My late great local Italian gunsmith, who died a couple of years ago, could machine a new part from a hunk of steel, or build a new walnut stock. He didn't just "fix" guns - he could build one from scratch.
Niccola was a grouch ("The customer is always wrong"), he always acted as if he were doing you a favor to do a job, and his English was imperfect for sure, but he became a pal to his customers, and to me. White-collar men have a natural respect for those who can DO REAL THINGS.
In time, it got so I would waste an hour of Saturday morning errand-time hanging out in his shop, watching him work, and talking nonsense. He probably wished I would just leave, but the work was very interesting. The very cool but primitive machine tools. The layers of oil and sanding on a fine Turkish Walnut stock.
Before he got sick, he told me that he had ads at the High School job bulletin board for years - "Learn Gunsmithing locally, as an apprentice. Expert gunsmiths earn up to 100+/hour".
He never received a single phone call - and this High School has white kids, hispanic kids, black kids, poor kids, rich kids, - the works. "College-bound"? Haha. Anyone can go to some college, but most of them are glorified high schools themselves, desperate for bill-paying warm bodies. Foolish kids, not to welcome such an offer. When Niccola died, all of his art and skill and wisdom and knowledge and irreverence died with him. "Another Purdy? Piece of homemade English sheet. I do what I can with thees, OK?, when I finds the time. You wait, maybe 6, 8 month, we feex. Pain in neck, kappisch? No want to work on, but we do."
Our schools, and maybe our dopey culture, make everyone feel like a loser if they don't push paper and stare at screens, in a cubicle. This is so wrong, and really so condescending and contemptuous, that it makes me sick.
Matthew Crawford of UVa makes a case for manual labor and the trades:
So what advice should one give to a young person? By all means, go to college. In fact, approach college in the spirit of craftsmanship, going deep into liberal arts and sciences. In the summers, learn a manual trade. You’re likely to be less damaged, and quite possibly better paid, as an independent tradesman than as a cubicle-dwelling tender of information systems. To heed such advice would require a certain contrarian streak, as it entails rejecting a life course mapped out by others as obligatory and inevitable.
Entirely agree. Whole thing here, Shopcraft as Soulcraft, in The New Atlantis
By coincidence, this week Betsy posted a piece on the same subject, in which CNN reports a resurgence in Vocational Education. It's about time that our kids, and we, remember to respect real honest skilled work. I have never seen a gunsmith who was laid off, or not in control of his destiny, or unhappy with his work.
Images: Top: Gunsmiths building Virginia rifles from scratch at Colonial Williamsburg. Bottom: Carpentry crew of PBS' This Old House.
Labor DayGrover Cleveland reluctantly supported the concept of a Labor Day during his re-election campaign. He lost anyway. It was meant to be a day off from work for union organizers to organize. I guess now it means the official end of summer, time to
Tracked: Sep 03, 05:18