• potpie@beehaw.orgEnglish
    55·
    1 year ago

    I’ve been getting into primitive technology lately. It all started when I looked at my back yard and thought hey, if we call it red clay, then I should be able to make it into pottery. I take dirt from my yard, levigate it, add grog and wedge, hand-build pots, and fire them in my fire pit. Been making sharpening stones from river rocks. Crafting replicas of Roman machines. That sort of thing.

    • meyotch@slrpnk.netEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      That is an epic niche. Primitive skills are awesome. Have you ever read The Toaster Project? It’s a story about the attempt to build a ‘simple’ modern appliance starting with raw materials and only using primitive methods. Very insightful look into how complex our built environment really is.

  • interolivary@beehaw.orgEnglish
    36·
    1 year ago

    I’ve been on a hiatus due to some medical stuff making it hard for me to concentrate, but I’m a lock nerd. I collect cool locks (“cool” being very subjective here 😅) and pick / manipulate them.

    edit: here’s a tiny part of my collection. I’d upload more but I’m having a hard time with the mobile site and image uploads

      • interolivary@beehaw.orgEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        A-ha, I knew there have to be lock nerds on Lemmy.

        But yeah the basics are dead simple, you just need to have a light touch and listen to your fingers 😄

        And so much of the stuff applies for the majority of lock mechanisms. A lot of it boils down to “apply tension, feel for pins / disks / sliders / wafers / whatever that don’t want to move and then you make them move, while leaving the other pins / etc. alone. Repeat until done”

      • interolivary@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Right?!

        The coolest one I have is probably this weird prototype lock called the RKS or “RoboKey System”, which is sort of like a cross between a regular door lock (it’s in an Abloy body) and a safe combination lock. The idea behind it was that you’d have a small portable device (only slightly larger than a key fob) that would be used to dial open the lock, and that device would be remotely programmable, meaning access could be granted and revoked remotely (you’re just sending ). The prototype locks are cutaways so you can see what’s going on inside, but the “real” ones would have been completely sealed. Basically they’d have lots of the pros of electronic locks but without having to have powered and/or complicated locks that are sensitive to environmental conditions, so they would have been great in challenging environments where you’d want the upsides of electronic locks but can’t use the current ones (I think marine shipping was one thing they envisioned could benefit from them.) Unfortunately it didn’t take off, so some hundreds of prototypes are all that exist. They still make them on occasion, purely for us lock nerds 😄

  • Yuki@kutsuya.devEnglish
    351·
    1 year ago

    Used to be sword fighting, but difficult after I got into an accident and can barely use my hand anymore…

    • DocWurzel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      1 year ago

      I used to do historical reenactment so would regularly fight with swords, spears, axes, knives etc. Great fun but the injuries start to really hurt over time. A broken knuckle and getting stabbed in the face with a semi-sharp sword that resulted in a hospital visit were my worst!

      • Rozz@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        7·
        1 year ago

        “I used to be an adventurer like you. But then I took an arrow into the knee…”

      • shapesandstuff@feddit.deEnglish
        5·
        1 year ago

        A broken knuckle and getting stabbed in the face with a semi-sharp sword that resulted in a hospital visit were my worst!

        I’m sorry this happened to you. It does sound like you and your group went way too far for the equipment you were using.

        Usually theres a tradeoff between historical accuracy, safety equipment and sparring intensity.

        If you have no adequate hand protection for historical reasins, you either need lower intensity or explicitly forbid hand hits.

        If you want to fight at full intensity of you need to fall back on less accurate protection and maybe even still adjust rulesets.

        If you want accurate swords with no rolled / flared point, you must change how thrusting works.

        I got a fencing mask imprinted on my forehead once because we also went too intense with polearms for the gear we had.

        • DocWurzel@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          The broken knuckle was an unfortunate accident during a public show. The angle of the sword thrust happened to go up into my glove and popped a knuckle. The sword to the face was during training by someone who should have known better than to sneak a semi-sharp in. Still, scars to your face add character!

