Lost trade skills

[Redwood]

This guy has some amazing skills shaping this glass, check this video out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60_YQbPBoV8

The days of the artisan craftsman and dwindling, nowadays it the same thing probably gets splurted out by a machine somewhere I guess.

Where could you even learn to do this, if anywhere? I wonder how many of these kinds of things no one will be able to do in a few decades time?

[1290]

I reckon that guy has done it before ... amazing. I would love to have a couple of those horses, just to know that an artist/artisan created it as an original hand made piece.

Glass blowing/sculpting is an amazing art, and it is still practiced in various parts of the world, for example the Murano Island in Italy (Venice) are famous for glass work, still after hundreds of years...you could take a trip there and learn some....

As far as decades... we're already too far down the track, we as a nation have discarded most of the skills and substituted them for cheap plastic chinese imports...

[meateater]

As far as decades... we're already too far down the track, we as a nation have discarded most of the skills and substituted them for cheap plastic chinese imports...

Anything to save a buck

[Jack V]

Yep , I was a Billiard fitter , a person who makes Snooker , Pool and Billiard tables. Now cheap imports are ruining the trade. I gave it up and did other things and only kept it as a side line because you can't compete with people who sell inferior stuff and use cheap Chinese cloths when you are quoting for quality English cloth made from Australian merino wool. The customers don't see the difference.

Rather than stoop to that level I got out but I still have all my tools and can still do it all except lift heavy slates and move heavy one piece tables. There are very few good tradesman left now in any field that care about quality workmanship.

I just got ripped off for $1900 by a shonky lying floor sander / polisher. Did a real sub standard job but I could not get into the house to see it until two days after he left and I had already paid. Now the scumbag will not come back and fix it up. That is what people deal with all the time now with the building trades.

[North East]

Luckily there are still quality firearm manufacturers around the world particularly in Europe. But they are not cheap.

[Jack V]

Luckily there are still quality firearm manufacturers around the world particularly in Europe. But they are not cheap.

The firearms industry has standards to keep up and lot's of regulations that control safety issues so it helps to keep weapons conforming to some kind of standard unlike many other industries that have no regulation at all.

It's a comforting thing to know you can buy a rifle in say the USA , the correct ammo made in Germany , the correct scope mount made in the UK and a spare magazine in Australia and it all works fine. I still have the first cartridge rifle I bought when I was 16 a single shot 22 and it still works fine .

It's not as good to use as a more modern gun but it still works.

[whert]

I just got ripped off for $1900 by a shonky lying floor sander / polisher. Did a real sub standard job but I could not get into the house to see it until two days after he left and I had already paid. Now the scumbag will not come back and fix it up. That is what people deal with all the time now with the building trades.

I dunno what it's called in NSW, we have the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in VIC to take these guys too.

Whatever it's called in NSW, not gunna pursue him through that?

[Lorgar]

I just got ripped off for $1900 by a shonky lying floor sander / polisher. Did a real sub standard job but I could not get into the house to see it until two days after he left and I had already paid. Now the scumbag will not come back and fix it up. That is what people deal with all the time now with the building trades.

It's amazing what some of these ****** think is acceptable and what they can get away with.

A mate of mine got his house re-carpeted years ago. I forget the exact numbers but the gist of it is there was a lower quality carpet for $10,000 which had 5 year warranty. And a much higher quality carpet for $20,000 which had 15 year warranty.

Warranty wasn't the point, he paid the extra for the best quality one because it'll last longer. So the jobs paid for and underway and 1/4 of the house is done and he comes back to find they're laying the cheap carpet.

He tells the guy there's been a mistake and he says "no, we ran out of the good carpet so giving you the lower quality one but I'll give you the same warranty as the good one."

No discussion. He fully expected to keep the full $20,000 and still give him the s**t carpet and that just offering a warranty made it all right. Argued back and forth and he only came around once the lawyers letters arrived starting legal action.

Refunded him in the end as he apparently couldn't get the carpet then for some reason. Seems the plan all along was to just steal the $10k and hope he wouldn't notice the wrong carpet and just fall back on the warranty as an excuse.

[Westy]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^That's wrong on so many levels Lorgar. What a prick!!!!!!!!!

