No Pipe!

Before I developed an interest in blacksmithing I frequently drove past a fabrication shop and occasionally noticed the sign which said “No pipe!”  In those days I didn’t understand the significance of the message.  Today I can imagine the conversations which prompted the posting.

When I started putting together my shop I made frequent trips to a local scrapyard where I was allowed to wander about and pick out pieces of metal.  Looking back, that was a lucky opportunity no longer available nearby.  I was able to stock my shop with most of what I would use for several years in round stock, sheet and plate, angle, channel and tool steel.  

I also brought home quite a bit of pipe in diameters up to about 3”.  Sometime later I learned the distinction between pipe and structural tube.  In the subsequent years the pipe has been used in shop building projects or otherwise has been disposed of.  It was really round tubing I needed not pipe.  I wrote about this once before.

http://persimmonforge.blogspot.com/2011/08/pipe-or-tube.html

The round tube is available in exact outside diameters in 1/8” increments from 3/8” through 2.5”.  That covers almost everything I use.  I recently came across the chart of round tubing sizes at this site

http://www.tottentubes.com/tubing-pipe-products/hss-round-tubing

I was surprised to see two sizes I hadn’t noticed before - 1-2/3” and 1-9/10”.  I know there must be a good reason for offering those dimensions but I have no idea what it is.  There is always more to learn.

Workmanship of Risk

As I recall it was at the Saltfork Craftsmen conference in 1999 when I heard Peter Ross suggest reading David Pye’s books on craftsmanship and design.  I took his advice and read them  both.

Recently I started thinking about those subjects again and decided to take another look at the books.

Pye was a skilled wood artist. He suggested that craftsmanship might mean “using any kind of technique or apparatus, in which the quality of the result is not predetermined, but depends on the judgement, dexterity and care which the maker exercises as he works.  The essential idea is that the quality of the result is continually at risk during the process of making;”

He designated the process of craftsmanship “the workmanship of risk.”  The contrasting idea is “workmanship of certainty.”  Quality machine manufacturing certainly has it’s place.  The wide availability of inexpensive standard machine screws and other hardware is an obvious example.  Hand-crafted can’t compete in that venue.

Pye goes on to discuss quality of workmanship and how finished work can vary from idealized designs and to discuss craftwork in terms of being free or regulated.  In all of this there is a lot of middle ground and the ends of the spectrum are essentially theoretical.

In my forging and other metalworking projects I am responsible for both the design and the forming - the craftsmanship.  I like working that way.  As I work through a project from design to finish work I think about the visual impression I’m targeting.  Every project involves modifying some parent metal stock using various tools.  It is often my intent to arrive at a finished piece in which it is not easy to determine what the parent stock was and what tools and techniques were used.  Some element of mystery seems to increase interest.

I was recently engaged in a conversation with some members of an art-craft co-op gallery regarding what types of work could be displayed.  I think one firm criteria was that skilled hand work would be obvious in the finished piece.  I think Pye would agree with that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pye_(furniture)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Art-Workmanship-David/dp/0713689315

http://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Aesthetics-Design-David/dp/0713652861/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y/192-5497689-0151811