A hearty second to what the last few posts said about those who work at Bir-Ghorka, their dependants and Uncle Bill and Yangdu!!
And lest my last post on this thread be misunderstood, I think that Tom said what I meant (Though he may disagree that what follows is what HE meant!!
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I'll rephrase my (readily admitted quite ignorant) thought:
If the power tools are used to produce forms that the kamis understand, the result will be wonderful and more plentiful and all will be delighted with the result. They may differ slightly from those produced entirely by hand, but if the kamis still know their behavior, no problem and everyone wins. Big.
If because of pressure from us, or from the kamis themselves thinking that they should substitute what they think we want for what they know, or the greater speed and ease of producing ill-understood different forms with power tools, or just a rare mistake producing forms outside of their experience, the result will not be predictable. Whether power tools are used or not. What exceeds the limits of understanding will vary from kami to kami, and only the kamis themselves and those who really know them can determine where these boundaries lie for each one.
If the second state evolves it's really no one's fault. They are extending their production, and we also benefit from extension of what we can buy. Pushing the envelope at both ends. It is likewise the responsibility of both ends to detect if things do go wrong so it can be corrected ASAP. I had maybe the first one of these things for a little over a month and didn't really test it out properly because I didn't want to mar the polish, thought the shape was most attractive, and immediately started working on beautifying the handles. I wonder if the error would have been made only once if I had acted differently and really chopped with the thing without regard to a little extra subsequent polishing to keep if pretty. Instead I waited until someone else found the problem before I stressed my khuk a little and found the same defect. I was seduced by it's beauty (I plead naivete since it was my third khuk in a matter of weeks) and I'll leave it to others to draw analogies to the opposite sex.
I guess what I'm saying is under the current circumstances, don't dump on the kamis too hard, or blame yourself Uncle. I think that I could have detected this sooner if I hadn't been thinking only of the superficial appearance of the knife. It's a circle. Break it anywhere and things are worse than they could be. (This is long and probably incoherent because I've splurged and had a couple of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywines).
Maybe its time for bed
