[TheForge] switchplate

[Andy Vida]

Jerry Frost wrote:

> Using one die to do it all is a mistake.

	In this case, I agree completely.  If you were knocking out
	100K of the same plates, a multiple-punch set would be the
	way to go, but for a few dozen, flexibility is the watchword.

> What I suggest takes nothing away from the craft, it simply eliminates what
> is basically drudge work.

	This gets back to the same old discussion about art & craft.
	I agree with you 100%.  If I could go back in time and give
	such equipment to the smiths of 500 years ago, they would
	be all over it in a split second.  Making a bunch of accurate
	rectangular holes by hand with chisels and files is for the
	birds and a major money sink.  These are non-artbearing and
	uninteresting (though crucial) technical details of the work,
	the method of manufacture of which is insignificant to the
	art of the product.

> If by our age we can't accurately measure and lay
> out our work we should probably seek another profession. <grin> What using
> labor/time saving tools and devices does is free us up to really apply our
> skills where they count.

	And what age is that, Jerry? :)

> Put yet another way I like the idea of making 10 $100 items in the same time
> as making 10 $10 items. Oh okay I have a conscience, I'd charge a fair price
> but being able to make the tooling has value as does the skill to do it by
> hand and I'd charge a sight more than $10.
> 
> Basically this is a class of tool that takes the pain out of production
> work, no different than an acorn die.

	I see no loss of art in laser-cutting the plate blanks.  I see
	more time spent on the "real" art.  Great skill is needed in
	blanking by hand.  What value is added to the final product?
	None.  Value is in fact removed from the standpoint of the
	smith because they have to expend significant amounts of their
	skill and time in the execution of what I would call "support"
	or "preparational" processes that would be so much better 
	accomplished by machine.

	Unless a client is willing to pay for the "drudge work", they
	are not entitled to it.  It is a waste of time and money all
	around unless there is a specific and sound reason for wanting it 
	absolutely authentic to a period where a given technology was
	not available.  Peter Ross & Co. doing their thing in Wmsburg
	is a good example of this.  Demonstrations and other educational
	and documentational affairs make sense, where "just because I
	want it" doesn't seem to cut it with me, but if they're willing 
	to pay, then ulitmately who cares?  But IMO charging through the
	nose for unnecessary drudgery is the way to go.  Either the client 
	will come to their senses and have you do your work in an economically
	sane fashion, or you will extract the bitter price from their
	wallets for making you do things that don't make good business
	sense and ultimately bore the hell out of you.