Traditional crafts of the future, what might they be, and how will they be made?

[Awac]

Traditional crafts of the future, what might they be, and how will they be made?

The first people probably used their finger nails to scrape a shape from piece of wood. Then purpose made hand tools developed, followed by power tools and now computer aided design, what next?
I have seen a couple of discussions where people champion Hand made against power tool as the pure form of woodworking. Can you imagine after years of Axe and Adze to make planks, someone strolls in with a saw and starts cutting? Can you imagine the uproar? Ok, ok I am being facetious, but you get the gist. My point is, what is traditional now changes in the future, so how do you see “craft” developing, or will it just stay as it is now?

 

[Jacob]

In one sense of "traditional crafts" the answer is easy - they'll be trying to do things then the way we do them now. They'll be fiddling about with 500 year old Festool kit, poring through 500 year old Axminster catalogues to identify mysterious objects, desperately trying to work out a use for honing jigs and so on.
But it's anybody's guess how future crafts will change. On the face of it climate change could take us back to the stone age, or iron age - there'll be plenty of scrap iron lying about. Or we might have improved AI and productivity to such an extent that 99% of the population live in utopian retirement, doing interesting things, or not, as the case may be! Actually that is the least likely come to think - most of those futuristic 50s forecast of the nuclear age and the 3 day week haven't happened yet!

 

[Cabinetman]

Interesting question Awac, I think it’s probable that dinosaurs like me who use hand tools will be viewed as having techniques that belong in a museum, it’s the same sort of idea that sees allsorts of arts and crafts exhibited at places like the Weald and Downland Museum, people using pole lathes hand brick making, thatching, dear God planing a piece of wood is almost disappearing into the dark ages, even on a beacon of hope such as this a lot of people are saying they going to sand wood instead of planing it. Rant! Ian

 

[Richard_C]

Scratching pictures on the cave walls to pass the time between hunting for elk, fighting off intruders and felling trees for the fire. Maybe a bit of decorative whittling. Those few that survive after a renegade nuclear or chemical weapon attack causes the US President to retaliate and press the big red button and the whole world joins in.

Always keep a piece of flint in your pocket and keep practicing those drawings.

(Came close in '63)

 

[TRITON]

With frikken lasers

Though I reckon turners will still be revolving things and scraping at it till a candlestick appears.

 

[billw]

You won't make stuff any more, you'll just show a photo to your synthetic human assistant and he'll pop into the garage and knock it up for you, ordering everything needed online in 3 seconds flat. Question is, will it use hand tools or power tools?

 

[akirk]

There will still be those who enjoy the process, and those for whom it is about the outcome - some enjoy both (it is why I have hand tools and power tools!). Where it is about the outcome it will be increasingly CNC style tools - i.e. power tools with a computer attached (hence the shaper origin router etc.) - those using hand tools, probably won't be much different to now...

 

[Awac]

With frikken lasers

Though I reckon turners will still be revolving things and scraping at it till a candlestick appears.

Frikken lazers! thank you Dr Evil.....

 

[Awac]

We have to piece together some things from the past even now...please give me the definitive answer of what the nib on the end of a hand saw was used for! Jacob, even now I am desperately trying to work some things out!

They'll be fiddling about with 500 year old Festool kit, poring through 500 year old Axminster catalogues to identify mysterious objects, desperately trying to work out a use for honing jigs and so on

Maybe we have to start referring to the idea of tradition as eras in order to preserve?
Pre power tool?
Pre PC?
Pre AI?
Gulp, post AI! Have fun, come up with some names!

Would this description fit hand tool work, pencil and paper or pc drawing software?
Ruskin had argued that the separation of the intellectual act of design from the manual act of physical creation was both socially and aesthetically damaging.

Would this allow use of power tools/CAD/small scale production whilst retaining a traditional title for the future?
Morris further developed this idea, insisting that no work should be carried out in his workshops before he had personally mastered the appropriate techniques and materials, arguing that "without dignified, creative human occupation people became disconnected from life"

When AI takes over the design and manufacture, that's when it gets boring for us humans.
"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race….It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded". Stephen Hawking.

Thanks Stephen.

Play it again Morris-"without dignified, creative human occupation people became disconnected from life."

 

[Awac]

Interesting question Awac, I think it’s probable that dinosaurs like me who use hand tools will be viewed as having techniques that belong in a museum, it’s the same sort of idea that sees allsorts of arts and crafts exhibited at places like the Weald and Downland Museum, people using pole lathes hand brick making, thatching, dear God planing a piece of wood is almost disappearing into the dark ages, even on a beacon of hope such as this a lot of people are saying they going to sand wood instead of planing it. Rant! Ian

Has been known to go and plane a piece of wood just to plane a piece of wood, works wonders when in a foul mood...zzzzip. Much better person after a plane treatment.

 

[Awac]

Scratching pictures on the cave walls to pass the time between hunting for elk, fighting off intruders and felling trees for the fire. Maybe a bit of decorative whittling. Those few that survive after a renegade nuclear or chemical weapon attack causes the US President to retaliate and press the big red button and the whole world joins in.

Always keep a piece of flint in your pocket and keep practicing those drawings.

(Came close in '63)

I knew their was a reason for my spoon carving.....

 

[Awac]

You won't make stuff any more, you'll just show a photo to your synthetic human assistant and he'll pop into the garage and knock it up for you, ordering everything needed online in 3 seconds flat. Question is, will it use hand tools or power tools?

Bill, are you saying you already have a synthetic human assistant? Something to share with the forum?

