Imperfect

This is something I wrote awhile back for a forum and it’s a subject that I’ve been thinking about the past few days and thought I’d take this opportunity to share it here - 

 

It seems to me that the phrase “no two are alike” can be applied to many things we buy and own.

I used to own an old and rare car called a Lotus Cortina and I did a full restoration on it and had it very far apart. When I got into the guts of the car I started seeing more and more hand work. There were grease pen notes and arrows showing where flaws were and subsequent hammer blow marks that fixed the issue. File marks, the slip of a hand drill and the skidding swirl marks it left. Even 40 years after it was made there was evidence of the men that made it all over if you knew what to look for. When it was rebuilt great care was taken to be sure to not clean up or “fix” these things.

I’m sure when it was made those defects that I worked so hard to discover and protect where not something the workers were proud of. They weren’t looking 40 years down the road and thinking how much I would covet the evidence in the metal of the skilled but imperfect men that made the car. They were defects pure and simple. But to me they were a way for me to connect to those men that all those years ago worked hard and long on the car.

I suspect and hope that something similar happens with my work years down the road. Just like the workers at Lotus that made Lotus Cortina #1839 in June of 1965 didn’t want any defects in their car I don’t want any defects in my bikes. I don’t purposely leave my mark anywhere but there’s no doubt that there is a mark and I hope that at some point someone will celebrate it. It’s all part of the charm of something being handmade. That connection is important to me and I suspect to others. So while I don’t think folks celebrate flaws in work they do celebrate the fact that these things are made by living breathing men that are not perfect………… and those flaws are just evidence of that. That to me is something I think everyone can relate to.

Dave  

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