Re: Lauren's Antique Padlock Restoration
Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:39 pm
Most of my experience is with current, or at least relatively recent locks. Intricate mechanical devices have always fascinated me so I like these posts exactly because of the detail you give, and like you say, they're something like a puzzle. Your posts give a refreshing change of pace.
It's emblematic of why I love this forum. We have so many people from so many specialties here, sharing knowledge, so we can all improve our collective experience and skill sets. I don't like to see knowledge die; it's nice to see this kind of information getting spread around for others to soak up.
It reminds me of a documentary I was watching other day about blacksmiths. Unfortunately I didn't write down these figures, but I think I'm remembering them in the right ballpark. A hundred years ago we had something in the vicinity of 250,000 professional blacksmiths in the USA, and today it's closer to around 500. Basically, every single town had at least one blacksmith and bigger cities had many of them.
He was the go-to guy for making tools, metal construction materials, repairs, etc. You couldn't just order a new... whatever. You had to see the blacksmith if it was something you couldn't make yourself. If an EMP or something were to take us back to 1800's level technology, we'd sure be scrambling to relearn old skills that are dying in our society.
There is knowledge out there we need to preserve. But now I'm rambling, so I'll shut up now too.
It's emblematic of why I love this forum. We have so many people from so many specialties here, sharing knowledge, so we can all improve our collective experience and skill sets. I don't like to see knowledge die; it's nice to see this kind of information getting spread around for others to soak up.
It reminds me of a documentary I was watching other day about blacksmiths. Unfortunately I didn't write down these figures, but I think I'm remembering them in the right ballpark. A hundred years ago we had something in the vicinity of 250,000 professional blacksmiths in the USA, and today it's closer to around 500. Basically, every single town had at least one blacksmith and bigger cities had many of them.
He was the go-to guy for making tools, metal construction materials, repairs, etc. You couldn't just order a new... whatever. You had to see the blacksmith if it was something you couldn't make yourself. If an EMP or something were to take us back to 1800's level technology, we'd sure be scrambling to relearn old skills that are dying in our society.
There is knowledge out there we need to preserve. But now I'm rambling, so I'll shut up now too.