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Eli the Bearded Eli the Bearded is offline
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Posts: 125
Default What's your game changer?

In rec.woodworking,
John Grossbohlin wrote:
While I had seen Norm and Roy on TV for quite some time it was working at
Colonial Williamsburg, VA in the Gunsmith Shop in the mid '80s that was a
turning point for me. While there I spent a lot of time visiting the shops
for all the various trades. The result of that is I came to understand and
appreciate that most of the world was built without electron power and that
excellent work could be done with hand tools. Before that I believed that
power tools were a necessity...


I read _Craeft_ (Cræft) by Alexander Langlands last year. He attributes
the death / dying of true craft to the availability of power tools (not
just electron power, but anything more than human hand). Power removes
the connection between human and the material. He doesn't deny that
things can be made faster or well with power tools, but he does argue
that there is a loss of understanding of material that comes from the
mediating effect of just being able to apply more force faster.

That said, while I have a lot of hand tools I also have a lot of large
stationary tools and tailed hand tools. I recently added a power feed to my
shop for upcoming molding and flooring projects. I continue to add to the
hand tools via restoration of myriad tools I've "inherited."


I love a good handtool, but I have limited space, limited money, limited
time. And no source of tools to inherit. I'm going to have to content
myself with never finding the craft Langlands admires in myself.

My projects have tended towards crude or small, eg:

https://qaz.wtf/qz/blosxom/2020/05/15/mini-drawers

But I find some satisfaction in being able to make the things I need.

Elijah
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thinks Langlands book could have used more illustrations to explain stuff