I think this thread has gone on long enough. Geesh. From what I
gather is being said is that no one man has EVER known ALL there is to
know about woodworking ever--especially since, I guess, none of us
know what the future holds. So with this sort if nit-picking, sort of
silly argument, the original poster will always be right. I guess
what he wants is everybody to say is, "Geez. You knw what? You're
right."

I agree with the person who said the rest of us are uninterested.

Sort of like when the wife asks you waht time it is and you tell her
it's, say, 4:15. And your eight-year-old says, "No, daddy. It's
actually 4:13 and 18 seconds. It's not 4:15. You're lying!" (True
story!) How can you argue?! The kid was 'technically' right.
Extremely nitpicky and sort of anal but, technically right.

I don't want to start yet another flame war that goes off on another
tangent but I, myself, have to disagree with the original poster
because I do believe there was a man who lived on this earth who DID
know everything that was and ever will be known about woodworking and
he was a carpenter who lived 2,000 years ago who was later hung on a
cross.

If enybody knew everything there is to know about wood (and
woodworking and everything else), it was Him.

(I am ready to take the hits now.)










(D. A. Clark) wrote in message . com...
"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,
In seeking an answer to living trade, I cannot accept the 'just
because' or the 'natural challenge' thesis as the whole of
understanding. 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.
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.


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 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. 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?