Is the Seeking of Lost Skills/Arts a Hacking Analog? 814
bigattichouse asks: "Having just finished my first batch of home-brew beer, I've been thinking about my attraction to 'lost arts', and collecting books on 'how to do stuff'. Some I try, some I just read: metalsmithing, sewing, baking bread, making soap, knot tying, brewing beer, woodcarving, yogurt and cheese.. there are so many skills 'lost' in the modern 'american' lifestyle... but I find my fellows tend to have books on these subjects lying around, too. Is this common in geekdom? Is this an expression of 'hacking' outside of machinery/engineering?"
SCA! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Soap? (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously, I remember helping my dad (an electrical engineer) making a batch of soap. Of course this involved many side tracks like measuring the temperature changes when the lye was added to the water and testing various ways to improve the purity of the fat.
In 5th grade a bunch of my class visited to learn how soap was made.
My dad stopped when he realized that he had enough to last the rest of his life (it is quite hard unlike store-bought and each bar lasts quite a while).
He still delivers a bag when he visits so it's the soap I still use as well.
RTFJF (Score:2, Informative)
mountain climbing (Score:3, Informative)
I don't know, as far as the gear that keeps me alive goes,(Eg harnesses and boots) I'm personally happy with getting OTS gear and breaking it in until it fits me. Cutting, stretching, or otherwise structurally altering it is only something that I'd pay somebody else to do, so there's somebody else's eyes on the job to tell me if my idea is suicide.
On the other hand those modified zipper pulls are damn handy.
Re:Soap?-Devo soap. (Score:1, Informative)
That would be in part, because you didn't whip air into it. The ingredients are the other part.
an excellent book on the subject... (Score:5, Informative)
It's full of how to do "outdated" arts like thatching a house, making fences with hand built tools and materials gathered in the forest, and blacksmithing, in addition to household type crafts such as making cream and butter and soap. I bought it a couple months ago after finding an enormously positive review on the net somewhere. It is full of enough diagrams to satisfy the average geek.
As for why seeking lost skills is an attraction to geeks, I think it comes down to problem solving. Problem solving is a trait universally desirable in geeks. It doesn't matter if the problem is how to get your program to run in less than x seconds or how to get information from here to there quickly over the phone system or how to make your own yogurt. It's all problem solving.
Books like this appeal to geeks because they open a new (old) world of problems and give elegant solutions to them. The solutions are time-tested and have come from the collective mind of thousands and thousands of clever people. It is a natural geek thing to do to admire their elegant solutions to their problems.
There's also a huge feeling of escape from the headaches of technology when you imagine life without computers, electricity, etc. I'm not sure about all of geekdom, but I enjoy understanding and imagining a technologically simple life that doesn't include depending on a keyboard and screen for a livelihood.
Re:SCA! (Score:2, Informative)
There is a lot more than just the SCA out there. You should really see some of the Dagorhir and Markland armour.
- Darkon [darkon.org]
- Dagorhir [dagorhir.com]
- Markland [markland.org]
- NERO [nerolarp.com]
- Amtgard [amtgard.com]
Plus tons more with a little bit of googling...Ricky Jay (Score:3, Informative)
It's a lesson that could probably be applied to most contemporary professions...
Re:"Lost skills" (Score:3, Informative)
Re:SCA! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:SCA! (Score:5, Informative)
The first thing you had to be able to do to be considered a "real" member was learn how to sew. Then, you had to learn some woodworking skills. Third you had to learn to cook. This was because everyone was expected to help out around camp and generally keep things going. We were very much about being self sufficient, but self sufficient within the level of being able to pick up tools and raw materials at Home Depot.
We had a few projects we were well known for. We did things such as build a bridge, portable showers (heated, I might add), and our own trailers.
No one I know in the SCA pretends that we're doing everything on our own. I joined the SCA because I wanted to learn how things work. In the process I learned how a lathe works (at the take it apart, put it together level), and machine tools in general. I learned how to judge a piece of wood and do some basic woodworking. I learned how to cold shape metal, how to cook, how to sew, and how to make and build a large number of small, simple devices. I learned the basics of brewing beer, making soap, and making cloth.
Most of all I learned to appreciate the modern world and that it makes it so easy to do all those things.
As far as steel goes, I never heard anyone in the SCA talk about making it, but I have that covered too. I'm working on a PhD in Materials Physics. (I agree with you on the chain mail thing... I don't see why anyone would WANT to do that)
Foxfire books (Score:2, Informative)
Re:"Lost skills" (Score:4, Informative)
1) Knives deliver multiple wounds quickly.
2) A stab tends to lacerate multiple organs.
3) Stab wounds are more likely to remain open (forget the more technical term for this).
Also, one article I read had some rather creepy statistics (unfortunately, I don't have the link on this PC) derived from the researcher's experience. For example, he conducted a training session with a group of Victoria RCMP officers. Part of the exercise involved a "criminal" flashing a chalked fake knife at the officer, screaming "fuck you, pig", and attacking.
73 out of 85 of them failed to notice the knife at any point during the assault, with none of them realizing they had been stabbed (multiple times) until seeing the chalk marks left on their uniforms. One officer, who had controlled the attacker's knife arm with both of his hands, and had looked straight at the hand for fifteen seconds, refused to believe a knife had been involved until they replayed the video for him. Even this statistic assumes that a criminal would be stupid enough to brazenly flash a knife like that. It is of course much more common to merely palm the knife until within striking range.
Pardon my digression.
Re:SCA! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Dear Slashdot, why are we so f-ing great? (Score:4, Informative)
No. What I think gripdamage was basically saying was that there is nothing here. That there is no essential "geekiness", no "special light which shines from within them", etc. We/they are the same as everyone else whether we like it or not. I agree that most of the replies on this subject are complete elitist crap.
He (?) is not saying that he's better. He's just saying that perhaps some people should stop trying to justify their hobbies with some higher purpose, and maybe, just enjoy.
I think he's welcoming them back down to Earth.
Z.
FOXFIRE! (Score:5, Informative)
The Foxfire Fund was established to preserve the vanishing folkways of Appalachia and, let me tell you, those people knew how to provide for themselves.
There is an extensive series of books covering such diverse utilitarian topics as wood lore, blacksmithing, instrument making, weaving and so on.
Check it out at The Foxfire Fund [foxfire.org].
Re:SCA! (Score:4, Informative)
Right. When I got given the heave in 1990 from my systems programming job, and there was no sign of any employment on the horizon, I figured that then was as good a time as any to learn.
I discovered that there was no longer any formal blacksmith's apprenticeship system here (Western Australia, though I have been told otherwise in Victoria) so I simply did some asking around, and found an old smith who was happy to take me on and teach me. This man had done his apprenticeship in the '40s with the railways and subsequently taught in apprenticeship courses. As it turned out, I got one-to-one tuition, and although I didn't realise it at the time, I was able to do things after a few months that many fully-fledged "master" blacksmiths never learn to do.
If you're interested in it as a hobby, there are associations and clubs in many places - Google will help. You might even get useful info from your local SCA, though that depends. Some of them are very much in the mickey-mouse category when it comes to craftsmanship.
I should have said earlier, check out the libraries, there's lots of good literature on the subject. I was taught the way my teacher was taught, etc, but as you go on you learn and refine new techniques for yourself and discard things that don't suit you so well. Any master blacksmith is constantly learning new things about his craft.
Foxfire! (Score:1, Informative)