Football

AJB Temple said:

Rowing vid was very interesting. The 8 looks puny compared with modern day athletes.

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Interestingly I Googled to see how rowing 8 times have improved over the last eighty years; much of it is due of course to a much better diet and training regimes but it's also the shells themselves, which are nowadays made from carbon fibre and similar materials. When George Pocock built the 'Husky Clipper' individually by hand the outer surface was made from hand planed Western Red Cedar, 5/32" thick, finished with multiple coats of marine varnish burnished to a dead smooth finish. As mentioned, the Berlin crew had a 'hardscrabble', dirt poor upbringing during the Depression of the 1930's so when you consider their achievement (sixth place to overtake all other boats to win) in that final in front of Adolf Hitler it's nothing short of remarkable, also bearing in mind that the vital stroke oar in front of the cox had pneumonia - Rob

Lons said:

Considering your other mishaps what happened, did you fall in or get a hook through your nose?

Never appealed to me, I've been a fly fisherman most of my life. Have caught the odd coarse fish on a fly though, most recently a couple of decent sized perch.

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... funnily enough... I got on quite well - no hooks in my nose - nor anyone else's . Also did a bit of fly fishing - still have the old split cane rod and the reel (but could be hard pushed to find the reel if asked what name ). If memory serves me... I think the rod was second hand when I bought it from the tackle shop? It was when I worked at Oldham Market place (Markets Department)... a pet shop (downstairs) /fishing tackle shop (upstairs)... spent more time and money in that place than I should

Woodbloke said:

........................ have improved over the last eighty years; much of it is due of course to a much better diet and training regimes but it's also the shells themselves, which are nowadays made from carbon fibre and similar materials. ................

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That's true of most sports as well as all the other items we use in life though isn't it. I well remember heavy football boots and leather ball that when wet you struggled to kick 20 yards. Tennis raquets that gave you wrist sprain, golf clubs that because of the reasons you mention the pros can now hit a ball well over 300 yards, lightweight carbon fishing rods instead of greenheart and cane and I'm sure Mike could describe the changes to cricket equipment. I doubt there are many things that haven't evolved dramatically apart from some woodworking hand tools.

Ordinary family cars with accelleration that was possible only in high end supercars in the seventies, bikes you can lift with two fingers, I have a 40 odd year old Dawes that could easily give you a hernia but was cutting edge at the time.

Such is progress.

Lons said:

That's true of most sports as well as all the other items we use in life though isn't it. I well remember heavy football boots and leather ball that when wet you struggled to kick 20 yards. Tennis raquets that gave you wrist sprain, golf clubs that because of the reasons you mention the pros can now hit a ball well over 300 yards, lightweight carbon fishing rods instead of greenheart and cane and I'm sure Mike could describe the changes to cricket equipment. I doubt there are many things that haven't evolved dramatically apart from some woodworking hand tools.

Ordinary family cars with accelleration that was possible only in high end supercars in the seventies, bikes you can lift with two fingers, I have a 40 odd year old Dawes that could easily give you a hernia but was cutting edge at the time.

Such is progress.

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Very true Bob. Woodworking tools haven't evolved a great deal over the years though the so called 'expert' UToobers ('ex' is a has been and 'spurt' is somat of short duration, according to my old dad...interpret as you will) would like you to think otherwise, ref new fanged 'gizmos' which I detest with a passion. I can think of one or two game changers though, the first being a biscuit jointer, long since superseded by the Festool Domino and possibly the introduction of different sorts of high end, fancy steels. Whether they're any better than 'old skool' O1 carbon steel is a moot point methinks - Rob

It's easy to be negative about innovations. Of course not all of them are revolutionary (or even a small improvement in many cases), but I'm certain that many of the tools available today would have been leapt on by woodworkers not that many decades ago. Are they all essential? Of course not: you can make everything with a couple of old handsaws, some old chisels and some wooden bodied planes (all made in the 18th century) if you're so inclined. Does that mean the newer tools are worthless? Also no.

Things like the Domino and the Sawstop technology (which is a genuine game changer for safety) for power tool woodworking are two of the more obvious ones, plus of course oscillating multi-tools for DIY wood bothering. Even for hand tool jobs, things like digital calipers (easier to read than vernier ones, far more reliable than dial ones) and digital angle gauges (both the protractor type and the level type) make a big difference. The little innovations in Veritas bevel-up planes might not be world-changing but that doesn't mean they can't be considered beneficial improvements for those who want them. Even little things like the improvements in readability on some of my modern steel rules compared to the older ones are not to be sniffed at. There are lots of other little tangential improvements as well, things like better tapes (the masking tape you can get these days is miles better than what was available 20 years ago), jigs for sharpening/regrinding (like the Tormek ones), better lighting, better fastener drives (Torx rather than Pozi etc), etc etc.

For power tool folk who use a lot of jigs, then there are loads of little innovations that make their life easier and make jobs a little bit quicker. That doesn't mean those little jigs are essential or even useful for everyone, but that in turn doesn't mean they're worthless. I think back to the little "kerfmaker" jig I used with my table saw and gave away for free on this site. That got loads of disparaging remarks just because there are other ways to do the same job. The jig did its job very well and made a job quite a bit quicker. If you don't do it often then it's worthless to you, but that doesn't mean it's entirely worthless.

I'm sure if you went back 60+ years there would be a whole host of little inventions that people came out with that were pretty much useless. We don't hear about them today as they wouldn't have sold especially well and have long since disappeared except perhaps in a few cases as collector's items (Stanley #1 for example). The same will be true today: many inventions, only some of which will stand the test of time.
Looking at all of the little inventions people are having now and concluding that nothing usefully new is being invented seems a bit of a stretch to me.

Sorry, rant over. I get a bit wound up by this assertion that everything woodwork was already invented a hundred years ago and anything new is a waste of time and money.

Its all a form of evolution
The axe was once high-tech.
Each to his own

fuse said:

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Nice one ... Wrong part of the forum Martin although I understand why "Tad of Mirth" maybe