Ben Crowder / Blog

Using our hands as hands

I loved this series of two short documentaries showing how a John Neeman axe and then chisel is made:

The video description also has a great quote from Gandhi:

It is a tragedy of the first magnitude that millions of people have ceased to use their hands as hands. Nature has bestowed upon us this great gift which is our hands. If the craze for machinery methods continues, it is highly likely that a time will come when we shall be so incapacitated and weak that we shall begin to curse ourselves for having forgotten the use of the living machines given to us by God.

Now I want to go carve axe handles. And apprentice with a blacksmith.