[Westy]

The lost skill that I'm surprised that hasn't been mentioned here is the art of shooting???? I'm a child of the early 60's and growing up in the shadow of WW1 and WW2 and having family who fought in both WW's and Korea not to mention watching Vietnam on the T.V every night on the news we were taught that the ability to protect yourself and your family was a great skill to posses. It seems to me that young people grow up today in fear of firearms and have little to no understanding of how they work or the ability to save and protect there lives no matter where the threat comes from and I for one find it kind of sad!!! Did anyone else see this on the News in the last couple of days???? A hand gun was delivered to the wrong address and the way the Shelia carried on was over the top, maybe if it was even loaded then I could understand???? But back to the topic on hand using and knowing how to use a rifle/pistol or shotgun has become a thing of the past and I for one am sorry to see it pass away!!!!!!!Guys like Lionel Bibby mentioned in the last SSAA Mag would be demonised today but growing up I remember Grandad talking about seeing him at the royal Easter Show!!!
Check this out I know I'm no where near this good not even close anyone else!!!!
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/club-v-gun

Funny how every kid can tell you about the Great Don Bradman but this guy has never been heard of, Bloody Sad as I hate f***ing cricket!!!!!

Yep the world has changed and I'm not happy Jan might pack up and leave Oz for N.Z got to be a better way of life for has beens like myself!!!

[headwerkn]

Back in 2005 I was fortunate enough to see those glass horses being made at the Murano Glass Factory in Venice*.... it's freakin' amazing to watch... the blokes are so casual and smooth in their actions yet the precision with which they control the cooling glass is just incredible.

All I can say is, practice makes perfect. One can only imagine how many times you need to try before you get one right though.

(* The actual factory is on the island of Murano, operations on the island of Venice itself were shifted a few hundred years back when a fire from the factory destroyed half of Venice! These days they maintain a small workshop just for tourists).

[Lorgar]

That's wrong on so many levels Lorgar.

And another one I've just remembered...

My folks had a few fence put in around there pool and within 5-6 weeks it was already starting to rust. Spoke to the guys, they didn't want a bar of it blah blah blah.

They live in Sydney, had to take him to whatever the NSW civil tribunal place is called who ruled in their favour. Got the whole thing refunded but huge pain in the ass obviously. They'd have rather just paid to get it done right once.

Anyway.. The fact that instantly sunk the guys case was on top of the s**ty work he lied about his credentials. I don't really know building but you know how there are the industry body's like Master Builds Association and these kinds of groups.

He'd got the logos from a bunch of these body's and just made up dodgy membership numbers to bolster his resume.

s**ty product, lies about his credentials, all in a days work for some.

[chacka]

the blokes are so casual and smooth in their actions yet the precision with which they control the cooling glass is just incredible.

It sort of looks like they're just screwing around to start and plucking bits of glass and bending stuff randomly.

Doesn't really look like it's going to be anything then within a few moves the horse just pops out of nowhere. Really is awesome.

[Aster]

It's amazing what some of these ****** think is acceptable and what they can get away with.

A mate of mine got his house re-carpeted years ago. I forget the exact numbers but the gist of it is there was a lower quality carpet for $10,000 which had 5 year warranty. And a much higher quality carpet for $20,000 which had 15 year warranty.

Warranty wasn't the point, he paid the extra for the best quality one because it'll last longer. So the jobs paid for and underway and 1/4 of the house is done and he comes back to find they're laying the cheap carpet.

He tells the guy there's been a mistake and he says "no, we ran out of the good carpet so giving you the lower quality one but I'll give you the same warranty as the good one."

No discussion. He fully expected to keep the full $20,000 and still give him the s**t carpet and that just offering a warranty made it all right. Argued back and forth and he only came around once the lawyers letters arrived starting legal action.

Refunded him in the end as he apparently couldn't get the carpet then for some reason. Seems the plan all along was to just steal the $10k and hope he wouldn't notice the wrong carpet and just fall back on the warranty as an excuse.

That is outrageous .

That is similar to something that happened to me. Bought an expensive carpet but wanted them to hold off installing because the house was not ready yet. When the carpet came it was a lower grade. Luckily I took photos of the stuff I bought and the stuff they delivered was nothing like it.

I sent it back and luckily got a refund.

[Seconds]

A friends of ours had a painter doing the inside of their house. He'd finished going around the house once with the first coat, he worked for himself and about that time got offered a full time job which he took and just buggered off without coming back to do the second coat and finish the job.

They had to take him to civil claims as well to get the money back from him. Which they got back at least.

I dunno the rules of painting but you have to be certified or something to take a job larger than $5,000 or some limit. I can't remember what the actual limit is but the job was 3x the limit and he didn't have the quals to legally do it, so he came undone there.