Hand-drawning anything.

My dad was a chemical engineer. I have his drawing set (precision German metal compass, protractor, etc.) and his french curves. I can remember him at the kitchen table on a weekend morning, getting some work done before us kids woke up.

 

The recent generations even don't have a chance for thinking about "Nostalgia", because everthing is gonna change fast ,in comparison with few decades ago.just like a runnung race you even don't get a while to look backward.

 

As a cadet in the Naval Academy, I was taught the common tasks to prepare, rig and maintain ropes and cables used in vessels, jointly with a flowery vocabulary and the inevitable knots.

Four or five of these last, allowed me to get out of difficult situations until not long ago.

Currently, in freighters, to find someone who knows something about all this, the best bet is to ask for the Bosun.

 

inevitable knots

...bends, splices and hitches..

 

...bends, splices and hitches..

Yes! The panoply (with their names' variations) is a humongous bunch.

An innocent, simple start



could bring you to a profesional result



In any case, make sure you use the right one for the occasion

 

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

Can’t find mine, long since gone lol 36 years ago.



Remember this meter maybe?

kv

 

I still have my entire collection, including the 6" circular and foot long Log-Log Duplex Deci-trig

 

I still have my entire collection, including the 6" circular and foot long Log-Log Duplex Deci-trig

A pic would be nice...

 

A pic would be nice...

I'll see what I can do

 

Recording 8-track tapes for quadraphonic playback?

 

Recording 8-track tapes for quadraphonic playback?

Who's that in the reflection?
Sweet 8-track!

 

Who's that in the reflection?
Sweet 8-track!

 

You're the coolest SOB I never met, I hate you!

 

You're the coolest SOB I never met, I hate you!

You've had a limited life experience if that's true. There's a heavy price to be paid for being a sorcerer.

 

Humble as well. you are now my nemesis.

 

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.

Well your point is proven! I'd never heard of a "star drill" and I'm no novice with tools, DIY etc., so I learned something today !

 

Well your point is proven! I'd never heard of a "star drill" and I'm no novice with tools, DIY etc., so I learned something today !

We used to use a hammer operated star chisel, before the onset of carbide masonry drills.

 

I know about a star drill from going to a museum. The display was about getting the tunnels dug under Donner Summit for the transcontinental railroad in the high Sierra. Back then the drills were pounded into the granite and rotated as it went. Even under the snow in winter. Sierra Nevada is Spanish for “Snowy Mountains” after all. Put the explosive in the hole, blow it off and you’re another few inches farther. Tough dudes, a lot of them Chinese. Read more about it here:

https://www.sierrasun.com/news/the-big-bore-conquering-the-sierra/

Regards.

 

Well your point is proven! I'd never heard of a "star drill" and I'm no novice with tools, DIY etc., so I learned something today !

When there wasn't even a single one for sale on Amazon I began to wonder if I had dreamed the whole thing...

 

This was my first hand drill as a teenager.


I prefer using the one I now have.