is in so many cases, is
the efficiencies needed to compete with those who are on a like quest. These
efficiencies are found in both time and materials resulting in lower cost,
larger profit or perhaps both. Interestingly enuogh the very skills neeeded
to realize these gains have themselves taken a life or pride where product
produced by those who excel above the basic need for feed is measured in the
fineness of the skills required to make the product efficient in the first
place.


Knowledge is not collective per individual, like books on a shelf; but
rather cumulative in the subconsious of experience...and this is
derived through time in apprenticeship, which is a lifelong pursuit.

On this we are in total agreement. The quest for happiness begins at the
acceptance of wisdom.



The resulting new innovations though many, are simple
derivatives of circuitous technology. Tools, means, methods,
efficiencies...all are simple but plodding enhancements yet the core of
the
technology still lies with rudimentary tools, rudimentary materials and
rudimentary physics...

I agree, the core of technology is based in the physics of the
material; yet, the innovations of modern technology are not
circuitous...they are destined for obsolescence

Again agreed, but is this not the very meaning of circuitous technology?

and have failed to
provide such enhancement of product, that may be derived only from the
assimulation of a human eye and the articulation of a man's hand.
Therefore, man is the greatest technological force at work.

And man is the greatest threat to the very technology that sets him apart in
the way. Ironic isn't it?

As man
returns to the basic material, so too must he return to the first
principles of working the wood...to cut, to shape, to fasten...to find
an answer to what is living trade?

In this there is peace. It is this rudimentary and basic need that drives
many of us to spend countless hours and dollars in pursuit of the basic
skills civilization, though its advancement, has allowed us to forget.

g'night DA. As it was before, agreement is simple to find. I raise my glass,
and toddle off to bed.

Rob