I am hoping that we can get back to respecting the trades as a path for a serious person who doesn't want or need to attend university. We need good tradespeople. It is an honorable and fulfilling career, and shouldn't be treated as some sort of dumping ground for those who "can't make it".

whoa! Hey!pull the reins back on those horses. My great grandfather was a steel worker he was honored with setting the last I beam of LA City Hall. I remember him sitting me on his lap and said said boy the only thing I want you to pick up when you get to my age is this! It was a VOM. I have since traded it in for a mass gas chromatograph. And me and my brothers split and still use today is very heavy tools.

 

whoa! Hey!pull the reins back on those horses. My great grandfather was a steel worker he was honored with setting the last I beam of LA City Hall. I remember him sitting me on his lap and said said boy the only thing I want you to pick up when you get to my age is this! It was a VOM. I have since traded it in for a mass gas chromatograph. And me and my brothers split and still use today is very heavy tools.

I don't understand what you want me to pull back on.

 

My mistake .I thought you were attacking me.

 

My mistake .I thought you were attacking me.

Not even slightly, I was emphasizing what I thought was your point. Sorry if there was any way it seemed otherwise.

 

Well thank goodness for that because I was thinking of going back to the earliest post you've ever made and giving you a thumbs up all the way back to here

 

Couple of years back I met a sweet dental assistant that was going to perform a cleaning. After a half hour of her running her little buffer, I stopped her and said, listen, when I go to the dentist to get a cleaning, I expect a pick and some muscle, a good workout. Oh no, I can’t do that, she says, as she buffs away. Found a new dentist.

As an apprentice mechanic in the mid 70’s, I had the pleasure of being mentored by a group of European tradesmen who were true craftsmen. Times are certainly different today.

 

Well, modern conduit bending is certainly advanced!

Conduit bending, wiping lead, stone mason etc, are some of the manual method that have been lost forever, unless someone recreates them, one of my interest is the History channel re construction on a few.
One I liked was the re-creation of the worlds most feared medievil sword, the Ulfberht . It can still be found on video or youtube etc.

 

If there is a historical recreation site near you, you can find many examples of lost arts. In the Boston area, we have Plimoth Plantation (colonial crafts), Mystic Seaport (shipbuilding and maintenance), Sturbridge Village (later Colonial era and farming). Plus the whaling museum, textiles museum and many others...

 

When my Grandfather passed away he left some "working man's" tools. Not that he ever used them but for the men he would hire to use. Block and tackle, 12 lb Sledgehammer, Pickaxe, Axes, Bush Axe, Peavy, Crosscut Saws, Adze, Hand Saws, Wood Planes, Brace and Bits, Drawknives, Mattocks, manual Reel Lawnmower, Wheelbarrow, etc. and various small hand tools. I've still got them, not that I ever needed or used them. He didn't own any power tools unless you count the Electric Washing Machine and Well Pump.

 

I still have some hand tools that were made with handle material before there were plastics.
The material of choice for Awl's, screwdrivers, planes, etc , was Box wood, very hard and dense, I even have a screw mechanism wine bottle opener made of box, with a acme thread turned in to it.

 

I had some woodworking tools from my great-grandfather. Bit braces, spoke shaves, straight and curved planes, wood mallets and others. He was the head craftsman at Harvard University and one handedly built their racing shells.

 

I was never a craftsman with either, but I know how to write in cursive and how to use one of these. I doubt my grandchildren will learn either. I hope not.

 

Yup, I lugged a huge Royal around that I bought in high school for many years. One of the first computer applications I bought was a word processor program.

 

I still have the tools and materials to make wiped joints in lead pipe that belonged to my father. (Plumbers solder, tallow flux, moleskin cloth and a clamp to hold the pieces of lead pipe in position.) It must be about 40 years since I last made a wiped joint. My father had taught me how to do it probably when I was in my teens. I also remember using a hammer and star bit to make holes in brickwork for rawlplugs wile helping my father.

Les.

 

Somewhere in my cellar full of relics are PC board transfer sheets with traces and component pads that you burnish onto copper clad boards for a custom circuit board design. Back then it was impossible to conceive of doing this with a computer.

 

I still have some hand tools that were made with handle material before there were plastics.
The material of choice for Awl's, screwdrivers, planes, etc , was Box wood, very hard and dense, I even have a screw mechanism wine bottle opener made of box, with a acme thread turned in to it.

I have, and still use, a hand drill with wooden handles that was my Dad's.

 

The oldest tool I have is my brain...well at least for now.

 

I was never a craftsman with either, but I know how to write in cursive and how to use one of these. I doubt my grandchildren will learn either. I hope not.

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Yup, I lugged a huge Royal around that I bought in high school for many years. One of the first computer applications I bought was a word processor program.

I still have the tools and materials to make wiped joints in lead pipe that belonged to my father. (Plumbers solder, tallow flux, moleskin cloth and a clamp to hold the pieces of lead pipe in position.) It must be about 40 years since I last made a wiped joint. My father had taught me how to do it probably when I was in my teens. I also remember using a hammer and star bit to make holes in brickwork for rawlplugs wile helping my father.

Les.

I have, and still use, a hand drill with wooden handles that was my Dad's.

Now we are really dating ourselves lol

I feel like we should all be put in the Smithsonian.

kv

 

Hand-drawning anything.
Could be anything; schematics, mechanical drawings or architectural plans.

First an outline with a hard pencil 3H such that corrections could be made, and then the final drawing in ink.
Of course a good drawing table close to a large window, full of rulers and templates.

I cherished my K+E pen set.
Those were the best, for real drafts people.

 

I have my slide rule in a glass fronted case on the wall with "In Case Of Battery Failure, Break Glass".