[TheForge] Scroll maker/hydraulic hammer

[Andy Vida]

Ries Niemi wrote:

> Which brings up the question- Is the tool evil? That is, if you can
> just buy a machine that makes good looking scrolls, or perfect twists,
> is it somehow inherently evil because it replaces hand labor?

	I'd imagine the answer to this lies in the heart of each
	individual.  It might, in some mental context, be a sad
	by-product of the business culture's quest for ever greater
	profit (which, IMO has gone simple over the past decade).
	In this context it seems the expectations of profit have
	far outstripped the considerations for the people that
	make those profits for the shareholders.  This shows, in
	most candid fashion, the bloodless nature of the proverbial
	stockholder who isn't consciously out to screw the worker
	but is so absorbed with ever higher dividends that the worker
	doesn't even enter into their mental landscape.  This is the
	kind of thinking that got the French and Russian aristocracies
	wiped out in bloody revolutions.  The Froggies and Russkies
	up top, if histories are to be believed, weren't even aware
	that anything was amiss.  Duh.

	One is not required to consider such people, and in fact
	can work them until they drop or quit, in terms of 
	so-called "morals".  But there are material consequences
	that arise with any act, as we are all well aware.  While
	one is not in any way constrained to consider the welfare of
	employees beyond what is required by law, the eventual
	fallout of such callous attitudes will almost certainly make
	its effect felt.  That such inane pursuit of profit has
	become essentially a global practice would only seem to 
	indicate that the eventual effects of collapse will spread
	across a playing field of that size.  And just as an aside,
	it appears to me that such single minded pursuit of profit
	indicates a singularly morbid state of unhappiness with one's
	life.  This is only my opinion.

	The great captains of industry, such as they may be today,
	still don't seem to get the idea that treating your people
	well will pay the greatest dividends over the long term.
	That they act in the fashion inconsistent with this tells me 
	either they do not get it or they don't want to get it.  Either
	way, the attitide is bad for everyone, including the shareholder.

	As for blacksmithing... I guess it really boils down to what
	is considered essential by the makers and the consumers.
	Personally, I see hand work as being far closer to desireable 
	art than something a machine vomits out in precise, monotonously
	perfect uniformity.  Does the consumer want real art?  Probably
	the answer is a resounding "yes", but when we ask if they are
	willing to PAY for that art, the answer usually changes
	significantly.  They want SOMETHING, and machine produced work
	at a price they are willing to pay is, in my experience, most
	often preferable to the "real thing" whose price is more than
	they wish to part with.


> Personally, I think the thing that is missing from all the premade
> pickets is good design, which is why I would never buy any of them.
> After you have hand forged a couple of hundred basket twists, as we did
> on a job a couple of years ago, you lose your desire to prove you can
> do it.

	This is painfully true.  The fact is, at least for this boy,
	that production work sucks moose.

> It becomes more important whether you can buy something that is
> as good as what you can make.  So I am not saying I wouldnt buy premade
> parts, but most of the stuff I have seen commercially made looks wrong
> somehow.

	Well, I dunno... I've used OTS elements such as leaves and
	that sort of thing.  I think that the simpler an element is, 
	the greater your chances of employing them in a pleasing
	manner.  As I've said before, finances will dictate the actual
	product outcome more often than aesthetics.  There are
	exceptions to this, and when those opportunities come along
	you ride them for all you can in terms of enjoying your art
	and craft.


> When computers first came out, I had a lot of graphic designer friends
> who said they would never be as good as hand drawn and laid out work.
> Of course, they were wrong, and many of those same people now use
> computers. Because a tool is only as good as the mind and hands using
> it.

	Very true.  When I worked at Bell Labs, AT&T went through this
	extended period of cluelessness regarding software tools.  They
	really thought that the tools were going to make them 
	trillionaires in under ten minutes.  My friend Dan and I had
	a saying printed up in our cubes that read "a fool with a tool
	is still a fool".  Needless to say, we pissed everyone off
	around us because we refused to get on the tools-are-God
	bandwagon.  We're still pissing everyone off around us, though
	we're more subtle about it than we were 17 years ago. :)

	Without skill, a tool is next to worthless, and sometimes less
	than that.

	I find it interesting to note that my beloved daughter refuses
	to use computers for any of her art.  She despises digital
	photography, prefering her Canon F-1N to her digital camera.
	She doesn't regard digital photography as "real".  It just
	makes me smile to hear her say things like this.

> I think the same principal applies to these fancy german ornamental
> iron machines. Several companies are selling mass produced "hand
> forged" items made on these machines, and they dont look very good. But
> the guys who are running the machines are just punching the clock,
> running parts all day.

	That's not art.  That's mass produced monotony.

> Not to blow my own horn, but since I bought my Hebo, I have been doing
> all sorts of stuff with it that is not shown in the catalog, that the
> germans have probably never thought of. The thing is amazing in its
> power and control, and I am just beginning to think of possiblities.
> Plus it allows me to design a piece with 300 identical twists in it,
> and have my 9 year old run them for me in a couple of hours.

	Don't let the authorities catch wind of this. :)

> So I am
> convinced that in the right hands, any tool can produce new and
> interesting work, and in bored and uninspired hands, it will produce
> boring and uninspiring work

	Nail on head.  A tool is just that and nothing more.  Without
	the living spirit behind it, it is nothing much.