Sharing old crafts

[B+.]

There is an amazing amount of knowledge out there on how things were done in the past. This Australian chap talks about his career as a cooper (https://youtu.be/GE7QA1chUzw). Interesting stuff!

 

[wightbees]

Doesn't he make it look easy. It's great to watch, would love a go at making one. I turn wood on a lathe and made a lovely oak Candle holder.

 

[Tom Bick]

This is a simple craft I have been doing this past couple of years and now run a small club of like minded people.

 

[pargyle]

This is a simple craft I have been doing this past couple of years and now run a small club of like minded people.

Lovely .. I think there's a growing interest in some ancient crafts - but sadly a lot of the interest comes from people in the latter years of their lives - passing any knowledge to a younger generation is the challenge we face - when more and more of these old crafts are being lost forever there will ne nobody left to pass them on.

Learning from Youtube and the like is fine but there is nothing more reassuring that an experienced hand guiding you in the way they have been doing it for 50 years or more ... I know from my own woodturning that there is no substitute for time served knowledge ...

How many crafts are near dead ...? The last few clog makers ... Bodgers ... Leather workers ... Coopers .... Spoon makers ... Cricket bat makers ... Hedge Layers... Dry stone wallers ... the list is endless.

Hens teeth ... even crafts that supported our industrial heritage such as forging, casting and toolmaking are now as rare in the UK as fresh dinosaur meat ..

 

[REDWOOD]

Years ago kids were taught the traditional crafts now they are taught to program a machine that crafts the objects. Progress, nothing stands in the way, or get left behind


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[pargyle]

Years ago kids were taught the traditional crafts now they are taught to program a machine that crafts the objects. Progress, nothing stands in the way, or get left behind


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I'm certainly not a Luddite - but - I find it incongrous that we have mostly removed lathes and other machinery from our schools - which taught children so many things - from practical health and safety through working accurately to measurement and accuracy to understanding technical drawings - and even at times produce useful objects. Yet they are being taught to programme computers to produce virtual items on virtual machines with no concept of the real world in which the real machinery operates ...

We are going wrong somewhere ...

 

[REDWOOD]

That's why for the first time ever 70 year olds are more educated than 17-24 year olds. What skills I was taught in school are now taught in colleges, a 4 year gap has now been created. If we need skilled workers, especially now , we need to teach them younger. It will be interesting to see Mrs Mays answer to the shortage of skills.


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[wightbees]

I have been teaching my son wood working from early age, he is this year going to study at college this very thing. I have high hopes for him he loves the lathe too..

 

[Vortex]

There are plenty of young people learning and preserving old crafts they're just not all that visible .. look amongst the historical re-enactor fraternity ..

 

[B+.]

There are plenty of young people learning and preserving old crafts they're just not all that visible .. look amongst the historical re-enactor fraternity ..

I'm sure you're right Vortex. I watched a really interesting video a while back on how they make mail for armour.
Even the traditional skills that every beekeeper would have had (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdiBHVJRb-A&index=1&list=PLbr7jvL12x97ULCZHkoklEnri3JmEkkiE) are now a thing of the past though. Nearly everything is now made of plastic!

 

[B+.]

This is a simple craft I have been doing this past couple of years and now run a small club of like minded people.

I see that there are some rare talents on here too!

 

[nantmoel]

I knew two tin smiths who had a workshop in my town, they were really skilled men. Their business was based around what the miners needed to take their water and food underground, they made tin water jacks and tin food containers, they were a work of art, when the mines closed they had to make other items more. One of then even went to work in a museum in Cardiff. I wish I had spent more time with them both.

 

[Curley]

Not many coopers left in England - 4 or 5 breweries still employ them and there are one or two freelance coopers (who'd have thought). Plenty in Scotland though for the whisky trade. I used to know Wadworths' cooper in Devizes, a fellow Yorkshireman trained at Theakston's. He used to reckon brewery coopers were more skilled than whisky coopers as breweries needed a specified volume as that's how the beer was sold whereas whisky coopers were just making a storage container that held liquid. Not sure how true that was but was his opinion!

 

[For want of a better word]

I sat and watched an old chap hurdle making some years ago when I lived on the Surrey Sussex boarder.... thought to meself ... must try that!

Last year the chap who owns one of my apiary sites wanted to cut down an layer a hazel hedge... leaving a lot of long thinnings on the ground.......

Made meself some hurdles.... and brilliant wind breaks around the apiary too!!

Yeghes da

 

[george]

Another use for Hazel . Do a few of these during the Winter when I have the time .

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Not many coopers left in England - 4 or 5 breweries still employ them and there are one or two freelance coopers (who'd have thought). Plenty in Scotland though for the whisky trade. I used to know Wadworths' cooper in Devizes, a fellow Yorkshireman trained at Theakston's. He used to reckon brewery coopers were more skilled than whisky coopers as breweries needed a specified volume as that's how the beer was sold whereas whisky coopers were just making a storage container that held liquid. Not sure how true that was but was his opinion!

Most distilleries (apart from maybe Jura who at one time only used new barrels to maintain the purity of the spirit and one or two others now selling 'origin' type malts) use second hand barrels - not saying the scots are tight or anything

 

[mbc]

Most distilleries (apart from maybe Jura who at one time only used new barrels to maintain the purity of the spirit and one or two others now selling 'origin' type malts) use second hand barrels - not saying the scots are tight or anything

Lol and in true canny fashion make it into a selling point "aged for ten years in a sherry cask from valencia to give a mellow woody finish". Don't miss a trick do they.

 

[MartinL]

Most distilleries (apart from maybe Jura who at one time only used new barrels to maintain the purity of the spirit and one or two others now selling 'origin' type malts) use second hand barrels - not saying the scots are tight or anything

Was on "Tomorrow's World" years ago, shortage of sherry barrels meant they had to start making their own New ones.

Problem was; how to get the right amount of scorching to the oak inside the barrel, to get same flavour as the sherry barrels.

Turned out they used computers!