Endangered crafts

[Sheffield Tony]

Did you know that both plane making and saw making have been identified in a list of Critically endangered crafts by the Heritage Crafts Association ?

What's more, there is even a sum of money to be awarded for continuing the crafts on their list. Mind you, it is a £1000 and there are 62 crafts listed as endangered or critically endangered.

 

[NazNomad]

What an amazingly interesting, but very depressing list.

 

[thetyreman]

damn it, I know a lacrosse player, if only I got into woodworking 10 years ago, could have sold him a stick...

 

[custard]

No one sheds a tear when demand evaporates for a product manufactured on an industrial scale. Unlike clay pipes there's no sense of loss regarding the manufacturing processes of floppy discs or slide rules.

Yet if demand for handmade clay pipes were to come surging back, then in pretty short order there'd be more clay pipe makers than you could shake a stick at. Human ingenuity figured out how to make clay pipes by hand, and human ingenuity can easily do it again.

I'm not so sure that hand skills even deserve labels like "endangered", human ingenuity can't recreate a Polar Bear or a Rhino. Unlike clay pipes, once they're gone they're gone for good.

 

[cowfoot]

No one sheds a tear when demand evaporates for a product manufactured on an industrial scale. Unlike clay pipes there's no sense of loss regarding the manufacturing processes of floppy discs or slide rules.

Yet if demand for handmade clay pipes were to come surging back, then in pretty short order there'd be more clay pipe makers than you could shake a stick at. Human ingenuity figured out how to make clay pipes by hand, and human ingenuity can easily do it again.

I'm not so sure that hand skills even deserve labels like "endangered", human ingenuity can't recreate a Polar Bear or a Rhino. Unlike clay pipes, once they're gone they're gone for good.

I’m not sure it’s quite so easy to relearn skills once they’re gone - some fields of creative activity are like a language, full of unique rules and idiosyncracies which it takes years to become comfortable with. If I can push the analogy further, it’s only by being immersed in a world of fellow-speakers that you’ll become truly fluent - and if the last person who speaks a certain tongue croaks it, it diminishes us all.

 

[D_W]

No one sheds a tear when demand evaporates for a product manufactured on an industrial scale. Unlike clay pipes there's no sense of loss regarding the manufacturing processes of floppy discs or slide rules.

Yet if demand for handmade clay pipes were to come surging back, then in pretty short order there'd be more clay pipe makers than you could shake a stick at. Human ingenuity figured out how to make clay pipes by hand, and human ingenuity can easily do it again.

I'm not so sure that hand skills even deserve labels like "endangered", human ingenuity can't recreate a Polar Bear or a Rhino. Unlike clay pipes, once they're gone they're gone for good.

I agree - it's not going anywhere (hand tool woodworking). It may exist more in the amateur sphere, but gone from that sphere will be bosses who are yelling "faster" or saying that you won't get paid if you don't meet quota.

Bricklaying by hand will probably be gone from over here at some point. There's already an assistant (robot) that works with the bricklayers on sites around here, including union sites. We can romanticize it then once that occurs. One of our local non-union masons where I grew up is famous for saying "is that all you got done?" to his bricklayers, no matter how fast they work.

 

[NazNomad]

I think people are missing the point that... "A heritage craft is considered to be viable if there are sufficient craftspeople to transmit the craft skills to the next generation."

How many of us are showing the next generation how to do anything except stare at the screen of an iPhone?

 

[D_W]

I think people are missing the point that... "A heritage craft is considered to be viable if there are sufficient craftspeople to transmit the craft skills to the next generation."

How many of us are showing the next generation how to do anything except stare at the screen of an iPhone?

We've got a generation of green woodworkers and chairmakers in the US who were not taught by anyone. Now, they are teaching people (there are a lot of schools over here teaching the various crafts as sort of getaway things to some folks, and true art community career options to others).

 

[Sheffield Tony]

We've got a generation of green woodworkers and chairmakers in the US who were not taught by anyone. Now, they are teaching people (there are a lot of schools over here teaching the various crafts as sort of getaway things to some folks, and true art community career options to others).

I think I'm right in saying that Robin Wood, chair of the Heritage Crafts Association, learned for himself how to turn (on a manual lathe) wooden bowls by studying the tools of the late George Lailey (1869–1958), the last professional bowl turner in the UK. So crafts can be ressurected. Mind you, it was probably never truly dead, wooden vessels are turned all over the world to this date - Romanian flasks, Chinese rice bowls, etc, etc.

"Well, thank God, I found that the Forgotten Arts are not completely forgotten at all. There is not a human skill that was ever developed that is not still practiced somewhere on this planet. And, what's more, almost everywhere in the so-called developed world at least, there are the beginnings of a revival of the ancient arts and crafts. More and more people are demanding good craftsmenship" - John Seymour, The Forgotten Arts

Incidentally, I only put up the original post because I know there are some saw and plane makers on here who might be interested to know that they are critically endangered :wink:, and just maybe could benefit.

 

[D_W]

I didn't read the list before my above post. Apologies for that. There's a few on that list that I'm pretty sure nobody in the states is practicing!

My parents make some income on the craft scene. There are some folks practicing trades there that you'd not expect to see outside of the Amish. One of their good friends on the circuit makes brooms. One type. That's it. He gets his raw materials, sets up his booth, has a few bins full of brooms and makes brooms while he's there - which is a real draw. It is, apparently, still profitable to hand make and sell a better broom than what's available at retailers here - and do it at the same price.

Presume piano making is a UK only issue, as it's still done here, and the Amish still make collars and carriages.

 

[thetyreman]

the list is very revealing, look at how few businesses and craftsmen or women there are in the north of england!

 

[cowfoot]

I’ve just forwarded the prize info to someone I know who does chair caning in Alston, Cumbria. Being miles from anywhere = cheap workshop space!

 

[Dovetaildave]

"if the last person who speaks a certain tongue croaks it, it diminishes us all"

Ha Ha Ha, there are some guys in my local who can speak ....Croak (hammer)

 

[Dovetaildave]

"Fly dressing"..........I say Jeeves (hammer)