I mean, the Home Depots are probably serviceable, with some attention to sharpening, but anything made with better materials in the US (or Scandinavia) is going to cost more. It probably doesn't apply to the hipster axes, but there's nothing wrong with buying good tools that will last forever and can be passed down from generation to generation.
― a cross between lily allen and fetal alcohol syndrome (milo z), Monday, 5 July 2010 16:23 (thirteen years ago) link
milo I see your point, but this:
I don't really have a problem with this article, if only because a really nice axe will probably run you a hundred bucks by itself.
vs.
One morning late last winter, a barista at the City Girl Café on Thompson Street who was making coffee for a bleary-eyed Mr. Buchanan-Smith startled his customer by exclaiming, “You’re the ax man!” The barista, who had seen Mr. Buchanan-Smith’s photo in New York magazine, then worked out a payment plan to buy one. (Axes start at $180.)
How much do you think a barista in Manhattan would typically spend on an axe?
― I DIED, Monday, 5 July 2010 16:34 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&q=%22using+my+best+made+axe%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=36ec6be010d257f
No results found for "using my best made axe".
― surfer blood for oil (Hurting 2), Monday, 5 July 2010 16:35 (thirteen years ago) link
Best Made = J Peterman x McSweeney's
― I DIED, Monday, 5 July 2010 16:37 (thirteen years ago) link
i think you'd be arrested in london if you "wore" an axe around like that.
― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Monday, 5 July 2010 16:56 (thirteen years ago) link
Designers like Mr. Buchanan-Smith don't just have "stuff." They are constant arrangers and vignette-builders. On a window sill: a plumb bob, a bottle of cologne, a moth.
― wears suburban hang-ups on her sleeve like some kind of corporate logo (daria-g), Monday, 5 July 2010 16:59 (thirteen years ago) link
People buying them in NYC is silly, sure. No more or less silly than buying a $200 watch or whatever, though.
― a cross between lily allen and fetal alcohol syndrome (milo z), Monday, 5 July 2010 17:02 (thirteen years ago) link
you could actually use a $200 watch on a daily basis, and it probably would keep running and look good for a long time. i wonder how many people in nyc would buy one of the axes just to hang it on a wall?
― wears suburban hang-ups on her sleeve like some kind of corporate logo (daria-g), Monday, 5 July 2010 17:06 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm pretty sure lots of people pay $180 and more for stuff that they just to hang on a wall
― peter in montreal, Monday, 5 July 2010 17:12 (thirteen years ago) link
you're only pretty sure of it? cmon man, take a stand.
― wears suburban hang-ups on her sleeve like some kind of corporate logo (daria-g), Monday, 5 July 2010 17:14 (thirteen years ago) link
well, I haven't actually done a survey or anything, maybe nobody actually buys all those paintings I regularly see costing more than $180.
― peter in montreal, Monday, 5 July 2010 17:16 (thirteen years ago) link
are the axes being sold as art or as a quality tool?
― kate78, Monday, 5 July 2010 17:19 (thirteen years ago) link
I think the part that's annoying to me is I wouldn't mind people who just wanted to hang well-designed axes on their wall as objets d'art, it's that, for these buyers, a well designed axe isn't enough without having a couple racing stripes on it to indicate that it's passed through a design gatekeeper and been marked. But now that it's a SANCTIONED design piece, it's all good to hang on the wall.
― I DIED, Monday, 5 July 2010 17:23 (thirteen years ago) link
why can't it be both?
xp
― peter in montreal, Monday, 5 July 2010 17:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Color, pattern, and play are the guiding factors in everything we make. Even though it’s “just an axe” it’s a blank canvas with endless possibilities. When the axe is finished we sit down and think of names. The naming process is crucial: it’s where we give the axe the beginning of its story, albeit a very short story (we purposefully do not caption the axes, just give them names) because we know our customers are inventive enough to create the real ongoing story.
― I DIED, Monday, 5 July 2010 17:26 (thirteen years ago) link
that's a bit precious isn't it..
― wears suburban hang-ups on her sleeve like some kind of corporate logo (daria-g), Monday, 5 July 2010 17:34 (thirteen years ago) link
this sort of thing needs a gilbert sorrentino to embalm it forever in a thoroughly devastating snapshot of a ridiculous age, really
/exposure of actual intentions for this thread
― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Monday, 5 July 2010 17:38 (thirteen years ago) link
― a cross between lily allen and fetal alcohol syndrome (milo z), Monday, 5 July 2010 18:03 (thirteen years ago) link
The point is that the people in this article aren't choosing between a cheap axe and an expensive one with the same utility, they're choosing an expensive product with no utility to them.
― I DIED, Monday, 5 July 2010 18:04 (thirteen years ago) link
okay, add in "why bother having one at all, when you can just look at your phone," then.
― a cross between lily allen and fetal alcohol syndrome (milo z), Monday, 5 July 2010 18:06 (thirteen years ago) link
Once more, with feeling: Thorstein Veblen to thread!
― Aimless, Monday, 5 July 2010 18:08 (thirteen years ago) link
I guarantee more Manhattan residents use watches than use axes.
