What is the most valuable craft?

[BeBMan]

Aircraft

[Solomwi]

Meatcarving. Duh.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Blacksmiths made the tools everyone else used.

Not potters I don't think.

[The Mad Monk]

Maybe not directly, but consider how the potter's kickwheel is made.

[Berzerker]

metallurgy, most other crafts don't require vast knowledge and can be done half a@@

[Urban Ranger]

That's not true Berz, not if you want to make quality products.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Smiley
Photography's the only one that hasn't been replaced by automation yet

Well there's digital photography now, which doesn't need to be developed, along with sophisticated cameras that can automatically filter the light and such.

But I don't know if you can say any craft has been replaced by automation. There's quite a difference between something manufactured by a machine and something hand-crafted by a person. It's almost uncomparable. Regardless, all of these crafts are still practiced to this day, so it would be hard to say that they have been replaced.

Maybe not directly, but consider how the potter's kickwheel is made.

The only things a potter needs to operate is a source of clay, the ability to work it, and a method of firing it -Really, all a potter needs is Earth.

I think Leatherworking, weaving, and printmaking can all easily be done without metal tools or the aid of a blacksmith aswell, if that really counts for anything.

EDIT: Well, maybe not leatherworking, now that i've though about it somemore. I really don't know alot about it, though.

EDIT again: Ah, but they all require wooden tools which in turn requires metal to cut or carve. I wasn't thinking that indirectly. But still, pottery is an exception. And I should also add that you do not neccisarily need to cut wood to work with it - stick and twigs can also be woven or tied, or broken and stripped by hand. But then again, I suppose you could cut wood with stone anyways.

metallurgy, most other crafts don't require vast knowledge and can be done half a@@

All craft requires vast knowledge to make quality products, and they can also all be done half-assed.

[Whoha]

Re: What is the most valuable craft?

Originally posted by JohnT
Starcraft.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Blacksmiths made the tools everyone else used.

your real vote is for machine tools? yea I'd have to say that those are indeed the most valuable.

[Proteus_MST]

If you are alone in the wilderness it is IMHO stoneworking.
Stone can be found everywhere and you just need other stones to work stones.

After all, it is the first craft humans developed,
to make tools, with which you can, for example,
cut wood or leather
and weapons with which you could hunt animals.

[Dis]

photography?

you are mixing new crafts with ancient crafts.

I choose glass blowing because it sounds dirty.

[DaShi]

A spacecraft is worth more than anyone would could ever make in a lifetime of using those other crafts.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Dissident
photography?

you are mixing new crafts with ancient crafts.

Photography has been around for almost a couple hundred years now. There are contemporary techniques and aplications in most of the other crafts mentioned that haven't been around that long. But regardless, just because something is new is no reason to dismiss it's value.

[Dis]

photography is only good for pornography.

although I'm sure some posters here will say that's the greatest invention. I like porn, but it is overrated imho.

[Sandman]

I really don't see how you can draw a line between metalworking, masonry, carpentry or fabric-based stuff. They're all equally important.