Hand or Machine?

[Macaroon]

I watched this yesterday and again this morning, and it's had me thinking hard about a dilemna that I think may not be mine alone. I'll be 68 in a week or so and I'm quite happy with things in general, I'm just now beginning to have the time to myself to enjoy doing all the things that most folk look forward to doing in retirement. I'm approaching the end of a workshop build at the back of the house that's taken an awful long time, replaced many tools that were damaged and/or stolen at the last place I rented and as soon as I get a dry day I'll run the electric
to it and be ready to get going.

Sounds idyllic, eh? The big fly in the ointment, though, is the decline in physical performance; due to quite bad arthritis I no longer have the strength or dexterity in my hands to do many of the things I was able to do easily
even a few years ago, and certainly not to do many of the carving of small wooden things that require the strength to firstly hold a piece and, secondly to use the tools without carving a few kilos from myself. I've always had a strangely inexplicable reluctance to entertain all the power options that are now available, but having seen what that guy does, and how he does it, I'm beginning to change my attitude. Just think how our predecessors would have jumped at the technology available to us now.

I'd love to hear what folk feel about this, but without just plain old 'by hand is the only true way' and without any
rancour on either side of the discussion. I'm fairly sure there are folk here who face the same issues as me, to a greater or lesser extent and I'd really like to have your opinions.

 

[MrEd]

To be honest, and this is from someone that also has some physcial limitations that have got worse with age/use, do what makes you happy. Ignore the purists. If you use power tools and enjoy the process of creating then just do it.

Crack on I say!

 

[Kepis]

Im just getting over a nasty autoimmune disease that left me paralysed, needed to learn how to walk again (still learning) and it also affected all of my joints giving symptoms similar to chronic arthritis, my dexterity went out the window as did my strength, so i can sympathise as to how you feel, the only difference is im going to get better, but i look at it as training for 40 years time .

The way i see it, is if the ancestors had access to modern tools they would use them, or put it this way, 6000 years ago stone age man used the latest and greatest technology, we use the latest and greatest and in 6000 years time our descendants will look back at our lithium batteries and cordless tools with the same fascination as we do a flint axe.

Back to the present, carving and greenwood work has certainly helped me with my recovery and has helped with my dexterity, what used to take three afternoons to part out and build i can now do in an afternoon, and yep, i also use modern tools, i have a small bandsaw, a drill and a couple of sanders (belt and random orbit), i dont use them all the time, but they get used, so i say, go for it, if modern technology is going to give you a new lease of life then use it and enjoy the process.

 

[Robson Valley]

Power carving. I don't blink if that's what you do. Carve on, dude!

If that's what you can muster with your challenges, good for you for doing something.
Most bone and stone carvers have smartened up and use power tools. Live is short enough as it is.

Some years back, I made the acquaintance of a wood carver in the UK.
He had quite severe muscle tremors.
As long as he got the gouge into the wood, he could finish the cut.
He wanted to sign his work and couldn't write or carve it.
So I carved him a custom steel branding iron of his design to brand his works.

Just pay attention to dust management as you won't be making chips.

 

[Mesquite]

At the end of the day Mac the skill of the person using the tool is what makes a great carving, not whether it was a hand tool or a powered one.

All the latter does is makes it easier for the person doing the task and if it's needed due to medical reasons then go for it and hold your head high against 'purists'

 

[quietone]

For me, I watched the video a few days ago and thought, this chap uses power tools whenever possible, rather than hand tools, saving a lot of time and sweat. I'm still at an age that enables me to use hand tools, enjoying every minute of the carve. I'll definitely entertain the use of certain power tools when I'm too old to use certain hand tools. As said above, do what you feel is right for you, cram in as much as you can with wood, and your creations.

 

[Broch]

Firstly, that guy is a skilled craftsman anyway - it doesn't matter what his tools are.

There is nothing "impure" about using power tools in my opinion; it just takes a different set of skills. I know some carvers that would have difficulty applying the skills that bloke shows.

A great deal of the craft is in the art I think; if you can see it, plan it, and make it into something beautiful it's craft.

However, I'm not sure what the vibration of the power tools will do to your arthritis

 

[Janne]

I sgree with everybody. Use whatever tools you have. Absolutely nothing wrong with that!

Remember, people have always used the most up to date tech they could, be it a flint knife or a electric powertool.

The vast majority of the Same craftsmen today use powertools.

Purists? Well, does anybody brow their own flax so they can extract the oil for oiling?

 

[Billy-o]

William Morris, who was the leader of the Arts and Crafts Movement through the latter half of the nineteenth century, had a view that machines are just machines. The rightness and wrongness of them comes from how you use them not from any inherent quality they might have He said if they are used to mass produce rubbish commodities and make the lives of those involved in the manufacture of things miserable then they are bad. If they make your life easier and allow you to make beautiful things without having to ruin your eyesight or deform your fingers or posture, and free up time for you to read, go fishing or do good works then they themselves are good. He didn't like to fetishise handwork for its own sake.

