[Tegyrius]

I received Foxfire 5 for Christmas. The following quote, from the editors' early-1970s correspondence with California backwoods-dweller Carl Darden, made me think of this thread:

But [flint-knapping]'s a nearly dead art, and the man who takes it up, even for a hobby, is perpetuating a trade that once was one of the greatest industries in the civilized world - the last bit of man's stone age.

It's a scary thought to know that so many people are alive today artificially because of modern inventions. The passing of such free cultures as the fruit tramps and the hobos and the gypsies are seldom thought of, let alone missed or wept over. But it's the same for the tinker, cooper, potter, wood-cutter, blacksmith, miller, ferryman, old-time gunsmith, powder miller, horseback mailman, bowmaker, tanner, windmill salesman, general handyman, postmaker, miner, prospector, moonshiner, and a thousand other tradesmen that most parts of our society have forgotten or don't know anything about in this day and age of specializing. As a young man, I was a tinker (I still repair pots and pans rather than throw them away), coopered churns, buckets, and barrels; still make musical instruments, made whiskey and beer, mined placer gold, worked at blacksmithing, worked as a tanner and as a cowboy, explored unvisited places in the wilderness as a wanderer, made furniture, built cabins from materials at hand, made a few wooden water pumps, cooked meals for tunnel crews on a wood stove, made gun flints and arrowheads, smelted my own lead to make round balls from, and a dozen other self-sufficient and unique things few individuals even consider today. The arts and trades are being lost and forgotten at an ever-increasing rate, and if hard times fall on us in some way or another, our survival rate will be low.

- C.