Clogs, spoons, chairs and all of their digits

June 9, 2016 6:30 AM

Traditional Swedish woodworkers in 1923 show you how it's done.
posted by OmieWise (22 comments total)

THAT BEARD. Omg. what a cutie.
posted by Annika Cicada at 6:39 AM on June 9, 2016

As I'm just now reading The Anarchist's Design Book, this is oddly suitable, I could watch this stuff all day and hope to actually build something in the next month or two after our move is complete.

Thanks.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:53 AM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

All those fellers are just enjoying life at the far upper right corner of a chart where the two axis are "rugged" and "dapper."

and engaging in some alarmingly deft hatchet work.
posted by dirtdirt at 7:07 AM on June 9, 2016 [5 favorites]

All they need is a sharp hat and a sharper hatchet.
--
Using dry wood like that is so difficult because it's so hard. Green stuff is much easier to carve, and so these jovial-seeming guys must have been really strong.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:48 AM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

I am so turned on right now.
posted by Makwa at 8:10 AM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

This is a video shot in 1923 for Swedish television

:-)

(SVT was founded in 1956. The initial credits says the film was made for this exhibition (flickr photo collection). Sweden was horribly poor at this time, but a number of reforms designed to "bring the best sides of America to Sweden" had been implemented and the first social democrat government was in place. A few years later, they would introduce the concept of "folkhemmet" and stay in power for 40 years...)
posted by effbot at 8:41 AM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

So that's what the large knob is for on my grandfather's hand drill! I admit I'd never seen one operated one-handed like that. (But oh, the shoulder calluses. )
posted by klausman at 8:55 AM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

There's a lot more films like this one at oppetarkiv.se (an open archive which is run by Swedish Television), but those can only be watched if you're in Sweden. However I'm sure there are ways around that, if you're truly in the mood for some Swedish arts and craft. :)
posted by soundofsuburbia at 9:13 AM on June 9, 2016

So that's what the large knob is for on grandfather's hand drill grandfather's hand drill

You may mean bit and brace, unless you mean something like these shoulder breast crank drill monstrosities (which, as far as I saw, didn't appear in the video).

Just helping with nomenclature because I didn't know what they were called for a long time either.
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:13 AM on June 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

You may mean bit and brace

Hey, I just learned something else! Yes, that's what I meant, and the correct name of course makes sense now.
posted by klausman at 9:25 AM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you like this, you might also like The Woodright's Shop, from PBS. Roy Underhill demonstrates similar tools and techniques.
posted by scottatdrake at 9:59 AM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Hand powered drills over at Low Tech Magazine.
posted by Bee'sWing at 10:57 AM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

I have never heard of Low Tech Magazine. I like the site. Thanks.
posted by OmieWise at 11:22 AM on June 9, 2016

I loved that spoon with the T handle. You can tell all those tools have very keen edges. Like that wide little hand-adze; he's not using much force on it but it is skiving away big flakes of material.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 11:26 AM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Heh. Under Low Tech Mag's main heading for "Obsolete Technologies" is an add for Dell Windows 10 PC'S.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 11:30 AM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

I had to stop watching the spoon section for fear the skin on my left hand would spontaneously open up along the cuts he was by some miracle avoiding and flood my keyboard with all the blood he should have -- in any even remotely probable world -- been shedding.
posted by jamjam at 12:37 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Previously, and previouslyer and still more
previously on Metafilter for Low Tech.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:58 PM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

The footage is great and I watched it all the way through.

First, we clearly lost something when men stopped wearing hats. I know everyone blames JFK for the change, but it is time to reverse the trend.

Second, while the craftsmanship of the clog part was neat, actually wearing wooden shoes sounds horrible, something you would only do when poverty or lack of better materials forced you to. Is that right, or are wooden shoes actually comfortable?
posted by Dip Flash at 5:37 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have it from several sources that wooden shoes (when worn with proper sock setup) are not at all terrible. Having tried on a pair whilst visiting a friend in Holland (Michigan that is), I can't rightly argue with the premise that they are not outright torture devices for the peons to suffer through.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:14 PM on June 9, 2016

Is that right, or are wooden shoes actually comfortable?

The common Swedish model with the upper part made of leather can be very comfortable.

Not sure about the all-wood ones; the guy in the video almost trips at 6:23, so that pair was probably not too great :-) (and tbh, I've never seen that style in real life in Sweden, that's always been a dutch thing).
posted by effbot at 1:35 AM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Commentary on wooden shoes here.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:35 AM on June 10, 2016

Wooden shoes can also be useful if you want to ride behind your Kawasaki Z1300 for a bit, in 150 km/h.
posted by effbot at 4:14 PM on June 11, 2016