    • AlexWIWA@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      My condolences. I also lost a bunch of hobbies due to hand injuries. It’s depressing

    • illi@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      What kind? Doing HEMA myself, though not as much as I’d like

  • DiscoShrew@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    351·
    1 year ago

    This could be niche, but I’m a fountain pen nerd. I love stationary, different types of papers inks and nibs and how they all influence the writing experience.

    • Nowyn@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      14·
      1 year ago

      Fountain pens are also for some people more disability friendly. Handwriting has sucked for me as long as I remember as it causes a lot of pain and cramping. Fountain pens glide easier and I can write longer with one than with any other type of pen.

      • emberwit@feddit.deEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Handwriting has sucked for me as long as I remember

        So fountain pens are not the default tool for getting into handwriting everywhere? What did you use to learn to write with as a child?

        • Nowyn@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          I’m Finnish. We also start with wooden pencils and graduate to either ballpoint pens or some kind of fineliner marker. I am the only person I know with a fountain pen who actually uses it for normal writing. Mainly because it hurts so much less.

        • Stormyfemme@beehaw.orgEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          In the US most kids learn with pencils. When I was a kid we used wooden pencils until mechanical ones were eventually allowed and ballpoint pen usage typically was discouraged until high school. I settled on smooth flow liquid ink ball point type pens for extensive handwriting nowadays.

    • bleepbloopbleep@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Ooooh I’ve inherited a Pelikan Meisterstück from my father and it is glorious.

      I’m totally on board with inks and different paper textures… It is cool to see and experience all the little details.

    • solongaphasia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      oh, absolutely!

      i spent way too much buying my grail pen a couple years back (pilot namiki falcon with 14k soft flex nib) and it is an absolute dream… though i do still love my pilot metropolitan and cheap jinhaos!

      • DiscoShrew@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Oh don’t feel bad, my personal favorite and most expensive is my Pilot Custom 823. It holds a ton of ink and the nib is amazing

        • solongaphasia@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          ooh very nice… i better not look into it or i will be buying more pens… haha.

          my biggest issue is finding paper that is not super expensive and can hold the ink well… bristol board is my favorite but loose sheets are annoying. i’ve found platinum’s carbon black to be the absolute best ink, after trying out many goulet and noodler’s blacks…

  • roux is a lib@lemmy.mlEnglish
    30·
    1 year ago

    I build custom mechanical keyboards. Got into it because of the Pandemic and now I have built 6 of them. /r/mk and /r/emk used to be some of my most visited subs on the other site. I’m now known as the goto for keyboard questions in my circles of friends.

    I started getting into fidgeting more lately and took a liking to magnetic sliders and now have a few that I pretty much always have with me.

    And that extended into me learning about begleri beads somehow so now I am attempting to learn that. I can do slips and 2 finger wraps and occasiaonal one finger or thumb wraps but not much else yet. I accidentally learned a stall because I messed up. I need to really learn transfers since that is one of the main things you do a lot of.

    I think I am also amongst the hyperfixator group in this thread. I was previously into speedsolving Rubik’s cubes and roasting coffee so I feel a lot of these answers lol.

    • hbocao@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      1 year ago

      How do you build a custom keyboard? Do they sell every single part in different shapes? (I mean the “chassis”, not the key caps). How custom can they be?

      • suborbital@lemmy.mlEnglish
        14·
        1 year ago

        Beware brave traveler, you are asking questions that may result in a journey you did not wish to embark.

        • roux is a lib@lemmy.mlEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          This is so true. I spent hundreds on this lol. I am currently typing this on a Ferris Sweep with custom dyed keycaps and I ordered my PCBs special just so I could have them in purple to match my micro-controllers.

        • hbocao@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          lol

          I don’t think I have the patience nor the money and time, but it does sound fun.

      • roux is a lib@lemmy.mlEnglish
        9·
        1 year ago

        To add to what @denton@lemm.ee said, you can also buy kits from sites like Keebio and Novelkeys. There is a Etsy store call BeeKeebs I will always suggest because Leo is a really cool dude and offers a lot of kits for stuff that you’d otherwise have to part yourself.

