[TheForge] forging techniques

[Paul Sperbeck]

Maintaining the old ways is a difficult path to walk.

Along the way of educating the public you need to earn a living. 99% of 
the buying public doesn't give a rip how something was made, and trying 
to educate them with out sounding preachy is nigh impossible. Those that 
seek out these methods are the high end folks who already may be very 
knowledgeable about the purchase they are contemplating.

In my view, we can present our works as primarily one of the three 
following classes:

1. Traditional work, where the old ways are the only methods used to 
produce something. Note that this will price many useful objects out of 
the reach of of most folks. That is not their fault or their problem.

2. Traditional appearing, where any modern methods are not visible, and 
might only be deduced by someone fully conversant with method 1. This 
may reduce costs. Don't start on me about whether or not is still 
qualifies as art... If I say it's art it is. You may or not like it... 
not my problem and that is your right.

3. Traditionalistic work which emulates 1 or 2 but makes no effort to 
hide any modern techniques. This doesn't make them inherently bad, just 
cheaper to produce or even sometimes butt-ugly. If no one buys them they 
will advance their methods to 1 or 2.

All of his pretty much just matters to US and not the buying public in 
general.

A general philosophy of good business practice is not to speak ill of 
your competitor, but to point out in response to questions of worth or 
value why your product is better or or more appealing. Trash talking is 
generally counterproductive.

What you have made is a product, and unless you just want to make 
superior things and never sell them, you need to enter the world of 
commerce and find a way to sell your work. If you look at advertising in 
general, the only place you see negative or critical narratives is in 
political advertising. I am not aware of any commercial advertisements 
that openly refer to a competitors product as junk or beneath consideration.

The upshot of this is while it may be a great goal to never even mention 
the more modern methods in the official journals, they exist. They will 
never go away. If your work cannot stand on it's own, and you need to 
suppress other methods of fashioning things in order to advance the 
craft, I feel you are taking a page from the Luddites. Where are they now?

Sell your work, rejoice in your methods, try to educate the buying 
public gently and through well crafted work, but please don't suppress 
technology in an effort to elevate your ways. This serves no one well.


paul
-- 
At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable as spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats. P. J. O'Rourke

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience....well that comes from poor judgment.

Life's tough, pilgrim, and it's even tougher if you're stupid.

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