It's been a while since I last heard (or read) it, but today was the day. Someone on Facebook, in a group for Experimental Archaeology (including Experience Archaeology) posted it.

"Unfortunately, the modern tailors just do not stitch as fast as people who started as children and have sewn all their lives."

I've heard this a lot over the years. Now that I think of it, though, I get the suspicion that it was predominantly textile stuff... spinning, especially, as well as sewing.

Well. Here's what I think.


Modern crafters are not necessarily slower than their historic counterparts. First of all, individuals have different working speeds (then as now). Once you have reached the end of your working speed development, there you are. I've tried sewing as fast as I could, so I'd see how much of a difference it would make. The result? I was not faster at all compared to working at my relaxed normal speed, only the seams were not as nice. Unless I have to get acquainted with some new fabric, or fiddle with a particularly difficult bit of seam (such as a weird corner), my normal sewing speed has reached my personal maximum, and that's where it will stay.
 
It's perfectly logical, too. Think about it: If you are running every day to become a faster runner, you will at one time find your maximum - and that will be it. There'll be fluctuations, of course, but there's an end point to speed.
Similarly, crafting speed has a limit somewhere and you can't get indefinitely faster with more practice. If that would be the case, it should not be possible to see the needle, or shuttle, or hammer, or saw of a very experienced crafter with 30+ years of daily practice anymore, because that thing would move that fast. Just like our materials have limits, and our tools have limits, so does the range of movements and the maximum possible speed of going through those movements while still efficient.

Thirdly, "crafting speed" is hard to compare between individuals, as you do not know the exact circumstances of the work and the exact materials. There's a difference between spinning raw wool fresh from the sheep or clean combed wool. There's a difference between forging something from iron or from high-carbon steel. There's a difference between sewing a heavy silk or a loosely woven linen. There's a difference between carving a spoon from wet hazel or dry oak. And that's not even taking into account the use of different tools, or working styles.

I am firmly of the opinion that there is no reason why a practised crafter today should not be as fast as a practised crafter from 10, 50, or 500 years ago.
Case in point: There is an attempt at calculating the approximate time spent on sewing types of garments in Textiles & Clothing (the London publication) from documented garment prices and tailor wages. The times do roughly match the times that I need for tailoring and hand-sewing the same types of garments. (The day I discovered this? That was a happy day for me, and the first time I really started thinking about this "we are never as fast as they were" thing.)

What do you think? Have you been told that we can never reach the fantabulous speed of those gone by? And, most interesting to me: Have you ever heard that applied to something outside of textile context?