What's Your Vintage Skill Set?

[HudsonHawk]

Aside from the usual cooking, cleaning, ironing, singing, dancing and fixing...skills...hmmmm...

I can use manual survey and geolocation devices, such as a plane table and alidade, a pocket transit and a sextant. Which means I'll always know where I'm at and the direction to the nearest cold beer.

 

[Zombie_61]

Well, let's see. None of these skills are particularly spectacular or unusual, but I can (in no particular order):

Dial a rotary phone
Use a typewriter and change the ribbon when necessary
Drive just about anything with a manual transmission except an 18-wheeler (and I could manage that with a little instruction and a lot of practice)
Re-wire a lamp
Operate a turntable to listen to an LP or 45 RPM single
Perform simple sewing tasks (darn a sock, re-attach a button, sew a minor tear; none of 'em would be pretty, but they'd do the job)
Re-string a guitar, tune it in the key of E, and knock out a tune or two (though I'd have to learn some vintage songs first)
Write or type a business letter that's properly formatted
Operate a hand pallet truck and a forklift
Walk down a sidewalk between my wife and the traffic (not too many people throw trash out of windows these days, so...) and open doors for her (or for anyone else, for that matter)
In a restaurant, wait until food has been delivered to every member of my party before I begin eating
Be polite and treat people with respect

 

[Matt Crunk]

OK, here's my short list (top ten):
1. Play an upright bass, Hawaiian/non-pedal steel guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, uke and other stringed instruments.
2. Fly a vintage Piper Cub.
3. Sail a gaff-rigged sailboat without a motor.
4. Navigate at sea without GPS - using a compass and sextant.
5. Shoot, field strip and clean both a Colt Model 1911 and a Thompson 1928 Submachine gun.
6. Hand-letter signs and windows using traditional sign painters enamel.
7. Typeset on a linotype, layout, make a negative on an industrial stat camera, strip-up, burn and develope a metal plate, and print on an offset press.
8. Do painting and illustration in a variety of classic mediums including watercolor, egg-tempera, oils, and airbrush.
9. Shoot motion pictures on film movie cameras and edit them by hand (8mm, Super 8, and 16mm).
10. Tattoo in a classic American Traditional style using tools and techniques that have remained largely unchanged since the advent of electric tattooing in the early 1900s.

 

[Shangas]

I admire folks who can navigate using a sextant/quadrant, compass and watch/chronometer. I'm not sure I could manage!

 

[HudsonHawk]

I admire folks who can navigate using a sextant/quadrant, compass and watch/chronometer. I'm not sure I could manage!

It's not particularly hard, just requires a little instruction and practice. Once you "get it", it's pretty intuitive.

 

[Matt Crunk]

I admire folks who can navigate using a sextant/quadrant, compass and watch/chronometer. I'm not sure I could manage!

Haven't actually done it since the early 90s when GPS started getting popular and affordable. Not even sure it would be possible today, as I haven't seen a printed nautical almanac in years. I suppose they are available online, but that kinda defeats the purpose, don't it?

 

[Flicka]

I can
- sew, mend & crochet
- bake from scratch, both bread, cake and biscuits
- cook (lots of vintage dishes and using vintage ingredients like offal)
- make jam, marmalade and pickle almost anything including herring
- gut and filet a fish
- play whist and bridge
- sing lots of old folk songs and 19th century murder ballads
- grow potatoes and a bunch of other vegetables
- I rock at croquet
- I'm pretty well-versed in vintage etiquette and perfectly at home with how to address the peerage
- I know a ridiculous amount of old sayings and proverbs
- Drive a manual car
- Build and keep up a fire
- Basic Latin (I studied it at the university)
- Wash clothes by hand
- Sail a small vessel

And I'm learning how to manage on wartime rations.

 

[Late to the Party]

Sew (hand, treadle, electric machine)
Knit
Darn
Iron with starch that didn't come from a spray can
Split kindling
Bake tarts and pies in a woodburning stove although it has been a while
Sharpen a pencil using a pocket knife and piece of sandpaper
Use a brace and bit
Use a dip pen
Basic upholstery
Navigate with map and compass
Stack haybales on a wagon (35-50lb bales, not the huge modern ones)
Drive a manual transmission, including one requiring double-clutching
Use a dry iron

 

[bburtner@moran]

Splice a hawser,sharpen a chainsaw blade with a round file,point up brick,sew,fix a tube tire,tune up an engine with points& plugs,fell a tree,sharpen an axe with a file,make a knife(fixed blade),skin a muskrat,saddle a horse,ride a horse,shape a hat,braid leather,tile a floor(ceramic) make anything stained glass,repair a firearm,strop a razor,shingle a house(cedar shake),make a fire without a bic lighter,make a bow from a good yew branch,use a compass and map,drive a tugboat,set a broken bone,stitch a wound,give an injection.

