What my hands know
A dear friend sent me this today
Rolex Watch http://tinyurl.com/q77ncqy
It may seem a bit boring to watch a watchmaker take apart the watch and put it back together for you. For me it was a memory opening show. I know what each of the parts are and what they do. I have watched a master watchmaker build a watch from raw materials. I as a boy at my father's elbow learned how to do this. Dad had grown up poor and put himself through watchmakers school in the 30s and supported us by working with his hands as a watchmaker. This was the age of Hamiltons, Bulovas and Elgins. These watches needed no celebrity to sell, they stood their ground alone with their perfection. These watches were works of art inside and he showed me the marvels of how they worked. They were fragile and required maintenance and attention to detail. You could not get them wet or wind them too tight. You could not ordinarily fix them your self. A double case gold pocket watch was his favorite. I found out later he had made it from scratch in the watch school as a graduation requirement. Tiny little parts that move with precision to keep perfect time. They must be fussed over and cleaned, tuned up and repaired by watchmakers. He taught me how each piece could be made from the different metals and why the metal had to be just so or the movement would not keep time. Important people and common work men used these time pieces to live their lives. Watch chains and the gold cases showed your status. Try as I might I could never master his skill. Some of the skill sets proved invaluable to me later in my work. He would spend hours hunched over a tiny part, agonizing if the watch failed to meet his standards of perfection. Eyeglass as if attached to his eye, fingers holding tiny tools just so to align, move or reshape almost micro size parts into a time piece. Dad would carefully carve wax into the reverse of what the customer wanted, then melting gold he would create something that would be handed down as a one of a kind gift. Precious stones, jewels would be mounted into pieces he created and shown to the customer with great ceremony. His tools were in order at his work bench just as carefully arranged and cared for as a surgeon will have the instruments of their profession laid out to save lives. I could not stand the eye strain, did not have the patience to follow his trade. I have used the skills to create, building rifles and pistols, engines and automobiles. My best work compared to his falls short. Learning to measure and how to work with metals, fitting parts so that the whole works to satisfaction is my legacy from him that first taught my hands to work.
I fear we as a people have lost the way of the hand, that is working with one's hands to create, build and serve. I am amazed at what young people can not do that I would have assumed anyone would know. That is until I taught technical subjects to young people. Here we have several generations of young people that have never used hand tools. I watched a student try and use a screw driver as a pry bar to remove a lug nut because he had used the screwdriver to remove the plastic wheel cover, and that came off easy enough. Students that could not determine the proper size or relationship of 5/16 bolts, nuts and why they would not fit 8 mm metric 1.25 nuts and bolts, or what wrench to use. These poor souls could do algebraic formulas that baffled me, yet could not measure a flat washer with a micrometer. Some had the want to but not the effort to. The students seemed so used to instant reward for little effort that most gave no effort at all when they discovered the hard work involved in working with the hands. I fought the academics that looked down on working with the hands. They have the $$ and the power. The slide towards a mediocre education in public schools began when the hands on classes were phased out as being dirty or dangerous and every parent seemed to want their kids getting PhDs, speaking Chinese and doing all their work on computers. I am sure we need artists and doctors, but as much we will still need craftsmen and women that can work with their hands. I like what Mike Rowe says and agree with his take. “We are lending money we don’t have to kids who can’t pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist. That’s nuts.” http://insider.foxnews.com/2013/08/04/mike-rowe-dirty-jobs-alternative-college-degree
I have this saying I used in my classroom " You can do the work of the mind with out the hand , but you can not do the work of the hand with out the mind"
I found it in the comments of this article attributed to a Danish Anon proverb.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Professor Crawford also is insightful in this case for working with your hands book.
I must confess that I broke my dad's spirit and did not understand until years later when I looked under the hood of a new BMW. It was over 40 years ago. I had returned from being overseas where he had sent me a new Elgin wristwatch to wear and use. That very nice watch lasted a few days in the heat and humidity of the place I was in. I had bought a Seiko for $15.00 in the PX. It told the time in all time zones, the moon phase and sun sets, the day of the week/month and was waterproof to 300 meters. In a nice stainless steel case with a watch band that would stop most shrapnel, it was a very nice watch. My dad asked to see it and with a practiced move had the back off it in seconds with his eye piece peering into it. I did not understand his tears and sadness that day. I do now. He had looked into the future and it did not look good to him. He could have adapted and did for several years but his heart was not in it any more. He could have done as the leather buggy whip makers of Chicago had done and survived as custom coach interior makers or makers of oils seals for the new horseless carriages they saw out their shop windows in the early days of the auto. I am not a Luddite, just an old mechanic that is sad to see an era go away when the touch of the craftsman's hand is respected and honored.
Create Share Enjoy! on the road less traveled.......
