In a world where anyone can watch fifteen ways to sharpen a hand saw or to build a rail gun, is craftsmanship lost?
The New York Times reports that we are losing our craftsmanship skill set and spirit: the spirit that enabled GIs to modify tanks in Normandy to cut through hedgerows without needing Defense Contractor Consultants; the same spirit that had GIs up-armoring Humvees sixty years later on their own in what was essentially an act of mutiny.
We haven’t lost American ingenuity and capacity. We have stopped fostering it.
In a world of piano lessons and travel soccer starting at age 7, there isn’t a lot of time to fix your bicycle. With a helicopter mommy over your shoulder, one is unlikely to make a tennis ball cannon.
It’s hard to get excited by making thirty-five dollars an hour in a world of Money Guys making thirty-five bucks a minute. School districts have been only too happy to jettison Shop class as a sexist, dangerous, essentializing, vestigial skill set. We have gutted the trade unions and the apprentice system, and made it obvious that working for a living is tough to get excited about. As Jody Collier of Welding Tips and Tricks points out, where the hell are the certified welders who can pass a drug test?
The intrigue of Norm Abrams is not that he is a master craftsman, it is that he’s a guy who does. Norm is no rocket scientist; he is a guy who for some reason decided to make a living that included sweat. Abrams was the most vilified and divisive subject in the annals of the magazine Fine Woodworking—which is sort of the Harvard Law Review for it’s own subject.
Myself, I disagree with how he does some things—but then I spent 20 years in a tool belt and the next 20 supervising construction. I greatly admire his growth as an artisan and his practicality. Not everyone chooses to bring furniture to the masses under the nose of The North Bennet Street School—the MIT of furniture-making.
There is a resurgence in interest in traditional trades that is part a rediscovery of Persig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and part a practical reaction to the concept “you can’t turn a wrench over the Internet.” Additionally there is simple fact of the economy that the Money Guys are going to have to pay $135 an hour for a plumber and the 99% will have to do it themselves. Without it being taught in schools, increasingly people are becoming aware that the one percent don’t create wealth: they play games with the wealth the rest of us forge from raw materials.
While we have disconected from grandfathers and local shops that knew how to do things, the spirit of self sufficiency and craftmanship is thriving in the virtual village. There are 10 million do it your selfers wielding hand and battery driven tools, bragging about and sharing their prowess on YouTube. The only greater number of home made videos belonging to such enthusiastic do it yourselfers are in various stages of undress as they also wield battery powered tools with confidence.
Home Depot is like the soft porn you can get on the restricted channels at name brand hotels. Not quite the real down and dirty, but it has made tools and materials accessible to the masses. Clean, fresh smelling and well lit, it has seduced a generation into thinking they “can do it.” While Home Depot and Lowes have gutted the corner hardware stores and local lumber yards of this country for its helpful souls and crabby old guys who bent more nails than you’ll ever pound, it has allowed a nation of people the opportunity to dream of capability. And led more than a few to the real thing—which as often as not is accessible via the internet.
—Photo credit: Wallula Junction/Flickr
My truck is aging- I tend to run vehicles for 6-8 years…. Little things are starting to go wrong, the latest being the socket for the headlight lamp needed some tinkering 300 miles from home…… I’m playing with it and this awful worm creeps into my consciousness- am I a financial failure because I’m not horrified at having to deal with breakdowns? If I were scared would I be in a position to buy a new vehicle every 3 years? The dishwasher made a strange noise the other night- a normal guy would have clinched up at the prospect of… Read more »
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/07/29/world/asia/ap-as-indias-invention-hunter-photos.html?hp
SEHORE, India (AP) — Indian professor Anil Gupta has spent decades scouring the Indian countryside searching for unsung inventors in rural villages. He works in the belief that the most powerful ideas for relieving poverty and hardship in the country won’t come from corporate research labs but from those struggling to survive. He has documented 25,000 innovations from the bicycle-mounted crop sprayer to the bulletproof vest made of herbs. Here’s a look at some other innovations he’s found:…..
A good read on this subject: Shop Class as Soulcraft.
http://www.matthewbcrawford.com/
Chad- Crawford’s book is on my should read list. I cribbed the “can’t turn a wrench over the Internet” line from an interview with him. I figure it would be an interesting read from a mechanical view and intrigued by “he left his job as executive director at a think tank in Washington to open a motorcycle repair shop. “. I don’t know what that means- it beggars my imagination, thinking of cashing a check for thinking deep thoughts…… Do think tank guys look down at academians? Do they punch the clock in the shower? There are times, while puttering,… Read more »
@GirlGlad4TheGMP- what is the worst that could happen? It doesn’t work out at first and you do it again? You miss out on some TV? In the early 80s I had a girlfriend who made a cottage industry of Homer Fornsby & curb side furniture. @jameseq- now a pair of boots is impressive. And I can build the city of the future….. Underwater… All start with YouTube and then explore the blogs. The magazine Fine Woodworking did as much for my wood skills as any old boy I ever worked for. YouTube and cheap video cameras did more for my… Read more »
i agree ive been altering clothes. dressmaking/tailoring i still find tricky and exhausting, but it is so satisfying to do by hand. ive also had to construct my own dummy.
the online libraries such as youtube is amazing, and because of it im halfway through making a pair of boots. such a wealth of knowledge at our fingers, hopefully this leads to a revival of sorts for some of the craftskills that underpin society
Ooof this one hit home!!! I’m struggling right now with a few people in my life who are trying to convince me not to strip/refinish/reupholster some antique chairs. I’ve heard a host of arguments as to why I shouldn’t do it myself: I’m a girl and girls don’t do that, I have no experience, I’ll inhale toxic substances, I don’t have the tools, and of course, I’ll screw it up. All but the last are horribly lame excuses, and to me, don’t stack up to the considerable amount of money it would cost to have the work done (restorers must… Read more »
I can’t wait to see the finished upholstered chairs. Maybe add a little stitching on it. One that reads “F U to my haters.”. Also, believes that someone who can build a chair couldn’t reupholster?
Right! That’s what someone told my mother years ago. Then they asked her to reupholster things for them. One tip go down to the bare frame then build back up. At the library you can get upholstery text books. Look for fabric outlets, it needs to be heavy! Ebay is flooded with used industrial machines, but they can sew leather and fingers. Just remember there is a name for mistakes LEARNING. Each time you do it is a chance to learn from your mistakes.
Actually the tinker culture alive and well. Those who do now are hackers, programmers and tinker with quadrotors. You know, useful stuff. But by all means learn weld for the one time that skill will be useful.
More than once thank you. But we live in a world where one must be a polymath to survive. To make matters worse we are still hard wired to spot big cats on the savanna..