Jeff Peachey

March 24, 2015March 24, 2015

The Dinkification of Tools

French knives — The dinkification of French leather paring knives. A completely unscientific approach. L-R: Big old knife, Medium moderately old knife, Small modern version.

Sometimes I half-jokingly refer to the dinkification of tools —the tendency of tools to get smaller, lighter, more flimsy, and often less functional — over time.

The above photo of three French Style leather paring knives from my collection illustrates this tendency nicely. I’m pretty sure they are arranged from the oldest on the left, to the newest on the right. Observe the cheapening of handle material: from ebony, to a stained wood, to a varnished one. The blades get thinner and narrower. The changes in the curve of the cutting edge is also of interest. The narrowest knife also has the greatest curve, which in my experience indicates it is designed for scraping than cutting, which runs counter to what I know historically about the history of leather paring.

March 18, 2015March 18, 2015

“…without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all”

Joseph W. Roe English and American Tool Builders New Haven: Yale University Press, 1916.

This quote from Sartor Resartus gives me a great idea. Maybe I should buy more tools.

March 10, 2015March 10, 2015

Gebrauchsspuren

Gebrauchsspuren [1], like many other extremely precise and descriptive German terms, does not have an exact English equivalent. Generally it means marks or traces of use, a physical record of existence in the life-world.

When I examine a book, it is important to determine how the mark occurred, what it might mean to the object, its history, the culture that made it, the individual who purchased it, and so on. Marks of use are not only important historically, but are becoming increasingly valued aesthetically, perhaps as a counterpoint to our digitally sanitized environment. It sounds stupid to say this, but part of what I like about old things is that they look old!

I’ll go out on a limb. I predict that in the future, the books that have real gebrauchsspuren will be the most valued. We already see the beginnings of this with some institutions buying heavily annotated and marked up copies. Although this is concerned with the text, I suspect (and hope) it will spread to the binding as well. For me, a pristine, unread book is often as uninteresting as a made-for-the-collectible-market plastic toy in the original blister pack.

Check back with me in 2040, the year singularity is projected to begin.

NOTE

1. I discovered this term thanks to Graham Moss’s The Anagnostakis Pocket Guide to Austrian, German and Swiss Antiquarian Bookdealers Terminology (Oldham, England: Incline Press, 2012) Graham is the man! Hats off for making this useful pamphlet. He also has printed many excellent and very reasonably priced books in sheets for binding.