Obsolete skills

[AW111]

Prompted by a post in the trivial thread, I have the following skills, among others :

Drafting (pen & ink on film)
Stick arc welding
Hand splicing wire rope

All of these took time and effort to learn, earned me money at the time, and are now totally obsolete.

What collection of useless skills do we have on PH?

What should we do with that power?

[DervVW]

map reading is fast becoming a lost art... bad thing?

[Fishtigua]

I have a few skills.

• Fast navigation off a paper chart, @ 80/100 knots across water with my own inner GPS.

• Ripping through coral reefs, just reading the water at speed.

• Reading a Prop. A fast boat's prop size, pitch, blade is a black art, not many people have it.

• Getting a yacht's lines/look right. No computer can get a tumblehome right, even with the very best 3D surfacing.

Well, a little start.......

[karona]

I've still got mine from school

[Don]

DervVW said:

map reading is fast becoming a lost art... bad thing?

People still read maps. What they don't do is triangulate their position from known landmarks anymore.

I can code in 6502 Assembly Language. Unless you have a BBC Micro or Commodore 64 that's utterly obsolete.

Edited by Don on Sunday 30th August 07:27

[anonymous-user]

Fishtigua said:

• Reading a Prop. A fast boat's prop size, pitch, blade is a black art, not many people have it.

I'm intrigued, what would you use this skill for?

Genuine question, not trying to be arsey...

[Fishtigua]

had ham said:

Fishtigua said:

• Reading a Prop. A fast boat's prop size, pitch, blade is a black art, not many people have it.

I'm intrigued, what would you use this skill for?

Genuine question, not trying to be arsey...

When a prop on a fast boat passes through water it acts as a screw. Think of a wood screw, a meatier open wood thread goes in quicker than a thightly spun self-tapper, that's why you have variable speeds on your drill/driver.

With marine race props, only the lower half is in the water doing work, the top half is just spinning in air and putting up a roostertail.

Finding a balance between the two in a certain rev range/sea conditions is a real black art.


Very, very simplified.

Edited by Fishtigua on Sunday 30th August 09:10

[21TonyK]

Don said:

I can code in 6502 Assembly Language...

And a few others, long lost and now useless skills that at the time were super cool things to be able to do.

[anonymous-user]

Fishtigua said:

When a prop on a fast boat passes through water it acts as a screw. Think of a wood screw, a meatier open wood thread goes in quicker than a thightly spun self-tapper, that's why you have variable speeds on your drill/driver.

With marine race props, only the lower half is in the water doing work, the top half is just spinning in air and putting up a roostertail.

Finding a balance between the two in a certain rev range/sea conditions is a real black art.


Very, very simplified.

Edited by Fishtigua on Sunday 30th August 08:58

Every day's a school day!

[anonymous-user]

Don said:

DervVW said:

map reading is fast becoming a lost art... bad thing?

People still read maps. What they don't do is triangulate their position from known landmarks anymore.

I used to love doing that in cub scouts or orienteering when younger. I also had to do it for some flying exams years ago, I remember asking my instructor why I had to learn about the construction of charts and he told me how the navigators window blew out on his aircraft and he had to make a chart to get him home.

I always love it when I'm out running with my gps watch and iPhone and I see some old couple out there with a lovely old weatherproof OS map.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

I can do long division, the only one in my office!

[NDA]

Sex.

Since marriage it's no longer required.

[Fishtigua]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I can do long division, the only one in my office!

Nope, could never do the x = divided by 39 thingy.

Have I ever used it?..................Hmmm....Sort of once.

[gazza285]

AW111 said:

Stick arc welding.

Nothing obsolete about that, nowhere near. Why do you think it is?

[backwoodsman]

I can make arrows.

That would make me a fletcher.

[jas xjr]

Mental arithmetic. Nobody seems to bother at work,they reach for a calculator instead.

Letter writing,when was the last time anybody wrote one of those ?

[kev b]

Setting up carbs and distributors, points gap/dwell, timing, CO% etc, hard earned skills that were satisfying to use and are now rarely required.

[grumpy52]

gazza285 said:

AW111 said:

Stick arc welding.

Nothing obsolete about that, nowhere near. Why do you think it is?

I would advise anybody doing long distance treks to include arc welding rods in the spares /tool kit , added to jump leads and a battery or two =instant welder .

[Fishtigua]

kev b said:

Setting up carbs and distributors, points gap/dwell, timing.

A daily job on Yank V8s and V6 outboards, thanks.

[motco]

karona said:

I've still got mine from school

Et moi! One of these too but I'm not sure I could reliably use either now.