REAL neander woodworking

I found this over at woodnet, which sends you to taunton. Amazing film of neander woodworking in the 1920s.

http://finewoodworking.taunton.com/item/9932/truly-old-school-woodworking

Ken, what I thought was most impressive was how far the hatchet was used to shape the work before any other tools were used. I would have switched to a finer tool long before they did.
Don

Pretty cool vid!

This is really something Ken. Reminded me of a trip I made back in 1985 to a country in Africa called Malawi. They have woodcarvers there that are just as incredible.

I entered a Catamaran race there that sailed the length of the Lake Malawi, a support catamaran that was huge broke a rudder blade in a storm.

When we beached for the end of the day we landed in a place called Lions Cave, not accessible by land. The locals which formed a small fishing village were asked for help to see if we could repair this support boats rudder blade.

The rudder blade was about 4.5ft long and shaped like the wing of an aircraft both sides.

One local woodcarver went down to the beach knelt down next to an old dug out which had a hole in it and was therefore not useable. Lay on his side felt the thickeness of the base with his hands wrapped around it and then said no problem.

One hour later he had chopped his way through the base and had carved out the rudder blade. They then took a steel bar and made a fire and proceeded to burn a hole in the top for the main rudder retention pin to go through.

What you might call a running repair. Was absolutely amazing to watch I will never forget it. Shows what can be done if the real desire is there.

For guys that are wondering where the wood carvers are in the video I have attached a few maps.

By the way the tools used in the video were the same ones I saw used in Africa.

Fantastic, I have enjoyed analizing the way they use cantilever efforts and counterweighing the same effort they make to drive the tools to make them work on their benefit. That is a truly effort optimisation, has any of you realised the amount of time the save by no clamping or fixing their work at all?

The shoe maker only fixes the shoes once both at a time and doesn't move them for most of the process.

Thanks for sharing

Toni one things for sure they must have kept those tools razor sharp and I think thetype of wood or how wet the wood was must have helped some. Lots of technique there that we tend to forget when one gets used to using power tools.

I rember my dad showing me how to use the brace. We used to call it a belly brace, not sure if that is the correct term but I had great fun drilling holes with the brace and then using it to get real purchase on the screws we would put in. And that was with slot type heads which the bit does not sit well in when you are putting a great deal of pressure on it.

I also try to tell myself ( so i dont get discouraged) that we are seeing them after years of doing the same thing over and over. They have honed the technique and made it real efficient to maximise output and minimize effort.

When I consider just how ineffecient i am sometimes in my shop even with power tools I realize i really need to reflect and change the way I work to get more out of it rather than fiddle. Lots to learn from the Pros.