Hand tools, it will be programmed to annoy you saying "Fox wedged tenons are so easy, I never miscalculate and leave it a little proud, and of course you can't get it apart again" er what?

 

[Jacob]

We have to piece together some things from the past even now...please give me the definitive answer of what the nib on the end of a hand saw was used for! Jacob, even now I am desperately trying to work some things out!


.....

I explained about the nib here, only the other day! Hand saw buying advice
Nib theory is very odd - whole generations of woodworkers go around saying they don't know what the nib is for - because they've been told this by an old chap who had forgotten, but should have known better! Amazing! Not least because it is glaringly obvious.
Could make a Monty Python sketch, people wandering around clutching something obvious like a bottle opener and saying "yes it does open bottles but we are told and we believe that nobody really knows what it's for"

 

[Awac]

I explained about the nib here, only the other day! Hand saw buying advice
Nib theory is very odd - whole generations of woodworkers go around saying they don't know what the nib is for - because they've been told this by an old chap who had forgotten, but should have known better! Amazing! Not least because it is glaringly obvious.
Could make a Monty Python sketch, people wandering around clutching something obvious like a bottle opener and saying "yes it does open bottles but we are told and we believe that nobody really knows what it's for"

Disston 1912 Handbook on saws.
I agree with you that for me is the most probable explanation (and one I feel most comfortable with). I have heard others, such as held the string for a tooth cover, showed the length for a finer tooth pitch for starting a saw cut (progressive), scoring a marking line etc.

This really points out how even if something is recorded, people still have different views. I would have thought Disston 1912 would have still had the knowlage of great saw making, but perhaps they had lost the reason of why they were putting it on by then!

Perhaps a fish dance with saws?

 

[Jacob]

View attachment 98553
Disston 1912 Handbook on saws.
I agree with you that for me is the most probable explanation (and one I feel most comfortable with). I have heard others, such as held the string for a tooth cover, showed the length for a finer tooth pitch for starting a saw cut (progressive), scoring a marking line etc.

This really points out how even if something is recorded, people still have different views. I would have thought Disston 1912 would have still had the knowlage of great saw making, but perhaps they had lost the reason of why they were putting it on by then!

Perhaps a fish dance with saws?

You are just repeating the monty python sketch!
It's use as a depth marker is blatantly obvious and in fact useful. Must have saved many blades in the hands of inexperienced or new users.
We were advised to put felt tip marks on new saws (which don't have nibs usually).
I'd hadn't given it a thought until I first used one of the two saws in that thread. I was getting into it with full strokes and thought "oops how long is this saw" - just as the nib appearing, saying "this long"
That the author of the handbook had forgotten, or never knew this, is irrelevant. Books are full of errors, modern ones especially.

 

[TRITON]

I knew their was a reason for my spoon carving.....

Saw a great idea/pic for a carved spoon. And as ever wish I'd though of it

 

[Awac]

You are just repeating the monty python sketch!

That the author of the handbook had forgotten, or never knew this, is irrelevant. Books are full of errors, modern ones especially.

No I'm not! Another great sketch....

The author was the Disston saw works in 1912.....are you saying Disston don't know their nib from their rear, er, handle.... Ooooh, when the American Disston society hear about this you'll be sorry! LOL.

The point I found interesting is that a saw manufacturer recorded the nib as of no use in their own literature in 1912. If we accept the nib has a use, and not merely ornamentation, it shows how quick information is lost, even by people who make and use the tools! I best stop about nibs, I can really go on about them perhaps another thread....what would Freud make of it...

 

[Awac]

Saw a great idea/pic for a carved spoon. And as ever wish I'd though of it
View attachment 98559

Great idea. I was just thinking, remarkably clean working area, when I carve a spoon it looks like a beaver on acid has gone on a rampage, I don't think a chainsaw could make as much mess...best of all a great excuse to buy more axes than what would be considered normal..one thing about spoon carving is that it teaches you how different woods which you might not be able to afford react. I just love Hornbeam....

 

[Jacob]

No I'm not! Another great sketch....

The author was the Disston saw works in 1912.....are you saying Disston don't know their nib from their rear, er, handle.... Ooooh, when the American Disston society hear about this you'll be sorry! LOL.

They should be pleased that the mystery has finally been solved, and give me a free saw!

The point I found interesting is that a saw manufacturer recorded the nib as of no use in their own literature in 1912. If we accept the nib has a use, and not merely ornamentation, it shows how quick information is lost, even by people who make and use the tools! I best stop about nibs, I can really go on about them perhaps another thread....what would Freud make of it...

Another clue is that they are not very ornamental - though in fact they are on some very old saws.
The nib is useful if you are a novice or if you are handling an unfamiliar saw - but an experienced user wouldn't need it and might forget. But we were told to put felt tip marks at about 4", when I did a course early on.
I guess the handbook wasn't proof read or somebody might have spotted the error. They do happen.

 

[Awac]

Will "freehand" routing be seen in the same light/reverence as say moulding planes? You hold them both in your hand and you guide them. Is it already thought of as so?
Luddites protested against manufacturers who used machines in what they called "a fraudulent and deceitful manner" but now using a non powered loom is seen as really hard core traditional.
Is this the same?
Should we recognise power tool (non-computor assisted) usage as the modern traditional?
Should we have a union of Traditional and modern traditional against the oncoming orcs of artificial Intelligence?

Not if, but when AI starts, it will absorb the world of men (see what I did there eh? Orcs, world of men....oh never mind..) and if no definition is made clear now, will what we do now disappear?

Blimey, I am heading for a dystopian nightmare tonight, don't eat cheese...