Lost common sense skills.

I know right?!?!?!? How many people even know how to open a car hood? How many know which way a door swings open with out reading the enter signs first? ( Didn't even know to look to see which side the hinges were on, or if they were on the inside or outside) Boggles the mind doesn't it!

 

Caulking does take a little practice and experience to produce a good job of it. Was doing a job one day, interior trim work. Had a boy working for me , his dad was a painter , so I asked him if he knew how to caulk. He said , Yes. So I gave him the gun and a tube of caulk. He put the tube in the gun, pulled out his razor knife and cut the spout of the caulk off about halfway down. Luckily I saw this, or I probably would have had a big mess to clean up. I took the gun from him, went back to cutting trim , and told him to clean up the trash.

 

Talking of lost skills...man, I was buying a cinema ticket and the 20something cashier was struggling, trying to get a key off a split ring key ring, when I asked her if I could help....she gave me the key ring, and I removed the key in an instant, which gobsmacked her as if she had just witnessed me inventing fire. I had to show her close up in slow motion, just to convince her that it wasn't stage magic.

 

They DO make a tool for that dontcka know! LOL Seriously, there called split ring pliers, best tool for getting those very stiff ones open, especially the really small ones like we use for fishing! Watched my Grand Dad fight with those little buggers many a time cussed up good, before I handed my pliers over and let him think on it for a few minutes, he did figure them out on his onesome after messing around a little! Grand dad was the worlds best cusser!!!

 

Lost skills, sharpening a knife, hand saw, plane blade, axe, push mower reel, drill bit, vegetable peeler, and owning ones that can be sharpened and having the stones, sets and files to sharpen them. Being able to sew on a button, darn a sock, patch a hole in a shirt or pants, hem a skirt or put cuffs on a pair of pants, alter the size or use old fabric to make new item, use old shirt etc with seams ripped out as a pattern to cut material to make new item. Making rope, cord, thread, yarn, etc from scratch and having the spinning wheel, cards, looms, knitting needles, crochet hooks, larger eyed needles, etc to do so and having the sheep, goats, seeds, etc to furnish the materials needed to make the cord, thread, yarn, etc. Being able to make shoes or mocs from scratch, having the sewing awls, punches, shoemakers vise, lasts to nail soles on, and knowledge to cut leather to size and hopefully the ability to tan the leather, maintain the tools, and repair the finished goods. Being able to cut down a tree, use the bark for cordage, or tanning leather, etc, the small limbs for starting fires or in your cook stove, the larger limbs for firewood, the smaller tops to make fence posts, split the larger top sections for firewood or fence posts, use largest sections to make lumber, sawed, or split to make fence posts, shingles, clap boards, tool handles etc and have the saws, wedges, froes, draw knives, axes, etc to do so and know which type of tree to use for each intended use, pine, spruce oak, hickory, etc. Planting a garden and knowing when to plant, which soil and how much shade each plant requires, keeping your seeds, how far apart must they be planted to prevent cross pollination, which plants cross, how and when they go to seed, some require second years growth to form seed, how long the seed stores, how to dry the seed, does it require fermenting, eg tomatoes, before it will sprout best or being stored cold before it will sprout. Having the hoes, spading forks, dibbles, cold frames or greenhouses, water source and buckets to water, knowing when to water and what to use as fertilizer and being able to recognize the signs on the leaves and fruit that indicate soil fertility problems, blossom rot etc and having the materials available to supply the nutrients needed, limestone or egg shells or clam shells etc. Raising animals and knowing the breeding signs, the gestation times, how to aid in the birth process, recognizing and treating disease signs, what foods the animal needs and which are harmful to it, in its season how to milk them, make things from the milk, neuter the ones you are going to butcher, have the tools butcher and the tools and knowledge to process the meat safely and to store it safely and to process the hides, intestines, bones, sinew,etc. Recognizing diseases, knowing how to treat some of them,how to prevent infections, how to set a bone, sew up a wound, when to use drains or not sew it up, how to practice quarantine, how to select mates for your children who will most likely give you healthy grand children. How to use a forge and an anvil to works iron and make and repair all the metal items you need. How to make yeast and thus bread, vinegar, beer, sauerkraut, kimchee, and a hundred other pickled or fermented items to store your food or make it taste better. How to make a wheel, a wagon, the harness that the animals need to pull that wagon and the road that the wagon goes on. The list could keep on going and I know each of us older people could add dozens more items to this list. While my grand parents in 1890 couldn't do all of the things listed, they could do most and my grand father traded his skills in meat processing to a neighbor for his skills in carpentry and the community as a whole could do all of thing required to be self sufficient.

That is what I think we have lost in this age of specialization and world wide trade and mass manufacture. Think little house on the prairie as a good view of the end of this period and the transition into the modern new world, saw mills and railroads existing side by side.

 

Some of us are, in our own modest ways, trying to rectify that; and keep the arcane mysteries of pioneer knowledge, common sense, and craft alive, by keeping the flame of old wisdom alight and bright, and passing it on to those who follow...

 

Agree and that is why I have you, Bishop, Hanzo and several others on my list of people I must read and why I do not watch tv.

