Also, http://www.thetoasterproject.org/
Very interesting. Makes me think if there is any knowledge or technology that we lost in the process? Is there something we knew but don't know anymore?
Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.
81–90 of 139 posts
Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idea of science itself would probably be more powerful than anything an individual could accomplish. Let a 1000 flowers bloom and all that.
Science is older than you think. Science is making experiments, recording results, and trying to figure out what is going on. The oldest clearest example of science is alchemy. Today we know it's impossible, but back then they reacted a tremendous number of compounds and carefully recorded the results.
The course of human history would be a lot different if the simple idea "Look for reasons why you are wrong, not reasons why you are right" could spread earlier and farther. Experimentation has occurred for the whole of human history, but I think that little tidbit is what was missing, distilled down to a single sentence, but one from which everything else can pretty much be derived once you accept it.
Come to think of it, the course of the human present would be pretty different too.
Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.
#83Some pictures are missing from the site and Google cache. You can see the pictures if you "view image" on the blank pictures. Hard reloading seems to pull some in too.
It was running slow for me so I used nyud.net mirror and it seemed to speed things up and pick up the missing images:
http://www.arscives.com.nyud.net/bladesign/tamahagane/main.h...
Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.
#84It's reasons like this, that I really wonder if someone from today were to time travel into the past if anything they know would be useful at all. Medieval people would probably think we're all idiots.
This is why I own this shirt. http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_C...
Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.
#85I'd like to see someone make a knife without using any modern technology precursors whatsoever. That means starting from using ones hands and what is available from nature in its natural form. I think it'd be quite an accomplishment.
People already do this. Some only go so far as stone blades, or allow modern tools for certain steps. Others bootstrap the whole process from stone-age to steel. I've never done it. It's incredibly time consuming but satisfying, from the first hand accounts I've read. You can cut hours or days off of your work time by using modern tools for some of the most seemingly trivial steps.
I sharpened a stick. Isn't that the next best thing?
Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even easier than the telegraph, but potentially even more dramatic: the phonograph. Paper diaphragm, wax cylinder, a needle, and viola! You're a god! ;)
Great idea. I'm sure many would love to hear a recording of a viola.
Absent-minded spell-checking strikes again :)
Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.
#87I'd like to see someone make a knife without using any modern technology precursors whatsoever. That means starting from using ones hands and what is available from nature in its natural form. I think it'd be quite an accomplishment.
Just to follow-up. If you search for Tai Goo and Tim Lively you will get a lot of information, pictures, videos and such about making blades from found material. Some of the processes are pretty crude--making glue from pine sap and deer feces.
Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.
#88Wow, real-life Minecraft.
For his next project, he will store a chest inside a chest!
Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.
#89A really interesting melange. This is a Spanish guy, using Japanese metalworking techniques, and Imperial measurement units... (They use metric in Japan and Spain, don't they?)
For the purists: using modern technologies is OK, as long as you're fully aware of the alternative. There's no enlightenment in using a stone tool for days to achieve what a powered tool does in minutes.
Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.
#90Bought his ore? Terry Pratchett dug his own ore from his estate when he smelted the iron for his sword, though he used a blacksmith after getting to the iron bar stage. http://www.news.com.au/technology/terry-pratchett-creates-a-... (Being a knight no longer conveys the right to carry a sword, it is a violation of the knife laws, so he keeps the sword hidden. Such days.)
> Being a knight no longer conveys the right to carry a sword
Come to America. Open/concealed carry is legal for every sane and non-felonious adult in many areas, gentleman and commoner alike.