TF, very neat to see an actual philosopher on here.
I don't believe we can ever recapture the knowledge lost due to mechanization and computerization because those skills require practice to remain proficient with. Cabinet-making, for example, is a true art, but woodworkers can only make so many pieces before their houses are filled to the brim. Even if they give stuff away as gifts, there is only so much a hobbyist can do and learn. Therefore, the skills they acquire are proportionate to the years they have been working at that craft.
You say that you've learned "Leather making, wood working, wood and bone carving", but did you master any of those crafts? Using the school system as a reference, are you in first grade or a senior as far as your skill level goes? Have you moved on to your post-secondary education in any of those skills?
You want a mentor, but there are countless schools across the country that teach these skills and are looking for students that are willing to pay for that knowledge. If they don't have customers, the masters that have been studying those skills for decades can't progress. It is the fact that they are able to make a living at doing these skills that allows them to really learn the ins and outs of it. Without paying students, however, they have to fall back to the hobbyist level and simply tinker at it as their jobs and lives allow.
Don't think I'm attacking you. I'm in the same boat and have thousands of things I'd like to learn and experience. I just don't see how a group getting together every month can realistically teach skills that are more than basic. Who's going to open their hobby machine shop to a dozen people so they can learn the basics of turning and milling metal? Who's paying for the electricity, metal, wear on parts, etc? Or, is that too advanced a subject?
If you fall back to basic blacksmithing, one of my favorite hobbies, you still have a bunch of idiots wanting to learn to make knives and swords running around your property burning up fuel, metal and time. Who wants that? Who is set up for that? What makes them better, as a hobby smith, than a professional that teaches at a school? Is it just that they are closer to you? Cheaper? Easier to access?
Or, is it that most folks don't want to spend the time and money to seriously study a particular skill? Everyone I know says they would love to come over and smith with me for a while and, funnily enough, they never mention helping with the bills to cover the costs.
Is it better to be a Jack-of-All-Trades or a Master-of-One?
I don't believe we can ever recapture the knowledge lost due to mechanization and computerization because those skills require practice to remain proficient with. Cabinet-making, for example, is a true art, but woodworkers can only make so many pieces before their houses are filled to the brim. Even if they give stuff away as gifts, there is only so much a hobbyist can do and learn. Therefore, the skills they acquire are proportionate to the years they have been working at that craft.
You say that you've learned "Leather making, wood working, wood and bone carving", but did you master any of those crafts? Using the school system as a reference, are you in first grade or a senior as far as your skill level goes? Have you moved on to your post-secondary education in any of those skills?
You want a mentor, but there are countless schools across the country that teach these skills and are looking for students that are willing to pay for that knowledge. If they don't have customers, the masters that have been studying those skills for decades can't progress. It is the fact that they are able to make a living at doing these skills that allows them to really learn the ins and outs of it. Without paying students, however, they have to fall back to the hobbyist level and simply tinker at it as their jobs and lives allow.
Don't think I'm attacking you. I'm in the same boat and have thousands of things I'd like to learn and experience. I just don't see how a group getting together every month can realistically teach skills that are more than basic. Who's going to open their hobby machine shop to a dozen people so they can learn the basics of turning and milling metal? Who's paying for the electricity, metal, wear on parts, etc? Or, is that too advanced a subject?
If you fall back to basic blacksmithing, one of my favorite hobbies, you still have a bunch of idiots wanting to learn to make knives and swords running around your property burning up fuel, metal and time. Who wants that? Who is set up for that? What makes them better, as a hobby smith, than a professional that teaches at a school? Is it just that they are closer to you? Cheaper? Easier to access?
Or, is it that most folks don't want to spend the time and money to seriously study a particular skill? Everyone I know says they would love to come over and smith with me for a while and, funnily enough, they never mention helping with the bills to cover the costs.
Is it better to be a Jack-of-All-Trades or a Master-of-One?
you need coal or coal, or at least charcoal if you want to forge steel. you need nails and screws to make a bellows If you can drag all that stuff in to your chosen area, why not just instead bring the tools that you'd make with the forge? 