 

I didn't read how to make a condom from intestine !!
Now where is the priority !! & what is the thinnest & best feeling animal to use ?
Kidding & having fun ! Good post .
Sloth

 

Well posted duane. But for every one of the lost skills that you posted, there are at least two more lost skills that history has proven to be critical on the job training performance factors. (ie sharpening a knife, what happened to flint napping or smiting/making that knife?) So it must be realized that every past generation mastered skills that the next generation antiquated, we call this progress and it can best be conceptualized while sitting on Disney's Wheel of Progress. Who was it that actually invented the wheel? and what was it that the wheels inventor failed at while in the attempt to invent? ??????????

 

M118LR. You are totally correct. My crude attempt at a list of lost skills represents my bias and cultural experiences and expected resources. My Lakota ancestors before the arrival of western civilization had neither iron or the horse, cow, sheep, etc and prospered for many generations. My great grand father had a Swedish cross cut falling saw for cutting down trees that he bought about 1866 that he used to clear the land that he homesteaded. My grand father used it and I don't know who has it now. It was made in Sweden, with wrought iron made in an iron works, with charcoal cut and processed for fuel, iron ore mined and processed for the furnace, limestone or other materials used to remove impurities, forged into a saw blank and tempered by a blacksmith, teeth were filed into the blank using files made of metal, struck to a pattern, and hardened to cut metal, the teeth on the saw were set and filed to a pattern developed over 100's of years of experience, it was shipped to the US on a boat requiring all the infrastructure to create and maintain that boat and the docks, navigation systems, etc that the boat needs and then sent by boat, rail, and wagon to rural Minn. That requires a monetary system to pay everyone in the process, a distribution system to order, warehouse, ship, and sell the saw, and a communication and legal system to order it, expect everyone in the process to be paid in due time, expect that the product that you ordered and paid for will in fact be what you expected and to be usable.

Any discussion of skills must be recognized as only a snap shot of one particular time, place, culture, and resource base.

 

After I left the repair industry and went into manufacturing , I made better money with a brighter future .
No matter how much I invested in my work as a mechanic, it was not appreciated , and I was fixing things none of the other mechanics had a clue . No courage, no creativity.
By demonstration, and example, I tried to show them the value of using their cameras to take pictures of the job at hand during disassembly, and what the problems were.
But few, if any took the hint and continued struggling the way they always did.
I built a frame and mounted a cherry picker on my tool box , and used it on a daily basis ,not ever having to wait for the shop crane availability , and it could not do what my box crane could.

People seem to lack the courage to invent and risk learning something in the process .

I passed on the creativity inherited from my grand father to my kids and I hope they can pass it on to theirs as well.

Now my brother has the same genes, but lacks the creativity and his kids don't show it either .
Though they are successful in their work, they rely almost completely on what others have made.

Few of the mechanics I've known, know how to make a special tool, most rely on what the tool truck offers .
For the most part ,these only know how to swap parts, and not what makes the part tick, or how to fix it ,if it were not available any more.
During an apocalyptic event they will be as lost as those with no mechanical experience.

Right now I am building a piece of lift equipment for my self and part of the process is making custom, small, 12 volt, linier motors, good for 300+lbs ,since I could not find what I wanted over the internet.

The first one took some time, whittling and finding the steel and the motor and gears I needed , the second will be done soon ,a little faster than the first .
It cost me something to learn what I was doing, and paying attention to the many pieces I worked on in the past to have the clue as to how to build these things .
In the end though I have confidence in my manufacturing that I won't have to worry about it in the future, and if it does need repair, I provided for that as well.

 

Nice Post @duane

 

Yup, but try and purchase a Red Stone Smoking Pipe nowadays! Perhaps it's only an artisans craft?...............

 

Or perhaps even: Lakota Catlinite Buffalo pipe Pipestone Ceremonial Effigy pipe Alan Monroe Oglala

 

Most common problem is the gas of today, the blend separates over time and clogs the carb.
Either winter over with an empty tank, after first running the carb to the stopping point or use a non blend gas and a full tank to winter over.

 

Fuel stabilizers work IF,
The stabilizer is added and the engine run so stabilizer is in the carb,
and that gas tank is full and the breather on the gas cap is sealed off.
This is SOP in the marine industry for storing boats short term or indefinitely.
An empty or partially full tank can accumulate moisture and rust (in steel tanks) eventually .
Gas will "gas off", if left in an open environment.
However in most cases it is best to run small engines out of fuel Preferably applying a fogging oil to the intake to coat the inside as it runs out of fuel . Seal up the breather in the gas cap , remember to re open it when you get ready to use it again.
ON generators however, because they are an emergency tool , it is highly recommended to periodically (every month or two ) run the unit for at least 20 minuets or so and keep the tank full with fuel and stabilizer .
As for diesel engines, to my knowledge, these extra precautions are not necessary , though I do run mine periodically .
I have had occasion to replace fuel lines in weed wackers and chain saws ,typically because either the fuel is damaging or the triple didget heat here is the culprit , either way it's regular service i must perform on that equipment .