Tools for Living (with audio)

Generally speaking, tools are objects specifically designed to help us perform a particular task with a higher degree of performance ideally improving the quality of the finished work.

We use tools of many types in diverse applications within all of the first four Elements of life as a craft. However, there are craftsmen and women specifically dedicated to the craft of tool making. Therefore, we have identified tools as a separate fifth Element because we feel they are unique creations.

Tools Are Extensions of Ourselves

A tool is an extension of the craftsperson. An instrument to harness and shape the energy within us and around us and skillfully focus that energy on the primary material we are working with to achieve a change; that is a desired result.

Looking at tools as agents under the craftsperson’s control for delivering the craftsperson’s intended result, we can define the word tool to mean any device specifically modified or fabricated for application on a given material to alter or shape it in accordance with the craftsman’s intended outcome or result.

By this definition an extraordinary array of tangible and intangible “objects” can be harnessed for use by a craftsperson as “an instrument to concentrate and magnify the craftsperson’s energy force, making the craftsperson responsible for the outcome produced through its use”.

Whether it is a medicinal tool (e.g.) a drug designed for delivering an intended outcome to the inner or outer human being, or a vehicle designed to transport people or cargo from one location to another, the craftsperson bears the responsibility for the outcome produced through its use.

Therefore, instruction and practice in the use of tools for crafting a masterpiece of your life is essential for achieving the desired outcome.

Choice of Tools

In the way of craftsmanship, learning how to select an appropriate tool for a task and the skillful application of the tool acquired through continuous practice, is fundamental to achieving the goal of making a masterpiece of your life. Many people attempt to use tools of one type or another to produce a desired change or outcome in an area their lives without fully understanding the functional capabilities of the tool they are using, let alone its skillful application.

In the practice of life as a craft, this often results in damage being done to ‘the human being’ the primary material of the craft. Damage which can be difficult to repair. What differentiates the way of craftsmanship from the way of skillful workmanship is the craftsman’s requirement of “understanding first, the desired outcome/result” which precedes selecting the tool(s) to be used in the process of achieving the result.

In the way of craftsmanship, this procedural way of thinking is learned in Phase 1: Apprenticeship usually in the workshop of the master craftsman. Here tools are studied, examined and understood for their intended use before the apprentice is ever allowed to grasp and apply the tool to a material.

The apprentice would have to demonstrate a proficiency of understanding by first naming each tool, their primary and often secondary intended uses, and the proper maintenance and care through the daily task of having to clean, oil, polish and store the tools of the workshop journeymen at the end of the day.

As for the master’s tools, only a senior journeyman picked by the master could be relied upon for that role. The master’s tools were often masterpieces of tool making in their own right. Expensive to produce and custom balanced to the master’s unique specifications.

Further, in some craft traditions, the apprentice would be required to look at a piece of craft work at a particular stage, where the master craftsman would point out a particular item or characteristic which the apprentice would have to name the tool which was used to achieve it.

This close examination would often rely on the apprentice’s growing skill in recognizing tool marks (or lack thereof) sometimes known as ‘signatures’ not only of tool itself, but of the craftsman who applied it.

Application of Tools

To be effective, the appropriate tool for the task must be applied skillfully and the results interpreted to ensure the desired outcome was achieved.

This skill comes first from the knowledge of what to do, then from the experience of actually doing it. User manuals and videos provide knowledge, but not experience.

The first time a tool is used, it is unlikely to be as effective as when it is used for the fiftieth time. Proficiency is gained by ensuring that good knowledge of the tool is gained beforehand and by practicing its use to gaining proficiency of control and by achieving the intended end result.

Understanding the Results

It is possible to select and use a tool quite intelligently, but this is of no use if no-one understands what the intended result is to be. Interpretation of the intended results of using a tool requires skillful understanding that guides the application of the tool to generate the intended result.

This requires both an understanding of circumstances surrounding the use of the tool and an appreciation of the design theory behind the creation of the tool. This ‘understanding of the intended result’ is a distinct characteristic of the way of craftsmanship distinguishing it from skilled workmanship which demonstrates only the mechanical application of a tool to the material.

Craftsmanship through its characteristic of understanding the intended result, will then use quality improvement and problem solving tools to give indications of areas where the intended result was not achieved and realignment is needed.

Realignment is another critical characteristic of the way of craftsmanship as it focuses the craftsman’s attention on fine tuning or adjusting the application of the tool so as not to damage the primary material.