A Picture or 1000 Words

Last week I downloaded a few images from my old shop camera then it expired. New batteries couldn’t shock it back to life. So after many years of service in a harsh environment I let it go to R.I.P. in the realm where expired electronic devices go.

I understood immediately that this was not a crisis since it seems like almost everything with a battery is now capable of taking a picture. My older son, Keith, tells me my iPhone has a better camera than my camera. That sounds circular but you get he idea,

My actual solution was to take my wife’s old camera which she never uses as she prefers the one on the iPhone and I traded her a newer camera which I have used to take “professional” images in my mini photo studio. Incidentally, that camera was obtained at Stapes in response to my request for their “least expensive Canon camera.” I will never take the time to figure out anything more complicated a don’t use most of the features built into the inexpensive one.

Today, I took several images of the steps used in preparing some spikes for tapering. It was a pleasure to look in the viewfinder and actually see a large clear image of the target, It was also neat to hear the click sound which indicated the image had been captured. It gave me a comfort sensation similar to the old days when I picked up the phone receiver and an operator asked. “number please.”

I don’t know if a picture is really worth a thousand words or how anyone would know. I do know that the images I take are a great help in documenting my work processes. They save time and provide more information than my written notes.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Making Step Sets

I call them step sets because they illustrate the step-by-step sequence of a project. I’ve also heard them called story bars or story sticks.

It seems akin to how some teachers help children make a somewhat complicated line drawing by breaking it down into a series of smaller elements the child has already mastered. Step sets have a key place in teaching beginners step-by-step planning. I believe the sooner a student learns to forge with precision the better. It is encouraging to see intention become product.

This deconstruct, analyze, form test pieces process is also a powerful tool for defining how a complicated project can be evaluated for bidding.

Forging step sets helps me maintain the discipline of record keeping and for doing work in well defined and precisely ordered sequence. It helps me keep track of the parent stock and each forming operation and it it is often the easiest way to explain to an assistant exactly what needs to be done and what the standard will be. I archive quite a few of these on wall hooks in the studio while others are stored in the project box with the other tools and jigs that go with that job.

Oftentimes I document a job with a series of digital images, especially if it is a one time thing. But, being three dimensional objects, the information captured in a step set surpassed the photograph. In my chess set board pieces the knight is the most complicated piece and a step set has been almost essential in recording the creative process.

Last week I made about twenty blow poker fireplace tools. It is a small functional item which has sold well for me for several years, usually in the fall and winter. Anytime I find myself making a thing again and again I start devising special tools and jigs to speed up that process. To do this with the blow pokers probably added three or four hours to the project this week but will save more than that going forward. Creating a step set for the poker tip was one part of that work. It’s kind of like saying, “The jobs not done until the paperwork is finished.”

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Documenting Work

As I work through a project I assume (1) I'll do this again someday and want to remember how I did it and (2) I won't remember how I did it. Therefor I try to document my work as I go through the day.

I take an old brief case to the shop. It contains an old digital camera, correction pens, ink pens, 1/4” ruled graph drawing pads, some files of currrent projects, the things I use to document work on projects.

The camera is dedicated to the studio. It's taken a lot of abuse and has some annoying faults related to the abuse but If I had a good one there it would soon suffer the same fate. The images are usually good enough to record a series of steps more exactly than my writing would and it is faster to accomplish. I'd guess I usually snap a half dozen photos a day.

I’ve never found it a problem to pitch extra notes but it is a problem to try to remember what stock I used on a project two years ago when the customer wants another one just like it made. I try to be seriously methodical in writing notes, clearly noting the stock, measurements, tools, dies and mandrels used in the forming process and the finishing. I record the approximate time required in each step. This is essential for pricing.

When I am satisfied with a design and plan to make it again, the dedicated project box is one of the easiest ways to document that work. For instance, I recently made about thirty Conestoga wagon wing nuts for a project. I pulled out the pressboard cover file made a few years ago and went to the cargo trailer to get the plastic box which contains some blanks, the step set and most of the required tools. The finished hardware pieces must look self similar and this method takes all the guess work out of process.

When any work is completed I reflect on the experience and identify how it might be made to look better, or how I could create it more efficiently and record those thoughts too. I then print up a report and hang up any useful test pieces in the studio. Those are my “sketches in iron” or the library of visible solutions.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/