The Crispin Colloquy

courtney wrote:The new website looks good, change is weird, but I'm sure everybody will get used to it like the dollars with the big heads. I miss the "last day, last week" button though, did I miss it? How do you know whats new?

Courtney

johnl wrote:I saw nothing in the upper right side until I logged in to ask why I saw nothing. Be sure to log in
JohnL

jon_g wrote:The new site was definitely strange to begin with and I found myself wishing back the old site, but after messing around on the new site for a little while it started to get familiar. In fact the more I use it, the more I like it.

So thanks to the person or people involved in the update.

• In the board index, to the extreme right of the listing is the username of the last person to post in that forum and/or topic. Next to the name is a tiny rectangular icon. Clicking on that icon will take you to the last post in the forum or topic.
  
  Hovering your cursor over the bbcode buttons in the message editing window will bring up a description of what the code does...in the tip bar just below. For instance, hovering the cursor over the center button, tells you that you can select a bit of text and then click on the center button and all that text will be centered.
  
  Buttons below the text of a post are pretty much self evident--edit, quote who's online, the profile of the poster, and the option to PM or email them.
  
  And one that isn't so evident...in the upper right hand corner of every post is one of those tiny rectangular icons, next to the word "Posted". Right click on it and select "Copy Link Location" (in FireFox) or "Copy Shortcut" (in IE) and you can create a link to that post. Nice for referring to something posted in another forum.

Raving_raven wrote:I don't seem to be able to have the site log me in automatically when I visit. I have checked the box each time, but when I return, I have to manually log in again. Is there something else to attend to before it works?

Rosemary

Raving_raven wrote:I don't seem to be able to have the site log me in automatically when I visit. I have checked the box each time, but when I return, I have to manually log in again. Is there something else to attend to before it works?

Rosemary

farmerfalconer wrote: Am I not mistaking in thinking that
is a dancing bannana wearing a kilt with a nude bannana playing the pipes??? Yes, the new forum is a little strange

Without getting into real detail...despite having good quality grinders and sanding wheels at my disposal, I do prefer to sharpen knives with a sequence of Washita and Arkansas oil stones. I know that there are other types of stones--some oil and some water--and that many even prefer belt sanders for sharpening knives. But for me I prefer to slow down. I like feeling the steel on the stone. I like hearing the difference in sound as the angle of the blade is adjusted.

And I can sharpen a knife so that it is "scary sharp"--no brag, fact. I have to be able to for the work I do.

Part and parcel of the way most professional craftsmen...as opposed to dabblers and backbench-garage hobbyists...approach their work is to immerse themselves in the processes. When you do, it often occurs, even without you being fully aware of it, that you lose the almost obsessive focus on self that possesses most of us in today's world. That self-absorption. In fact, that's one of the attractions of being a professional. And in the process, with self out of the way, suddenly you find yourself open to other inputs--the sound of the metal, the feel of the blade in the hand, the way subtle, heretofore unnoticed muscle tensions affect the work; to other influences--perhaps that "creative consciousness" I spoke of.

Speed kills...quality. From our most intimate activities in daily life to our most critical public enterprises our society can never have enough speed, enough easy, enough expedience. I sometimes think that this is the easy way to "lose yourself"--the quick and easy and convenient way--go so fast that you can never slow down enough to notice where "you" are.

Who wants to pay for a truly hand welted, bespoke shoe? Who wants to spend the years learning to make such a shoe? Who wants to go to all that effort and work to actually understand what goes into a shoe? Just go out and buy a pair. And if...by virtue of popularity, or brand name or some superficial glitter striking the eye...a certain socially acceptable "glamour" (not in the magical sense) comes along with it, all the better.

Who would want to go to all that trouble to sharpen a knife...especially by hand? Or even to learn how, when a utility knife is $2.98 and a pack of disposable blades $1.75? And, in some sense...at least to me...using a belt sander to sharpen a blade is not, philosophically, significantly different.

It's all about speed, you see, convenience and disposability. When the professional immerses himself in detail, in process, he puts aside self-absorption but he doesn't really loose himself. When we pursue speed and ignore that rich tapestry of experience that is in front of us, our our experiences, our judgements, perhaps even our lives become just as disposable as the utility knife blades.

When a professional craftsman chooses to sharpen a knife with stones rather than resort to belt sanders or a disposable blade, it's because he knows that when you sharpen a blade you're really sharpening your own senses.Your sensibilities. Your ability to sense more and more subtlety. And that translates into every subsequent process that you engage in regardless how seemingly disconnected it may be.

Even writing a piece such as this, for good or ill, is influenced by the time and insights, patience and perspectives, understanding and judgment, that develops as the blade is honed. More than the blade is sharpened.

That's part and parcel of the attraction of making shoes by hand in the 21st century. Of choosing to make shoes rather than make money. For me, it's been worth more than all the income I might have given up over the years and, again for me at least, I doubt I will never get enough.

• Cuts all the way across the board. Not enough youngsters getting into the Trade but those that do have a hard time understanding how important it is to respect and preserve the lexicon. For the longest time I called the toe stiffener a "toe box" and the heel stiffener a "counter". My only excuse is that that's the way I was taught. The correct term, of course, is toe stiffener and while that may not mean anything to folks who really don't care, it makes for way better communication between shoemakers, if nothing else, and avoids a lot of misunderstanding. It also preserves the Traditions of the Trade.
  
  Part of this, I think, is that students seldom have any proper teachers. So they are caught between what little they can learn from legitimate sources and what passes for understanding in the general population. A lot of casual, incorrect, and even misleading terms enter the discussion. "Handwelted Goodyear" is a really good example; or thinking that GY describes a general approach and that all welted shoes can be described as GY...which is simply not true.
  
  It is a watering down and and a leveling to the lowest common denominator.
  
  And yes, it is terribly misleading...even dishonest in some cases. But it's all part of the 'two M's"--marketing and manufacturing.