Passion For Perfection

[Skyman]

One thing i have learnt - If you want it done right, do it yourself.

[brihacharan]

> Perfection is the result of commitment & passion to the task undertaken....
> Perfection is also the result of endless hours of practice (remember the old saying "Practice leads to Perfection"!
> Perfection is also an "Attitude" - an in born attribute that sheds compromise.
> Perfection is also related to 'Quality'.
> In the modern day situation of "Demand & Supply" perfection takes a back seat or less priority.... Perfection demands a 'Price' or Pay for Quality!
> This leads to 'Imitation' which means X perfection @ Y price...
> This has led to the concept of "Built in Obsolecence" which means the Product will have only a specific life span...
> This applies to consumer durables such as Electronic Goods, Home Appliances etc....
> The underlying principle behind this is "Advancement of Technology" whereby things become obsolete sooner or later....
> Sadly gone are the days when things are made or built to last a lifetime....
> One classic example is Plastic Furniture Vs Wooden Furniture....
> This debate can go on....on....on & on...........
> Let's honour the Pursuit to Perfection to give our lives a 'Meaning' better still a 'Purpose'
Briha

[StampMaster]

Seedha Aadmin,

You find poor quality of material here is basically we're all corrupted from our mind root. No offence. We expect to get great products or quality for cheap. But we need to understand quality never comes cheap. And when comparing our goods to imported our goods are of cheap quality because we expect low cost that will result in low skilled labor, low quality material, transport etc and every thing that is involved. And one main reason that we're adapting to such kind of living that the consequences are going to be very bad.

As you compared your air gun with your grandpa's... i have a IHP .177 airgun, gifted by my parents 14 years ago. When I was trying to find a good air gun for practice (cause of low ammo quota on my licensed firearm) I could find even a half good one for my budget. So I got my present IHP repaired and fixed spending about Rs1500.

[dr.jayakumar]

Its 2013 and our passion for perfection isn't over,but i wonder how germans,italians,japanese and americans achieved perfection in 18th or 19 century?
regards
dr.jk

[essdee1972]

I'll stick to the steel part of it, first:

Seedha aadmi, check out the correct HT temperatures and process for 440 A. Should be available on the net. Might try some of the online courses offered by the US universities, Deptt of Materials Science, Metallurgy, etc. Or, if you have a friend, cousin, uncle etc. at SAIL, Tata steel, etc. Or, from Rohtak, you can maybe travel to Ludhiana, Faridabad, and try if you can invite someone in those steel factories there for a drink!

Heat treatment is a complex process. Involving at least 3 processes - annealing, hardening, tempering. We might talk till the cows come home about Wootz / Damascus steel, Toledo steel, the Delhi Iron Pillar, and suchlike incidents of history, but proper HT as we know it, is a highly technical process, not to be trusted to the sadak chhaap lohar.
I know, I once had to re-heat treat something like 5 tons of steel because I had made a mistake of 25 degrees in the temperature - set the furnace at 935 instead of 910. I won't repeat what my boss said!

The lohars are pretty good in making axes, sickles, etc. from leaf spring steel. This steel (or range of steels, as many non-OEMs in India use off-spec steels also) seem to be quite forgiving as regards HT temperatures, etc. (I forgot the exact specs, being such a long time since I was in the industry!). You can retry with normal spring steel. But, IMHO, the cobbler should stick to his last, i.e. the nukkad lohar should be left to his axes and sickles, at most a Bowie shape. Complicated things are not his cuppa!

As regards quality, we get what we demand. And unfortunately, for knives, guns, etc. the demand is pretty piddly to make a difference. Take kitchen knives, for example. Most people are happy with the lohar's stuff, sharpened hacksaw blades, or lousy products like Anjali, etc. Even a mid-range brand like Godrej Cartini is finding it hard to sell. Forget Vics & Wengers! In this scenario, how can we expect a Kabar or a kunai? And of course, the maai-baap sarkar tries their level best to keep the demand (and supply) down.

On the other hand, in the processed food industry (since eating at Mac makes us more phoren-like and teaches us to speak in Angrezi with call-centre accent) we have a surfeit of quality!! (Mac may be unhealthy in the long run, but you won't get salmonella!) Look at the queues!

It's simple "majority politics / policies", just like the elections!

So........ either you can spend a few more days, weeks........... (years??) searching for the perfect lohar, or recognise that "we are like that only!", and order one from knifecenter, as suggested by Moin.

[slingshot]

The passion for perfection can be observed in the production of kitchen knives too. I am sharing a link below of a factory tour of a Solingen based German kitchen knife manufacturer. Do not miss watching the video in the article. The amount of automation and skill is really interesting.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/articl ... knife-made

[seedha.admi]

Dear all IFG members,
I just got my kunais which I ordered from ebay. I even posted a topic about it earlier. I am so happy that I was able to collect a knife that is so beautiful. @moin I don't have any pics because I wasn't even in the right state of mind after seeing the work by lohaar. 440A steel can be found at college's mechanical lab. I was lucky enough to have a friend doing mechanical engg. He gave me the bar. For now I'm going to practice with the kunais & later even make one myself. I think it was God's way of telling me to not back down and continue to make dream come true. My next target is the hibben machette VI. I think I can collect that too. BTW it was because of this imperfection that I got my kunais cleared through customs

[seedha.admi]

P.S. - can I post images here of my kunais? If yes then how? I'm a total newbie on forums. God does have his/her mysterious ways of giving you what you desire the most.

[seedha.admi]

@Dr jay

Hats off to you sir! Kya badhiya baat boli hai wow.

[seedha.admi]

@essdee

Thank you, I really appreciate you giving me such a good advice & very crucial advice to me. I yearn to make knives that are best for their purpose. Soon I'll be having a place where I can work on making perfect knives.

[seedha.admi]

A lot of designs are their in my mind. I'm so fired up right now if I had the machines tools etc right now I'd start making the knives right away!

[seedha.admi]

@brih charan

GAZAB

SUPER

AWESOME

CLAPS

[seedha.admi]

@skyman

Yes you are absolutely right there.

[seedha.admi]

@stamp master

Yes absolutely correct. I too think that somewhat we do not possess the mindset to make things passionately. When I see a rickshaw wala I see that all the worries in the world are in his mind. If he were to take on paddling rickshaw passionately then he might even end up with less sorrows.

[seedha.admi]

Some time back I used ti think negatively like if we are to die anyway then why bother with anything. But now I think I am ti die eventually but before that happens I'm going to make each moment count, do the right things, be of help my knowns.