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The anvil, can make a lot of stuff with it. You can even use it to make fire, striking a piece of iron until it’s hot enough to light a forge or small fire. Older copies of the Machinery’s handbook(the machinist’s Bible) have a few things on blacksmithing.
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Exercising equipment. Jump rope, dumbels, pullup bars, rowing thingie and such.
As a user of threaded fasteners, the inclined plane.
Using a brush to paint my house as opposed to an hvlp setup
Hand tool woodworking. It’s amazing what you can make without a single electron. Its also amazing to feel the tools, the resistance and subtle vibrations as you use them. Like an extension of your own body. I love chiseling, especially large mortises. Hearing that sharp, deep thud, and seeing it sink in as it bites into the wood is so satisfying. Especially when using metal hammers, they are so responsive.
I love sawing, especially when relaxed and working at a slow pace, seeing all the sawdust fly out with each stroke. Sawing isn’t fun when working on difficult pieces of wood, when working in a relaxed manner with softwood, the hoarse sounds of the saw starts to sound like purring and it begins to cut exceptionally well.
I love the finish of handplanes, so smooth it becomes water resistant.
Overall very spiritual and relaxing (as relaxing as you allow it to be at least)
Hey Paul Sellars, looking forward to your new video!
Hand tools are spiritual in a way that machine tools will never be. I love the texture and heft of planes. The simplicity and quiet operation. Working with timber and steel is one of the greatest pleasures in life.
Dumb TVs. I love the option to turn it into a pseudo-smart TV with just a streaming stick. But, I’m always okay with a TV that just has the ports for basic things.
Knives.
About as low tech as it gets, even for modern knives that are pretty high tech in how they’re made.
But it’s entirely possible for a person to make a knife with nothing but tools they can make by hand, with no need for anything other than rocks as tools. I’ve done it, and it isn’t like I’m some kind of super genius.
You can make slightly more high tech tools if you want, and make metal knives. The caveat to that is that you have to know how to identify sources for the metal in the first place, unlike stone tools where you can figure it out by banging rocks together until you find some that make sharp edges. But making an oven that can turn out low-grade materials is realistic for a single person to do.
But a knife, in its essence is just an inclined plane done to a very fine degree. Doesn’t get any more low tech than that. Mind you, there’s plenty of complexity involved in all of the basic machines like inclined planes, but that’s more about understanding them than using them or making them.
Knives are mankind’s most important tool. They were among our first tools, and it can be argued that they were our first manufactured tools. And we still use them regularly. Some of us use them every day, multiple times a day.
That’s a lasting technology in every degree of refinement.
Honestly, kind of mind blowing even thinking of them as a technology, they’re so ubiquitous. I use a knife a minimum of 10 times a day, and that’s just in the kitchen, not including opening mail, packages, small medical stuff, and a ton more uses. Holy shit, where would we be without those inclined edges?
Awesome comment to read at 430 in the morning. Thank you
Also knives and woodworking. Blades are what made the great Japanese temples. Lots of sharp steel and a dream. It is amazing what Japanese blacksmiths can do with steel, and the excellent performance they can achieve with them.
Smelting metal (as opposed to just heating already refined metal) is a non-average skillset, though, and knapping is quite hard to master.
You know what always weirds me out:
The knife is a technology. It was invented by a person. And that person was not the same species as us. The knife has been around longer than Homo Sapiens.
I’ve commented on this before, but it reminds me of the mortise and tenon joint. The oldest intact wooden structure on Earth is held together with mortise and tenon joints. The man who built it never wrote his name down, because writing hadn’t been invented yet. He never rode a horse, because animal husbandry hadn’t been invented yet. He used stone tools, because copper smelting hadn’t been invented yet. In the present day, Festool sells a tool to make mortises called the Domino which they still hold a patent on. We’re still actively developing this technology which has been with us slightly longer than civilization has.
I’m a huge coffee drinker. Used to have a machine. It broke. Bend using an aeropress and French press for awhile and find that I really don’t miss the machine.
Same, I actually use a french press and then pour the coffee into the insulated carafe from my dead coffee machine to keep it hot until I finish it.
Turbine style desk fans. They push wind very fast.
Knipex Cobras. It’s like being able to pinch anything with a force of about ten tons per square inch, they’re indispensable
I like to get all up in my snuggie. Get a little weird.
Automatic (mechanical) wristwatches.
I love the idea of a truly symbiotic relationship between a thoughtfully and carefully designed mechanism and a human. I walk around and live my life, and by doing so, I give it the kinetic energy it needs to keep its mainspring wound, and in return it tells me what time it is. Always. Without fail. I just have to tweak the time if it starts to get too far off, but that’s barely even an imposition. After a good long while, it’s prudent to have them serviced, but if you’re not observing any problems, it’s generally perfectly fine, and will keep ticking along as long as you wear it regularly.
I had a cheap automatic in college, sadly lost it in a move.
But I loved it so much, kept itself wound up without issue, and it was amazing to look at all the tiny parts that made it work.
There are some good enough automatics out now at very reasonable prices.
Of course there are also crazy expensive ones also, but they all do essentially the same thing - convert your movements into time measurements 😀
Similarly, I have a cuckoo clock. I could watch the internal mechanism for hours.
also, knowing you are listening to the same exact tick tock that has been heard for centuries
door wedge
Ooooh for me, it’s those sexy German windows
I don’t understand this, van you post pictures?
Also this post is a bit weird considering you replied to a post mentioning a door wedge.
Aha I see, as a neighbor of Germany those are just windows or tilt-turn windows
There’s also the secret fourth position known only to a select few: try tilting the window, and then pushing it forward.
Only some windows have this special feature.
Or opening it horizontally just a tiny bit, then tilting it.
Or rotating it up out of its hinges, and just dropping it onto a loud neighbour below.
(“Ruhe Zeit!”)
Oh yes replied to a message and not the post itself because I’m a dumb dumb sometimes
String/rope. With a couple of knots, loops and tension you can make a lot of things with it.
