Honestly, kind of mind blowing even thinking of them as a technology, they’re so ubiquitous. I use a knife a minimum of 10 times a day, and that’s just in the kitchen, not including opening mail, packages, small medical stuff, and a ton more uses. Holy shit, where would we be without those inclined edges?
Awesome comment to read at 430 in the morning. Thank you
Also knives and woodworking. Blades are what made the great Japanese temples. Lots of sharp steel and a dream. It is amazing what Japanese blacksmiths can do with steel, and the excellent performance they can achieve with them.
The knife is a technology. It was invented by a person. And that person was not the same species as us. The knife has been around longer than Homo Sapiens.
I’ve commented on this before, but it reminds me of the mortise and tenon joint. The oldest intact wooden structure on Earth is held together with mortise and tenon joints. The man who built it never wrote his name down, because writing hadn’t been invented yet. He never rode a horse, because animal husbandry hadn’t been invented yet. He used stone tools, because copper smelting hadn’t been invented yet. In the present day, Festool sells a tool to make mortises called the Domino which they still hold a patent on. We’re still actively developing this technology which has been with us slightly longer than civilization has.
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Honestly, kind of mind blowing even thinking of them as a technology, they’re so ubiquitous. I use a knife a minimum of 10 times a day, and that’s just in the kitchen, not including opening mail, packages, small medical stuff, and a ton more uses. Holy shit, where would we be without those inclined edges?
Awesome comment to read at 430 in the morning. Thank you
Also knives and woodworking. Blades are what made the great Japanese temples. Lots of sharp steel and a dream. It is amazing what Japanese blacksmiths can do with steel, and the excellent performance they can achieve with them.
You know what always weirds me out:
The knife is a technology. It was invented by a person. And that person was not the same species as us. The knife has been around longer than Homo Sapiens.
I’ve commented on this before, but it reminds me of the mortise and tenon joint. The oldest intact wooden structure on Earth is held together with mortise and tenon joints. The man who built it never wrote his name down, because writing hadn’t been invented yet. He never rode a horse, because animal husbandry hadn’t been invented yet. He used stone tools, because copper smelting hadn’t been invented yet. In the present day, Festool sells a tool to make mortises called the Domino which they still hold a patent on. We’re still actively developing this technology which has been with us slightly longer than civilization has.
Smelting metal (as opposed to just heating already refined metal) is a non-average skillset, though, and knapping is quite hard to master.