Rolex Watch http://tinyurl.com/q77ncqy
It may seem a bit boring to watch a watchmaker take apart the watch and put it back together for you. For me it was a memory opening show. I know what each of the parts are and what they do. I have watched a master watchmaker build a watch from raw materials. I as a boy at my father's elbow learned how to do this. Dad had grown up poor and put himself through watchmakers school in the 30s and supported us by working with his hands as a watchmaker. This was the age of Hamiltons, Bulovas and Elgins. These watches needed no celebrity to sell, they stood their ground alone with their perfection. These watches were works of art inside and he showed me the marvels of how they worked. They were fragile and required maintenance and attention to detail. You could not get them wet or wind them too tight. You could not ordinarily fix them your self. A double case gold pocket watch was his favorite. I found out later he had made it from scratch in the watch school as a graduation requirement. Tiny little parts that move with precision to keep perfect time. They must be fussed over and cleaned, tuned up and repaired by watchmakers. He taught me how each piece could be made from the different metals and why the metal had to be just so or the movement would not keep time. Important people and common work men used these time pieces to live their lives. Watch chains and the gold cases showed your status. Try as I might I could never master his skill. Some of the skill sets proved invaluable to me later in my work. He would spend hours hunched over a tiny part, agonizing if the watch failed to meet his standards of perfection. Eyeglass as if attached to his eye, fingers holding tiny tools just so to align, move or reshape almost micro size parts into a time piece. Dad would carefully carve wax into the reverse of what the customer wanted, then melting gold he would create something that would be handed down as a one of a kind gift. Precious stones, jewels would be mounted into pieces he created and shown to the customer with great ceremony. His tools were in order at his work bench just as carefully arranged and cared for as a surgeon will have the instruments of their profession laid out to save lives. I could not stand the eye strain, did not have the patience to follow his trade. I have used the skills to create, building rifles and pistols, engines and automobiles. My best work compared to his falls short. Learning to measure and how to work with metals, fitting parts so that the whole works to satisfaction is my legacy from him that first taught my hands to work.
I fear we as a people have lost the way of the hand, that is working with one's hands to create, build and serve. I am amazed at what young people can not do that I would have assumed anyone would know. That is until I taught technical subjects to young people. Here we have several generations of young people that have never used hand tools. I watched a student try and use a screw driver as a pry bar to remove a lug nut because he had used the screwdriver to remove the plastic wheel cover, and that came off easy enough. Students that could not determine the proper size or relationship of 5/16 bolts, nuts and why they would not fit 8 mm metric 1.25 nuts and bolts, or what wrench to use. These poor souls could do algebraic formulas that baffled me, yet could not measure a flat washer with a micrometer. Some had the want to but not the effort to. The students seemed so used to instant reward for little effort that most gave no effort at all when they discovered the hard work involved in working with the hands. I fought the academics that looked down on working with the hands. They have the $$ and the power. The slide towards a mediocre education in public schools began when the hands on classes were phased out as being dirty or dangerous and every parent seemed to want their kids getting PhDs, speaking Chinese and doing all their work on computers. I am sure we need artists and doctors, but as much we will still need craftsmen and women that can work with their hands. I like what Mike Rowe says and agree with his take. “We are lending money we don’t have to kids who can’t pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist. That’s nuts.” http://insider.foxnews.com/2013/08/04/mike-rowe-dirty-jobs-alternative-college-degree
I have this saying I used in my classroom " You can do the work of the mind with out the hand , but you can not do the work of the hand with out the mind"
I found it in the comments of this article attributed to a Danish Anon proverb.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Professor Crawford also is insightful in this case for working with your hands book.
I must confess that I broke my dad's spirit and did not understand until years later when I looked under the hood of a new BMW. It was over 40 years ago. I had returned from being overseas where he had sent me a new Elgin wristwatch to wear and use. That very nice watch lasted a few days in the heat and humidity of the place I was in. I had bought a Seiko for $15.00 in the PX. It told the time in all time zones, the moon phase and sun sets, the day of the week/month and was waterproof to 300 meters. In a nice stainless steel case with a watch band that would stop most shrapnel, it was a very nice watch. My dad asked to see it and with a practiced move had the back off it in seconds with his eye piece peering into it. I did not understand his tears and sadness that day. I do now. He had looked into the future and it did not look good to him. He could have adapted and did for several years but his heart was not in it any more. He could have done as the leather buggy whip makers of Chicago had done and survived as custom coach interior makers or makers of oils seals for the new horseless carriages they saw out their shop windows in the early days of the auto. I am not a Luddite, just an old mechanic that is sad to see an era go away when the touch of the craftsman's hand is respected and honored.
Create Share Enjoy! on the road less traveled.......
Well said. However time will come when this current tread will be reversed.
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