 

[vitanola]

Install hubbed iron DWV pipe with caulked and leaded joints.
Ditto Lead and Copper fashing and guttering
Install threaded galvanized and bronze plumbing ippe.
Rebuild a ballcock
Wire with cleats, knobs and tubes or wood molding.
Sharpen a reel lawnmower
Turn and undercut a commutator.
Rewind an electric motor
Rewind an audio or power transformer
Polish and patinate bronze brass or copper
Nickle plate the above
apply a real French Polish
lay hardwood flooring
lay mosaic tile (in a mud bed)
Apply veneer
Fume Oak
Apply a Craftsman wax finish to the above
re-wind RF and IF transformers
repair vacuum tube radios
rebuild and calibrate carbon rod oven heat regulators
frame hip and compound hip roofs
Lath
Apply scratch and brown coat of plaster (no good at finish coat, YET)
lay Linoleum, with or without border
rebuild an Orthophonic reproducer
Drive a Ford Car
Drive a machine with a non-synchronized manual transmission (even a machine with one of those grabby leather-faced cone clutches)
Drive a Dodge (with its crazy, mixed-up gear-shift pattern)
Clean carbon and grind valves
fit bands to a Ford
Fix a leaking rear axle seal
change non-demountable clincher tires
change Balloon tires one either split or solid rims
patch an inner tube
make a tire flap out of an ld inner tube
rebuild a Ford coil
turn and smooth a New Day Timer
install and ream kingpin bushings
upholster an auto interior
ditto an overstuffed chair
sew window hangings
glaze windows
re-cover window shade
re-tape venetian blinds

 

[Two Types]

Do 'stand in the butchers shop chatting for an hour' or 'wander along Jermyn Street, go for a haircut, then read a book whilst having a leisurely pint' count as vintage skills?

 

[Dragon Soldier]

Do 'stand in the butchers shop chatting for an hour' or 'wander along Jermyn Street, go for a haircut, then read a book whilst having a leisurely pint' count as vintage skills?

If so I suspect that I may be some kind of vintage skills guru.

I'm not sure I have vintage skills, if I'm using them then they are surely, by definition, current skills?

For instance, (with a little help) I can properly pitch a canvas ridge tent. But then I sleep in them, so it's really a modern skill isn't it?

 

[Shangas]

Do 'stand in the butchers shop chatting for an hour' count as vintage skills?

Anything like this?

[video=youtube;i1leDAwjtto]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1leDAwjtto[/video]

 

[Two Types]

Does: 'Reading a book without plugging it in first' qualify?

 

[Chasseur]

Hmm... very good lecturer, decent researcher/writer, capable academic administrator, decent media personality, good rifle and shotgun shot, skin and butcher game, can do simple mending of garments, can make fire with flint and steel, maybe a decent fencer one day, pretty good cook, decent woodworker/furnisher refinisher, laughable dancer... hmm running out of ideas now...

 

[Dragon Soldier]

maybe a decent fencer one day

Something I have not tried since school, would love to try again but I don't think it's possible locally.

edit:- Apparently it is. I may investigate.

 

[Story]

OK, here's my short list (top ten):
10. Tattoo in a classic American Traditional style using tools and techniques that have remained largely unchanged since the advent of electric tattooing in the early 1900s.

That'd actually make an interesting stand-alone thread - how'd you learn it, artwork rendered, etc. Perhaps in the Display Case?

 

[Story]

Something I have not tried since school, would love to try again but I don't think it's possible locally.

edit:- Apparently it is. I may investigate.

You googled before I got back to this thread, but... http://www.nifencing.com/fencingclubsinni_14.html

 

[kf4rws]

As a kid growing up, my grandfather who served during WWII, taught me how to garden, operate a 1930's walk-behind Gravely tractor (that I now own), cut hair which I now do on my son and other family, and how to build houses (he had built a large part the of houses in my neck of the world at one time or another).

I learned to play alto sax while in school. A good instrument to play for any big band.

My mom taught me how to type on an old type writer. And although I can't seem to make it to 60 wpm I do get around 40. She also taught me how to can and cook. Useful for a single joe.

I am an amateur radio operator which was a huge hobby back in the day.

In another life I was a drafter. Although it's now all on computers, I learned on old drafting tables using drafting arms, triangles, and french curves.

I have recently inherited my late grandmother's circa 1940 sewing machine which I am teaching myself how to use.

Now, due to major changes in my life I have been able to complete a degree in criminal justice and have applied for my private investigator's license which is currently being processed. I should get my ticket in a couple of weeks or so. I was inspired by the hard boiled p.i.'s of the 1940s and as luck would have it those same skills are still in use today though now aided with technology

 

[Shangas]

Those old sewing-machines are easy to use. You'll master it pretty quick.

Hmm. Vintage skills...

I can cook food the old-fashioned way, sans microwaves and instant-food packs. I recently got back into the habit of eating oat porridge for breakfast - something I haven't done regularly since I was a child. So I've had to re-teach myself how to cook porridge on the stove, from scratch, without burning it.

If anyone else is seeking a healthy, delicious, nutritious way to lower their cholesterol (which is what eating oatmeal porridge will do for you), the directions & recipe are below:

Classic rolled oat porridge:

1/2 cup oats.
1 cup water.

Add to small pot. Put on stove over LOW HEAT.

Stir regularly, until water is reduced.
Oats are ready to eat when they are soft, thick and creamy.

To test readiness, tip saucepan/pot on its side, and watch how the oats slide along the bottom of the pot. It should be fairly thick and viscous. If it's all runny and fluid-y - keep heating and mixing.

As tempting as it is, don't crank up the gas or pump up the juice to hurry up the process - excessive heat will boil off all the water in a flash, and burn the oats.

You'll be left with dried up crusts of oats unfit for human consumption. And they're a HUGE pain to scrape off the bottom of the pot.

Decant into bowl. Flavour with cream, salt and/or honey, to taste.

--- --- --- ---

I do a fair amount of baking. I do everything the old-fashioned way. No instant-nothings for me. All from scratch, using either a wooden spoon, or a hand-cranked cake-mixer to blend it all up.

I once made a tiramisu all by hand in that method. My cousins (I made it for them as a treat) didn't understand how I managed it without a modern cake-mixer!