The thing that struck me about this film, is that he's not wearing safety goggles. Stupid move.
The Knife Maker
31–40 of 199 posts
Re: The Knife Maker
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
So do it.
I imagine that he can't afford to lose income for the time it would take to train.
Also, I live in Eastern Europe. I don't know anyone who currently does anything like this and would accept trainees.
I do have a long-term plan of starting a small workshop of some kind though.
Re: The Knife Maker
#33I'm torn between "This guy clearly enjoys his work, bully for him." and "The handmade movement is an extravagantly wasteful alternative to a factory in China to give rich white people an opportunity to demonstrate their social superiority over people who use functionally equivalent objects produced in an efficient fashion." (c.f. organic food, fair trade coffee, etc etc. This topic makes me positively Marxist. There was a time when only wealthy folks could afford goods. Capitalism happened and now everyone can afford goods. This really discomfits some people, so they get very creative at inventing reasons why the goods they are using today are the right goods and the goods they were using ten years ago are now the wrong goods since poor people now have access to them.)
Re: The Knife Maker
#34This is the most inspirational/life-changing video I've seen all year. I really think that there is a huge amount of stuff that we could start building or making locally, individually with skill, craft and dedication. I would love to be able to work with my hands in a workshop, learning to make unique and masterful things from a master craftsmanship instead of sitting for 8 hours a day in the office dealing with thin…
So merely battering a piece of metal (that other cleverer people have spent 200 years designing the alloys of) into shape is craftsmanship. While creating a piece of software - a functional machine out of pure thought - is somehow just grunt work?
I didn't say that creating software is grunt work, I just said that my back hurts from sitting on a chair. I'd rather be a complete human being who uses his brain, body and soul, not just a brain plugged into the internet.
Re: The Knife Maker
#35I'm torn between "This guy clearly enjoys his work, bully for him." and "The handmade movement is an extravagantly wasteful alternative to a factory in China to give rich white people an opportunity to demonstrate their social superiority over people who use functionally equivalent objects produced in an efficient fashion." (c.f. organic food, fair trade coffee, etc etc. This topic makes me positively Marxist. There…
So you're saying that fair trade coffee benefits "the white man" rather than the producers in the third-world country? That's exactly the opposite of what fair trade means.
Also, hand-made isn't fighting against capitalism, it's fighting against mass-production, sweat-shops and machine-people jobs like the ones portrayed on Chaplin's City Lights or even Discovery Channel's How It's Made.
Re: The Knife Maker
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
So merely battering a piece of metal (that other cleverer people have spent 200 years designing the alloys of) into shape is craftsmanship. While creating a piece of software - a functional machine out of pure thought - is somehow just grunt work?
I didn't say that creating software is grunt work, I just said that my back hurts from sitting on a chair. I'd rather be a complete human being who uses his brain, body and soul, not just a brain plugged into the internet.
That's one of the reasons that I have two very physical and mentally engaging hobbies - Brazilian jiu-jitsu and lifting.
Re: The Knife Maker
#37I'm torn between "This guy clearly enjoys his work, bully for him." and "The handmade movement is an extravagantly wasteful alternative to a factory in China to give rich white people an opportunity to demonstrate their social superiority over people who use functionally equivalent objects produced in an efficient fashion." (c.f. organic food, fair trade coffee, etc etc. This topic makes me positively Marxist. There…
Typical utilitarian bullshit, and with a shade of bigotry at that. Who are you to deem this activity wasteful? The man produces something that other people want, and you want to go ahead and condemn all parties because mass production is more efficient?
Re: The Knife Maker
#38I'm torn between "This guy clearly enjoys his work, bully for him." and "The handmade movement is an extravagantly wasteful alternative to a factory in China to give rich white people an opportunity to demonstrate their social superiority over people who use functionally equivalent objects produced in an efficient fashion." (c.f. organic food, fair trade coffee, etc etc. This topic makes me positively Marxist. There…
Don't be torn: there's a place for both. The affordable mass-produced stuff is great for obvious reasons, while the wasteful, pretentious hippster-alternative is cool for whomever happens to get off on this stuff. The latter is such a small niche, it hardly makes a difference economically, but people still value this stuff.
Not liking it doesn't make you a Marxist but just somebody who happens not to like this kind of stuff.
Re: The Knife Maker
#39These are nice knives, but is this not also a really slick piece of lifestyle marketing?
Also, these knives are quite expensive. I'm not so sure if they are really up there with the handmade japanese knives[1], seems like theres a bit more to it than just sharpening a piece of hardened stainless?[2] Please correct me if I'm wrong.
[1]http://www.japaneseknifecompany.com/KNIVES/LAMINATEDSTEEL/JK...
[2]http://www.japaneseknifecompany.com/VIDEOS/KnifeMakingProces...
Re: The Knife Maker
#40I'm torn between "This guy clearly enjoys his work, bully for him." and "The handmade movement is an extravagantly wasteful alternative to a factory in China to give rich white people an opportunity to demonstrate their social superiority over people who use functionally equivalent objects produced in an efficient fashion." (c.f. organic food, fair trade coffee, etc etc. This topic makes me positively Marxist. There…
>There was a time when only wealthy folks could afford goods. Capitalism happened and now everyone can afford goods.
Okay this may sound abstract.....when you buy an object which has been crafted to perfection by another artist....you dont just buy the object ....it feels like you almost bought some of that perfection...it feels like maybe it can breathe some perfection into your work!
On a cynical note maybe it makes it easier for you to justify the amount of hard work that you put in perfecting every infinitely minute detail in your work.
It is also comforting to know that there are people out there who value perfection and attention to detail like you.....and when you show them your work they'll see all the hard work you have put into it.