Fixing is Crafting

 

I undercharged my the early days as a cycle mechanic because I was learning as I went along and each job took at least twice as long it would have taken an experienced mechanic. Of course I am always learning which is why some jobs that pose new problems can take hours, even now, instead of only minutes as it should. I will charge the customer for much less time than the job takes me and I alway enjoy those learning experiences as a mechanic growing in skill partially for the simple joy of stretching my knowledge and having increased my skills in a very specific way but, most valuably for me, I overcome a problem. This is a skill uniquely enabled by experience- that of problem-solving confidence rooted in pragmatism.

For example, it is only when you have worked on the same gear changer scores of times can you feel confidently aware that you will find a workaround for that corroded spring that, to the inexperienced eye, looks like an irreplacable part (which it isn't) that cannot be fixed (which it can). It may appear as if this means the end of the gear changer's life with the associated cost and increased customer waiting time while a new part is ordered. Instead you literally make a new one from wire. Or you cut the old one and reshape. Or you find a replacement part in a different gear changer that you have in the parts drawer and you modify sections. This is experience- crafting as fixing, the aesthetic becomes ergonomic.

One moment of great satisfaction working with bicycles came when I received a much loved commuting bike that had been in a crash. The crankset (three big cogs at the front) was bent like a taco. I knew it was made of steel rather than aluminium which meant it could be bent back to something resembling a straight line (aluminium can also be bent but it fails quickly after flexing). Some parts of this steel crankset were buckled and the only way to move those parts the few millimeters that were needed was with a punch (a small steel rod with a pointed end) and hammer, specifically a punch with a horseshoe-shaped point which, as far as I know, doesn't exist to buy. I had a choice, I could either order a new crankset at great time and cost to the owner or I could make a new tool- a horseshoe-shaped punch- learning a new skill in this process and charge the owner for only the 30 minutes it took to do the actual work of straightening the crankset. So I cut a 15cm length of 12mm diameter "01 tool steel" bar, shaped the end into a horseshoe with a set of drills and files, hardened it with a blow-torch (around 800 degrees celcius) and, when quenched and cooled, tapped the crankset teeth twice with the punch and hammer and they were free. The rest of the crankset took minutes to gently tease back into a working mechanism- as straight as it would ever be. I've never used that punch since and probably never will again but the feeling I had when it knocked those cog teeth free after those two light but thoughtfully placed taps from the hammer clarified this important aspect of mechanics to me- that of craft. Not only the craft of making a tool but the idea of craft behind the physical manifestation of the tool itself- I had to design and craft a tool imaginatively to solve a problem. My predictions, based on repetitive experience, provided the solution. To fix is to craft, the aesthetic becoming the ergonomic.