peter ross demo

I came across this great video where Peter Ross conducts a blacksmithing demo. I saw Peter make a key for a lock at a Blacksmithing conference at SIU-C in 2005. The key looked liked it had been turned on a lathe as it was so precise, when in fact he had just used a hammer and anvil to forge and shape the entire piece. Hang in to the end on this video; you'll be glad you did. I love the part about using an imprecise object (hammer) to make a precise object (compass). I'm really interested in the idea of precision and the idea as is applies to pre-industrial revolution objects. I think some of this is going to feed back into my ideas on the role of technology as it applies to craft practices. The older I get the more I realize that I don't know nearly as much as I wish I had the time to learn, and that the thoughts and opinions I have now are less concrete than they were when I was younger (I guess that's just youth and arrogance). As I get older I feel that I need seek to understand what came before me with more clarity and understand "making" with more depth so I can better understand where we as humans currently are headed. I begin to think that early civilization had more things figured out before the motivation of "making" became more focussed on mass production and standardization. 

Anyway, food for thought...