Such things as the art of Stradivarius, and the finest of Katana makers are both examples of true lost arts. No one spends three generations developing an art in the modern world. The finest of Persian rugs from the 1700’s are simply better than anything made since that time. These rugs were made by families, sometimes over more than a mother and daughter’s lifetime. What has been lost is the spirit of true artistry. We still have wool, looms, and all the necessary dyes. What we lack is someone willing to spend half their free time for the rest of their lives doing something like that.
Using an open charcoal fire and a small hammer to forge a sword is simply not done, in the modern world. No one knows how, and no one wants to know how. In some cases, specifically wood working crafts there is another problem. There just aren’t enough six hundred year old spruce trees, or someone willing to soak them in diluted sea water, and then naturally dry them out for six or twenty years. And we don’t have enough guys to tell us which three out of four of those spruce trees simply won’t do.
There is a three hundred year old log cabin up in the mountains of western Virginia. It has a dry stone fire place, and every single other part of it is wood. Evidently, one man made it, although he probably had some help, with the lifting. With the exception of the shingles, and the ridge pole, it’s all original wood, including the wooden posts which serve as its foundation. The floor is dirt. It doesn’t look much like dirt, but it is. You can’t make one like it, though, no matter how well you study the art. It’s made of Chestnut heartwood logs, cut square with an adz. There aren’t any more Chestnut trees.
I hesitate to venture this, citeless as I am, but I remember reading somewhere that it is thought by some that these balls formed like bubbles of molten rock inside different molten rock.
I’ve read in Scientific American that the secret of Damascus steel has been re-discovered. It turns out that you need just the right trace amounts of vanadium, and that the ore from a particular mine just happened to have exactly the right amount. But while the makers of Damascus steel probably knew that you had to use ore from that mine, they didn’t know why you needed that particular ore, and they couldn’t reproduce the right proportions using ore from another mine. So you could argue that Damascus steel was never really an art of its own, just standard steelmaking and a good deal of luck.
And I’ve heard speculation that Stradivarius’ secret was just well-aged wood (as in, several centuries). If that’s the case, then the Stradivarius violin is a lesser example of the same sort of thing: No particuar skill set needed, just the right raw materials.
And as for precision surveying, the equipment needed is a few sticks and perhaps fifty feet of rope, and any Boy Scout could figure out the methods without being taught. It’s no mystery at all how ancient or medieval people could have planned things.
I seem to recall hearing “somewhere” (Ding-ding-ding! Warning!) that some of the exact techniques used in constructing the hulls of Iowa class battleships have been effectively “lost,” but it’s really irrelevant, since we know how to make better ship hulls.
Well, you are sort of right if that was the problem. I read somewhere (and no regret I do not have a cite) that this has been resolved to the satisfaction of most historicans by going back the original sources. It appears that there is little or no evidence that the rows or oars had to be arranged one atop the other only that there had to be three rows of oars.
The set up diagram I saw simply offset the rowers so they were sitting slightly above and to one side of the lower bank. The oars of the three banks when sweeping looked like a diagonal line so:
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
but crushed up vertically to perhaps half that height, which I cannot do on a keyboard…
Oh, bugger, those X’s are not WYSIWYG. Put seven spaces between each. Start first line with an X, for second put three spaces first then start, for last line put five spaces then start with an X.
It’s not a very old lost art, but I’d say the glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History count. Nobody has been able to duplicate what the Blaschkas created at the turn of the century, and they kept no notes of their techniques.
I’m quite sure the art of hand-to-hand combat with a huge sword is lost, as is the art of whale-hunting with row-boats & harpoons, and the art of medicine-herb gathering in Northern Europe. We could do these things now, just not nearly as well as our ancestors.
The point is - there are lots of lost arts. Sad as it is, they got lost because we no longer consider them “arts”.
I shit you not - I just googled ‘“Seal Clubbing” Lyrics’ (whilst looking for the song mentioned by notquitekarpov and I came across a webpage with that listed the lyrics “Nuke the unborn gay whales for Jesus”
A few years ago, I saw a program on the Discovery Channel where this one guy discovered that Stradivarius sanded down certain spots on the back panel of his violins. Apparently, no one knew that he did this. It was only thru the application of (IIRC) uultrasound or some other modern technique that this was discovered.
As other have noted, the problem usually isn’t that we don’t know how to do something, it’s that no one is willing to spend the time to master the technique.
About the swords: Not true at all. fact is, with modern steel, we make much better ones today. A masterworked blade of yesteryear is no match for and modern one. I recall there is one man who makes such things professionally, and he turns out several per year. His test is that you take the sword and hit his anvil as hard as you can. If the sword is nicked, he makes another. He sells them for a very significant sum of cash, and he has plenty of buyers.
Nope on both counts. There are many people who know how to fight with claymores and other large swords. Whale hunting is still practiced by some native American tribes. And its not immensely hard to pick up.
Well, a trireme did, it seems, have three rows of oars. But if you think that’s bad, Quadraremes, Pentaremes, and up top 23-remes were made! But they don’t have 23 banks of oars on either side; it refers to the arrangement of oarsman per oar.
Well, I don’t think any of those techniques were invented before the Iowa-class came about, anyway…
Heyerdahl was simply an explorer. Since you’ve offered no substantial criticism except to say “you suck!”, stuff it. He was a man who actually went out and bothered to ask people why and how things were made. And he more often than not found they had an answer that was credible.
Along those same lines, one could say that making a Saturn V is a lost art as well. I think you’re more than half right, however.
As far as I know, Damascus steel is not the super magical steel that Ren Fest geeks make it out to be, and one can order bar stock of far, far better steels today for a few dollars a pound. Our metallurgy today is on a level that is alien compared to the techniques of the Middle Ages. What is impressive about Damascus steel is what was accomplished given the materials, techniques, and technology of the time. Nowadays one could order numerous pieces of bar stock, program a CNC mill, and crank out better swords all day long in a small shop. I almost made a sword myself of 440C stock once, and forever wish I had gone through with it.
Not really. I know how to “fight” with a claymore, but put me up against William Wallace and you’d see just how good I am… in short: not very good. Also, although this may be straying in IMHO territory, I doubt there is anyone around nowadays that could last the pace on an ancient battlefield. Why? We have no need to spend 10 / 15 years learning these skills as the ancients did.
So I still say hand-to-hand massive-sword and heavy shield combat is a lost “art”.
