Human-Scale Tools for a Sustainable World

Peak Moment 67: At Smith and Speed Mercantile on Orcas Island, hand tools line the walls and tables along with organic wool comforters and non-toxic paints. It's an extension of Kathleen Smith and Errol Speed's off-grid homestead where they work at "the speed of living," using hand tools that reconnect them to the earth.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• hand
• tools
• sustainability
• smith
• and
• speed
• mercantile

[perunatic]

Counter argument: Electric hedge trimmers. Anyone tried to cut an eight foot cypress hedge with shears? Not fun, very boring in fact, and hard, and less precise. Wool blankets are very itchy. Good hand tools are beautiful and a pleasure to use but let's not get all new age about it.

[peakmoment]

No question some power tools make things faster and easier. I'd rather cut our firewood with the noisy, cranky, smelly chainsaw than with the big cross-cut saw. But the hand tools will be with us longer than petroleum-fueled tools...and they're worth having as backups, worth training the craftspeople who can make and fix 'em.

[perunatic]

Yes that's a fair point PM, looks like a great venture with some very fine products. Sorry for being a grumpy curmudgeon.

[peakmoment]

@perunatic, no curmudgeon, just a realist. I think a lot of life will become "A Life Made By Hand" as Jim Kunstler's novel portrays. There's some satisfaction in it, but a lot more hard work than most of us are used to. We put in a 4000 gal gravity-fed water system last year. Did the work ourselves, and our bodies sure knew it! See my journal (blog) on the peak moment website.

[NicholasJBrown]

I especially like this one, the peak oil and mostly the Alcohol episodes. I hope there are more to come because I am subscribed!

[peakmoment]

Plenty more to come...we've just produced our 89th program, so take a look at past programs. You can subscribe to our occasional e-newsletter at peakmoment (dot) tv. Shows are also on a couple dozen community access TV stations...contact us if you want to put programs on your station. info (at) peakmoment (dot) tv.

[bigbag70]

Cracks me up, people take the fruits of years of commercial innovation by an economy fuel by petroleum and say they are making a difference.....Like they were the first ones to think of it...hypocrites

[MrMeanderthal]

having been a logger, a carpenter, and a cabinetmaker.. having used both hand and power tools of each trade I can say from experience that this is all a pipe dream...

good for a few but the reality is if everyone used hand tools you could not afford their work and you would go without..

[Rhinoch8]

"Tools for what?" TO BUILD TO GARDEN TO LOG!!! duh...... -_-'

Power to the quality handtools!

[ArcaneLogic]

@georgio941 Define "forwards" and "backwards". We're learning how to do things better - combining the best of the old with the best of the new. A lot of the time, we're just learning *why* what we knew worked, worked. Bio-intensive gardening, pastured grazing, earthen housing etc. looks a lot like what people did hundreds or thousands of years ago, but can now be done 5 times better - warmer/cooler houses with less energy, more food/area, more animals/area, etc. It's about perspective.

[georgio941]

Sometimes I wonder if we are moving forward or backwards. Really sad.

[sarah2007hood]

And regarding the transition movement, I haven't studied it but I think I could see people's land (including yours) being confiscated and divvied up to accomodate all the people stacked up in the cities. Esp. if this gets into legislature. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Transition vid says giving up the individuality for what's best for the collective, reskilling, how much food does an area need to produce, started to sound like communism creeping in. Again please correct me if I'm wrong.

[sarah2007hood]

I understand those of us that aren't stuck in big cities, gradually getting back to reality as this age of excess comes to a close...Learning the sustainable ways of centuries..but what about the people stacked on top of eachother in the inner cities? There's just not enough sq ft of dirt under them to feed them all. Nevermind if they would even WANT to stop what they're doing ..even if it meant survival.