By the end of my time as a Physics undergraduate student in Caracas, I had the chance to take a class thought by a Biology Professor, which topic was the Human Condition. It was enlightening and something I actually wanted to learn without question. I wasn't graduating at the time. I was going to change my career path and go back to my hometown.
What lingers in my mind about the class is the day in which a Biology student made a comment about humans being the most evolved species in the planet. This was kind of weird. The face of the Professor was a poem at the moment. The speech that followed was a display of years of thought and study.
Without sounding patronizing, he answered to this remark and got all the class to remain silent for a long time. He talk about a lot of animals: elephants, dolphins, sharks, rodents (his field of expertise), primates birds, etc. Giving out each of the traits that make these animals great in their own accord. Then, he came to humans and what he could say is that we are ill-suited for survival. There are too many weaknesses in our design for us to survive without help. He ended by saying that the defining trait of humans isn't speech or thought. It isn't even an original thing as other animals: the ability to use tools. But what makes us different to them is that we can create and refine those tools.
This comes back to me each time I find an issue in my makeshift workshop. When I find a trouble that's can't be solved by my hands and the tools I have, I often get thinking what could I make that would help me bypass this obstacle. Then, I go into Pinterest or YouTube to see what luthiers and woodworkers in general have done about it. There are thousands of ideas everywhere. This woodbender I made, is an example of tackling a problem.
These tools are expensive, but they have reason to be. Irons for wood bending come in different shapes and styles. There's a propane press for bending guitar ribs. That has to be the most expensive one. There's the cylinder with different widths in its height. There's also the a propane heated cylinder. And of course there's the toxic kerosene heated bender (this one was used a lot in my hometown).
I saw this idea in my teachers workshop and decided to give it a twist. His bender is horizontal. I made mine vertical because I want a better view of the shape the wood will be getting. I also used parts of an old desk lamp that was broken. Luckily, the circuit was still working. My cylinder is a tomato can, but I will find a thinner can for other kinds of instruments I want to learn how to make in the future. That's as far as the idea of adapting tools goes in my case. There's another lot of tools I still need to craft and get ready to make my job easier. Fortunately, this is a job I love to do.
I give evolution a bid thanks for this ability of making tools to help me perform tasks that would be a hassle otherwise.
Here are some pictures of the process of making this. It was a lot of fun!
