Primitive Technology is an awesome channel, one of the marvels of youtube. To anybody who decides to follow his videos: please do not skip reading the description of the videos. He's not just making some primitive-looking stuff with crap he finds about, he actually often tries to replicate what actual primitive peoples did, and explains the historical period and some other details. There are those other channels that copied the concept, but they are just bad copies, half naked men doing silly things for the views.

And don't forget to turn on captions, as his commentary is there.

I've learned about this a while ago (also via a comment), but, I've never turned it on; I like just watching it silently and going "Aaaah he's making an <x>!".

I usually watch the video twice, first with no captions and second with them on. I also like trying to figure out what he's doing in each part, but he uses the captions to explain a lot of interesting things that I didn't catch/understand.

Oh crap I didn't know that now I have to watch them all again! Thanks!

This reminds me a little of the surprise it was when I found that xkcd has mouseover comments that can be ridiculously funny.

It seems like some YouTube videos have captions on by default. Maybe he should turn that on.

Curiously I don't see any captions since some time, even though I haven't touched any settings anywhere.

And it's only "primitive" in some sense, his threaded leave baskets have some beautiful symmetry in the threading process. There's nothing crass about how it's done, on the contrary.

There was an interesting article on here last week about trying to replicate primitive carpentry for archaeological purposes. An illustrative example of the why was that in their first attempt they broke all their stone axeheads in the first hour; after they got some practice they were able to estimate the acreage they could clear with their techniques. Reconstructions both tell you what you got wrong and provide new information about the capabilities of our ancestors, as well as providing context on the archaeological remains.

That guy is amazing. I've watched all of his video many times over.

For the new to the channel, he does all commentary via subtitles so if you want explanations of what he's doing and why turn them on!

Some people seem to like watching them without the commentary as it's relaxing, others want to know what and why. I watched 5 videos before I realised there was explanations.

I hope he goes back to his furnaces and metal, I'd like to see some metal tools from nothing!

Him and Mathias Wandel (woodwork shop) have some tangible zen effect on my mind. It may be subjective but crafting with simple material, and mostly your hands* is extremely satisfying to watch and also very tempting to do. Society creates a distortion in which every pleasure sits behind some door but here they do tons of fun stuff outside just like that.

Other channels in that vein:

Wranglerstar - https://www.youtube.com/wranglerstar

Pure Living for Life - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChhBsM9K_Bc9a_YTK7UUlnQ

Paul Sellers - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc3EpWncNq5QL0QhwUNQb7w

Not quite the same aesthetic but still interesting:

Steve Ramsey - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBB7sYb14uBtk8UqSQYc9-w

Essential Craftsman

Currently in the process of building a spec house out in Oregon; has been filming the entire process so far. Very craftsman-zen, not to mention chock full of good info for anyone building/buying a house.

Link for the lazy: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRZePj70B4IwyNn1ABhJW...

Mr. Chickadee - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHkYrJ2Fbe7pBjEZvkFzi3A Goes so far as to mill (or hew) his own wood. Makes his own tools.

WJP004 is also good https://www.youtube.com/user/WJP004/videos

Also doing much of the work himself.

Paul Sellers is amazing. He's such a positive, down to earth guy. And great craftsmanship if you're into woodworking.

Thanks I think I knew .. none of them. :)

I totally agree with you and I love Primitive Technology, but let's not lose track on that these videos are edited too. All the failures and retries are left out, what is left is only a clear path from start to finish that looks deceptively easy.

Yeah, but if you have ever tried any wood working or home repair with modern tools I have a hard time you would believe this is easy. For example, when he makes cordage or whatever that is a skill you need to learn and practice for a solid 40-80 hours over probably at least a few weeks to really get the hang of it. He probably had many mini skills like that that are invisible or just explained as some specific technique. The editing is fine I guess, it fits with my attention span, at least. If he included all the un-edited stuff you would end up with hours of footage of those mini-skills being applied. Fast forwarding gives some context without hiding it, but it is still nice to just cut scenes I think.

Well, yeah, the advantage he has is all the accessible knowledge available via the internet. He would have done hours upon hours of research before embarking upon experiments that took humans thousands of years to discover and develop. It's still bloody cool!

Some of the woodworking videos I've seen solve this by speeding up the video during the boring parts after you get the general idea. That way you can see there's no man behind the curtain. The ones that include the sped up audio as well are fun.

Heh good point. It's mentally more pleasuring in timelapse where every steps only takes half a second instead of 10.

He's not trying to make his life harder... he is building it by himself the same way that some contractor would be doing it with perhaps 4-5 guys.

Although primitive, the video that you linked to is also based on previous technology/knowledge...

>Although primitive, the video that you linked to is also based on previous technology/knowledge...

Yet one is possible to do literally by yourself without another human being alive as long as you possess the knowledge.

It is a real difference.

If you have all the knowledge, wouldn't you know both ways? Sure you might need to build a few tools with your knowledge before you start, but then you could build a city.