        I print my own PCBs and aim for boards that don’t require diodes. I have most of my boards with Choc Sunsets which are aftermarket custom low profile switches form loweprokb.ca. All my boards run on a fork of QMK called Vial and the hobby gets weird from there. If you are on discord there is a meckkeys server that has a ton of info.

        For how custom they can be: Look up Ben Vallack’s Piano2. It’s an 18 key board that he uses for everyday use including writing code. QMK and it’s forks are extremely powerful pieces of software that still blows my mind and I’ve been using it for 3 years.

        • hbocao@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          Holy Molly.

          That’s a lot of possibilities.

          I found some really good looking custom keyboards.

          • roux is a lib@lemmy.mlEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            Another sites I forgot to mention since I was half asleep when wrote that was kbfans. I have seen people that get into the hobby to the point of building their own get kits from them or Novelkeys. Both offer hotswap PCBs which means you don’t need to solder the switches and can change them if you want. They offer 60% and TenKeyless which is probably where most people aim for so I think it’s a good place to start.

            Also if you want keycaps, Amazon, Ali and Banggood sell knockoff copycaps(lol) of a lot of designs for a lot cheaper. Look for “double shot” or “dye-subbed”. Those are gonna last and you won’t get fading legends like on cheap boards.

            And don’t get too overwhelmed with switch choice paralysis. If you break it down to linear, tactile, and clicky for feel and then light, medium, and heavy spring weight, it gets a bit easier to navigate to what you might want. Tactile will have a light bump or a heavy bump(popular in the last few years) but other than that, they offer testers and samples.

      • denton@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        They can be as custom as you want! I’ve made a few by coming up with a layout I want, making the 3D model for the case, 3D printing it out and handwiring it up myself, then doing the firmware for it.

        You can make something that once only existed in your head into something you use every single day!

        • hbocao@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Ok, I just watched a video of Ben Vellack’s Piano that @roux recommended. Damn!

        • hbocao@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Oh, right! I forgot about 3D printing.

          Sorry if I sound stupid but still, what about the actual board (pcb?)? I mean, yeah, I guess you can get them in custom shapes as well, but sounds too advanced.

          Another thing I’m failing to understand the possibilities of is about the firmware. What can different?

          • denton@lemm.eeEnglish
            3·
            1 year ago

            You can either design your own PCB or handwire. I handwire because it’s cheaper, and I don’t have to order min 5 pieces and have extra lying around after.

            Look up QMK, you can do a million different things with the firmware.

    • aesopjah@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      Found any good lemmy communities similar to the old /r’s? Used to love g what people came up with, especially with the trackball integrations and all that jazz

    • BottleOfAlkahest@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Always though begleri beads looked fun but I never picked them up because I didn’t think I’d be able to do it at my desk. It’d look to much like I wasn’t working.

      • roux is a lib@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I have the luxury of working from home so fidgeting isn’t an issue. I tend to not play with them when working as much since I end up spending most of my time picking them up off the floor. Also when you are on a phone call and hit your knuckles and blurt out an “ouch” it makes it a bit awkward lol.

  • jcit878@lemmy.worldEnglish
    29·
    1 year ago

    stealth camping. basically camping where your not supposed to / normally wouldn’t want to, and have your presence remain unknown. it’s great fun and breathed new life into “the outdoors” for me

    • gagewhylds@lemmy.caEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      Always wanted to try this but I’ve got all my gear themed orange and green. I would stick out like a sore thumb. Also I’m in northern Ontario so It would be silly

      • jcit878@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        it can still be done but you might need some camo or something. highly recommend it!

        • gagewhylds@lemmy.caEnglish
          5·
          1 year ago

          I ended up putting blaze orange cord on everything so I wouldn’t leave anything behind when I packed up camp. But my tarp is forest green so maybe I can do this…

          • jcit878@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            1 year ago

            i believe in you! a lot of my gear isnt ‘stealthy’ either, part of the fun is making it work and good site selection

      • jcit878@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        either or! I don’t do vehicle stealths myself but it’s an equally acceptable part of the hobby. I personally like to camp under bridges, on abandoned structures and in the bushes on motorway interchanges. good fun

  • thegiddystitcher@lemm.eeEnglish
    281·
    1 year ago

    Some more niche than others but basically…making stuff. Cross stitch, yarn crafts, sewing, needle felting, dicemaking, 3d printing, very occasional cosplay, I’m about to try my first macrame kit and a friend is planning for us to learn punch needle together.

