Sometimes “the way we used to do things” is pure nostalgia, not something better, maybe as good, but often worse. However that’s not always the case. I’m sure many of you have experienced seeing a younger person working a job you have done and using a “new” tool to do something it’s just not right for because they don’t even know about the “old way”.
I’ve seen this many times, but a signal incident for me was watching a very competent crew of electricians rewIring one of my buildings for new network infrastructure. The building went up in the 30s and had bearing walls of hardened brick throughout. It was an academic building in the old style. The cable runs had to penetrate these walls in a few spots.
To do this, they were using $300 2” carbide drills (foolishly, not in a hammer drill, but that’s a separate issue). It took an hour or so total to drill a hole and destroyed a bit with each one. With a proper hammer drill it would have gone faster and preserved the bit but even that wasn’t needed. I asked them if they had a star drill and they look at me blankly. I pointed out that a few feet form these pretty hole was a jagged one that probably took about 10 minutes to make, using a star drill. A tool they’d never even heard of.
This is probably because they’d never had to make holes in hardened masonry before since building aren’t built that way. In this case the cosmetics didn’t matter, so the hole could be made and sleeved, in less time, without sacrificing tools.
Today I have a very nice hammer drill, a Bosch Bulldog with a 1” capacity, and lovely carbide bits for it, but I also have a star drill and a drilling hammer and know when to use them. As we lose senior people, the younger ones don’t get the transfer of craft and knowledge and so some things get much better while others get much worse or have to be re-“discovered”. Some percentage of Innovation is actually just a new wheel, and it’s not even as good as the old one since it doesn’t have the benefit of long evolution.
I would guess you can tell your own stories of lost craft. I’d like to hear them.
NOTE: the closest I can find today to the star chisel is a bullpoint. So I can’t even buy a new one if I want it.
I’ve seen this many times, but a signal incident for me was watching a very competent crew of electricians rewIring one of my buildings for new network infrastructure. The building went up in the 30s and had bearing walls of hardened brick throughout. It was an academic building in the old style. The cable runs had to penetrate these walls in a few spots.
To do this, they were using $300 2” carbide drills (foolishly, not in a hammer drill, but that’s a separate issue). It took an hour or so total to drill a hole and destroyed a bit with each one. With a proper hammer drill it would have gone faster and preserved the bit but even that wasn’t needed. I asked them if they had a star drill and they look at me blankly. I pointed out that a few feet form these pretty hole was a jagged one that probably took about 10 minutes to make, using a star drill. A tool they’d never even heard of.
This is probably because they’d never had to make holes in hardened masonry before since building aren’t built that way. In this case the cosmetics didn’t matter, so the hole could be made and sleeved, in less time, without sacrificing tools.
Today I have a very nice hammer drill, a Bosch Bulldog with a 1” capacity, and lovely carbide bits for it, but I also have a star drill and a drilling hammer and know when to use them. As we lose senior people, the younger ones don’t get the transfer of craft and knowledge and so some things get much better while others get much worse or have to be re-“discovered”. Some percentage of Innovation is actually just a new wheel, and it’s not even as good as the old one since it doesn’t have the benefit of long evolution.
I would guess you can tell your own stories of lost craft. I’d like to hear them.
NOTE: the closest I can find today to the star chisel is a bullpoint. So I can’t even buy a new one if I want it.
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