[TheForge] switchplate

[Andy Vida]

George Dixon wrote:

> More importantly, early 20th century blacksmithing represents the end
> and the epitome of a technical age.  The hand and tooling based
> processes which competent smiths had in their range of solutions was
> geared to aiding human effort, more than supplanting it with technology.


	This is a very astute observation.  I'm not sure that in
	those times anyone would have even thought in terms of
	supplanting human effort with technology.  After all,
	what would people do if they didn't have any work to keep
	them busy?

>  As a result, they and anyone who practices to their degree, will find
> that the most specific and sound reason for doing many processes as they
> were done in the past is because they are the most efficient way for the
> work to be done.

	This point appears to escape people often enough to make it
	worthy of note.  For example, Roubou (dammit... I still can't 
	spell it) the French cabinet maker whose book is a classic,
	wasn't all that in love with his craft, according to the accounts
	I have read.  His idea, and I believe this was common in those
	days, was to be the best at what he did such that he could curry
	favor with the royal court, get rich, and die with soft hands
	in a warm and comfortable bed.  As far as I can make out, the
	crafts in those days were nothing to aspire to if you could do
	better.  It seems that a significant number of your ancient 
	craftspeople would have much rather have been doing something 
	else, like laying around being fed peeled grapes by bevys of 
	naked and nubile young women.  My point here is that they would, 
	and did, jump on any available means of making their back-breaking 
	labors easier and more efficient.

	If this were not so, the industrial revolution would never have
	gotten off the ground.  The fact is that the work we think so
	quaint wasn't generally looked upon as a first choice by
	people of means.  The crafts were dirty and often dangerous
	and crafts people were nothing more than human tools for
	producing the objets d'art that were desired.  Beyond that
	I don't think that too many of them were given much thought
	or respect.  Envisioning the smiths of yore as
	happy go lucky little black-boogered, hammer swingers is
	probably as realistic as Disney's portrayal of Quasimodo as
	a jolly, song-singing little freak.

> Lastly, there are economic ranges to sell to.  However, at the small
> shop level, the closer one gets to mass production techniques the less
> of a competitive advantage you have in exclusive markets.  Their are any
> number of folks who can invest in purchased tooling.  This, coupled with
> the reality that production most often calls for design simplifications
> and standardization, means that the competitive edge of quality or
> uniqueness is traded for production speed.  That is fine for Walmart or
> Ford, which operate as a different economic model.  Their size and
> markets demand and comprise a level of efficiency which is not possible
> nor desirable in a small shop.  I believe that the model of hand
> assisted process and tooling solutions from the end of the last
> technological period is better geared to making art and a living in a
> small shop than trying to emulate a production model that is based on
> scale and speed.

	I agree with you, but am not quite bright enough to get the
	gist of what it is you're really saying.  You seem to be saying
	that you would not favor the use of a die for punching the
	standard holes in a switchplate.
> 
> I like "items & limited editions" as a business model.

	As do I and perhaps every one else in this forum.  The
	problem lies in the existence of viable markets.  These
	are comparatively scarce and tend to be very small.  I've
	been nickeled and dimed by guys personally worth better
	than half a billion dollars.  Often times the wealthy are
	less inclined to pay for art than those less well endowed.
	To me, it almost always boils down to the marketing.  A
	competent marketing organization can sell bottled water to a
	drowning man.