    There’s something just so satisfying about making real stuff you can use, or wear, or wash yourself with or whatever (I also briefly got into soapmaking).

    If you want to chat about basically any craft (or just lurk and look at pretty projects, that’s ok too), I’ve been keeping a megalist of relevant communities and magazines here https://lemm.ee/post/224890. And if anyone reading this runs a related one that should be on the list please DM me to be added!

      • thegiddystitcher@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Oh weird! Been chatting to plenty of people so it works in general but maybe our instances are having issues today. I am not on Matrix yet, should probably sort that out this weekend really. Just sent you a test DM see if it’s broken both ways

      • thegiddystitcher@lemm.eeEnglish
        5·
        1 year ago

        You’ll buy it to make one thing and suddenly you’re printing everything and your whole life is made of plastic. Totes worth it though lol.

    • bleepbloopbleep@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      This sounds so cool and I wish I had the time to try it all but I hardly have the time to knit as much as I used to :D

  • raresbears@iusearchlinux.fyiEnglish
    26·
    1 year ago

    I’m pretty into conlanging, which is basically making up languages. There are tons of different approaches and ways people can go about it, but like probably most (or at least a plurality of) other conlangers, I generally go for something as naturalistic as possible. I’m also into linguistics so it serves as kind of an interesting way to explore different features and grasp them better, as well as just an excuse to do more research to find out more about something.

    • Wahots@pawb.socialEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      Oooh. Have you heard of that indigenous language that is the only one in the world that doesn’t have a grammar structure that requires words? So it can be spoken, or whistled with the same functionality. It’s stupid difficult to learn, but the thought of carrying entire conversations via whistling is incredibly intriguing to me.

      I heard about it in an college anthropology class, and its been something I’ve marveled at occasionally ever since.

    • Nyanix@lemmy.caEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      Whoo! I’ve been spending the last year getting into Esperanto, and been slowly getting obsessed with how language works

  • multicolorKnight@lemmy.mlEnglish
    24·
    1 year ago

    Roasting and brewing the best coffee I possibly can.

    Installing open source operating systems or firmware on every device I can.

  • Eggs@lemmy.mlEnglish
    22·
    1 year ago

    I like traditional slavic folk music and leatherworking (which is misleading what I do is more like crafting rather basic things out of leather, I don’t tan or work the leather myself)

      • Eggs@lemmy.mlEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        Although the overlap seems to point in that direction (and also the fact that I do enjoy the Witcher books and games very much) it’s rather coincidental:

        I actually prefer fully acapella, white-voice songs (but I do enjoy instrumental ones too) And regarding leather I’m more into making gear like chokers, cuffs and whatnot (though I’m not trying to make any money out of it as I don’t sell)

  • meyotch@slrpnk.netEnglish
    22·
    1 year ago

    I’m really into electronics and plants. Together. I grew up on a farm with greenhouses so my interest in control systems, electricity and plants developed all together. I’ve built growth chambers, plant lights, automated waterers and yet none of that was for weed.

    • s_s@lemmy.oneEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      If I ever settle down, I want to set up a backyard greenhouse w/ aquaponics. Using arduino to automate everything is the dream.

      • meyotch@slrpnk.netEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Two things:

        1. Never settle!

        2. I’ve found the Wemos D1 mini to be a better tool for automating larger numbers of things. They operate on similar principles but are actually internet capable, so they can have a simple web interface and keep accurate time. Software like Tasmota makes all that pretty easy. They can use a communication protocol MQTT to speak to each other and create really complex scenarios.

        For instance, say your porch light is connected to one. You can have it announce to the network that the porch light just came on and have the other exterior lights listen for that announcement and then change their behavior accordingly.

        It’s a lovely and attainable dream! I’m stuck in an urban apartment right now but I’ve automated my balcony garden to keep the plants healthy and watered even when I have to leave town.