― I DIED, Monday, 5 July 2010 18:27 (thirteen years ago) link
xp I own a Veblen good, but I use it
― no Atlantis is too underwater or fictional (dyao), Monday, 5 July 2010 18:33 (thirteen years ago) link
a $30 timex - battery will probably go dead, case will get scratched up, strap is cheap material and will wear out, all within about 6 months to a year. at least for me - i wear it every day. so then you have to buy another one. also i rather check the time on my watch than going through my bag and trying to find my phone. so i might buy one in the $150-$200 range if it isn't likely to wear out & make me go to the trouble of replacing something or buying a new one. but i am 100% against buying stuff that looks expensive just to show off! i'd get one with no details, no logo, as simple as possible basically.
― wears suburban hang-ups on her sleeve like some kind of corporate logo (daria-g), Monday, 5 July 2010 19:40 (thirteen years ago) link
I just wear an $180 axe and use it as a sundial.
― Euler, Monday, 5 July 2010 19:43 (thirteen years ago) link
― I DIED, Monday, July 5, 2010 2:04 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban
who effing cares if some new yorker wants to spend $200 on something they think looks nice on their wall
I mean seriously dealwithit.gif
there are better things out there for u to feel superior about
― pass le corbusier (s1ocki), Monday, 5 July 2010 20:30 (thirteen years ago) link
I make a living doing design work, so I actually care a lot about contemporary design culture and the way in which the NYT coverage of it steers trends. There are a lot of other threads where we don't discuss silly NYT articles.
― I DIED, Monday, 5 July 2010 21:01 (thirteen years ago) link
i blow minds for a living
personally
― pass le corbusier (s1ocki), Monday, 5 July 2010 21:32 (thirteen years ago) link
what's your rate?
― kate78, Monday, 5 July 2010 21:38 (thirteen years ago) link
which of the following things is most to blame for this thread
1) rich people
2) new york city
3) the new york times
4) design, the concept of
5) modernity
6) alienation
7) the internet
8) utility, the concept of
― max, Monday, 5 July 2010 21:45 (thirteen years ago) link
commodity fetishism
― the girl with the butt tattoo (harbl), Monday, 5 July 2010 21:47 (thirteen years ago) link
9) write-in (commodity fetishism)
― max, Monday, 5 July 2010 21:48 (thirteen years ago) link
and butt tattoos
― the girl with the butt tattoo (harbl), Monday, 5 July 2010 21:49 (thirteen years ago) link
― kate78, Monday, July 5, 2010 5:38 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark
i start at $180
― pass le corbusier (s1ocki), Monday, 5 July 2010 21:54 (thirteen years ago) link
just enough for your very own design axe!
― kate78, Monday, 5 July 2010 23:10 (thirteen years ago) link
if this article is to be believed there is a huge market out there for ordinary household objects spraypainted in garish colors and tagged with cute & quirky bios
be on the lookout for "Best Made Rubber Plunger", a rubber plunger you'll be proud to leave your grandkids that comes in attractive Jamaican flag colors
― like a ◴ ◷ ◶ (dyao), Monday, 5 July 2010 23:13 (thirteen years ago) link
fuck them, I'm getting buried w/ mine
― iatee, Monday, 5 July 2010 23:15 (thirteen years ago) link
ps 1) rich people
― iatee, Monday, 5 July 2010 23:16 (thirteen years ago) link
tbf I looked and milo was right - there are a bunch of non-hipstery companies that make good quality axes for similar prices (although for all I know, those are just fetish items for more conservative well-to-do folks). I guess if the axe is really of comparable quality and you're not just paying for the chic, I can't completely begrudge it the pastel stripes.
― surfer blood for oil (Hurting 2), Monday, 5 July 2010 23:17 (thirteen years ago) link
they would make for a good l&o murder weapon tbh
― fraps rule everything around me (s1ocki), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 00:04 (thirteen years ago) link
Ripped from the headlines of the NYT style section!
― sinister chemical wisdom (Jenny), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 01:10 (thirteen years ago) link
http://nymag.com/news/media/67010/
feels right for this thread
― max, Tuesday, 6 July 2010 01:17 (thirteen years ago) link
fell asleep just reading the headline. wake me up when d-brooks gets his septum pierced.
― stuff that's what it is (bernard snowy), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 01:40 (thirteen years ago) link
"When we married in 2001, my husband and I thought about having children someday. It was very important to us, though, that we first be financially stable enough to support them and give them plenty of parenting time. We were aware of our biological clocks -- who isn't? But before we knew it, we'd been happily married for eight years. I was 30, he was 32, and we still were not ready to be parents. Knowing that time was running out, we resigned ourselves to the fact that we probably would not have children."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/02/AR2010070204597.html?hpid=newswell
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 15:10 (thirteen years ago) link
"that's cold", said the embryo.
― an outlet to express the dark invocations of (La Lechera), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 15:14 (thirteen years ago) link
hey eephus there is this thread too... quiddities and agonies of the ruling class, DC edition - a rolling washington post thread
― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 15:26 (thirteen years ago) link
In a world of loud voices and extreme positions, David Brooks manages to be both irrelevant and absolutely essential.
this is classic
― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 15:27 (thirteen years ago) link
in my head i'm reading that in the movie trailer guy voice btw
Essential Irrelevance: The Collected Writings of David Brooks
― surfer blood for oil (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 15:28 (thirteen years ago) link
It's actually a great sort of faint praise quote except I don't think it's meant that way.
― surfer blood for oil (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 15:29 (thirteen years ago) link