He said it more or less here in an article from 1884 called Useful Work and Useless Toil - http://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt:31735061544049/viewer#page/8/mode/2up

There's other pdfs of it out there

If you ever get a chance, read his News From Nowhere. Lovely it is.

 

[Toddy]

You have my complete sympathy Mac.
I have had a year of being able to use my hands properly again, but the damned RA is back and I've been up since 3.30 with aching elbows, etc.,
I loved the ease of movement, the returning strength, the ability to create straight from mind and hand to finished 'thing'.
I sew by hand, but by heavens the sewing machine (sorry, thread injection device) is a brilliant tool and I have no qualms about using it.
Good tools are a blessing. I suspect you have chosen very carefully, are very able with them, and I think as the others have said, the skill and ability of the craftsman is in no way undermined by using them.
Billy-o's post resonates with me, it really does. Attention to detail and finish, good design and the rightness for the intended use, is not dependant on handcrafted or machine assisted.
I hope you have a lot of years of productive creativity in your new workshop

Kepis' gradual recovery is incredibly heartening. It's been a long haul, but every single item he makes helps mend more than his physical self, I reckon.
I believe humans are hard wired to make things, I think the whole process of doing so greatly enriches our lives, and does us as much mental good as physical good.

M

 

[Janne]

Kepis is an Artist!

 

[John Fenna]

I sew a lot - and use as much machinery as I can as hand sewing is (truely) a pain.... I carve some and if I had any dosh to buy decent power tools I would use them to the max - as it is I often rough out with power tools.
If it were not for the pain I would love to go "purist" on some stuff - but at the end of the day the results are all made by me using the skills I have built up and I have enjoyed the process so (power or Pure) they satisfy me.
Result!

 

[MrEd]

Firstly, that guy is a skilled craftsman anyway - it doesn't matter what his tools are.

There is nothing "impure" about using power tools in my opinion; it just takes a different set of skills. I know some carvers that would have difficulty applying the skills that bloke shows.

A great deal of the craft is in the art I think; if you can see it, plan it, and make it into something beautiful it's craft.

However, I'm not sure what the vibration of the power tools will do to your arthritis

May find that holding your hand in on shape with a power tool for ages might make that hand stiffen up more maybe?

 

[crosslandkelly]

I'd have no problems with that Mac, the skills are in the hands wielding the tools.

 

[Bishop]

If you hold the tool to the work, then it's craft. With mood, experience, muscle memory and plain old fashioned luck contributing to create something unique.

Bolting a block of wood into a cnc machine and saying "ah well, it's handmade because I created the template / cad file" lacks that human connection and such people deserve to be poked gently with a sharp stick.

 

[Tengu]

Id like to afford more powertools.

Horn and bone are such hard materials to work.

I have recently got a semi industrial sewing machine; a friends fettling it, -when I get it bak I can have fun

 

[Kepis]

Kepis' gradual recovery is incredibly heartening. It's been a long haul, but every single item he makes helps mend more than his physical self, I reckon.

M

You're not wrong, something about making connects with the soul, i have to make something everyday or at least do something each day that facilitates making something, otherwise i feel like i have let myself down.

 

[oldtimer]

I think Bishop has it about right. And as his tag line suggest, he is clearly a man who knows how to pick the right tool for the job!

I like to distinguish between a tool and a machine. Can the machine do something independent of your agency? If not, it is only another kind of tool. If it can endlessly reproduce items all the same it is only a machine. I do like the term "power tool" and think of them as different from a machine. I think this is what William Morris was getting at.

I can give you ten years and have no qualms about using a machine if it is the best tool for the job. In my own craft, pottery, I have the choice when throwing a pot between a leg powered kick wheel or an electric motor driven wheel: both are mechanical tools. But I also have the knowledge to make pots with only my hands and also with tools I have made myself by hand.

For me the test is whether the result is produced by the maker or the machine. If the machine is making a stage in production I see nothing wrong in that. Think electric drill or hand drill; file or grinder. Selecting the right tool for the job is part of the craft.. Ultimately it comes down to what satisfaction you get out of carrying out the project. I would hate to have to stop making because of physical infirmity just as I have no qualms about wearing spectacles to see what I am cutting or using this computer to add my two pennyworth rather than sending you all a hand-written letter.

..

 

[KenThis]

It's a different skillset perhaps but IMHO just as skilled to use power tools over traditional tools.
Use whatever method you can and enjoy.
Not worth worrying about if it's done the right way or not, if/when the finished piece gives you joy.

 

[KenThis]

If you hold the tool to the work, then it's craft. With mood, experience, muscle memory and plain old fashioned luck contributing to create something unique.

Bolting a block of wood into a cnc machine and saying "ah well, it's handmade because I created the template / cad file" lacks that human connection and such people deserve to be poked with a sharp stick.

If I had access to a CNC machine I'd happily use it and feel like I'd still have 'created' (perhaps not crafted). I have the utmost respect for artists and craftsmen, unfortunately whenever I try to craft something I only ever see the imperfections as flaws. Since my own skills often let me down I would welcome a machine to take my design and perfectly reproduce it. Please don't poke me with sharp sticks!