A man in Egypt keeping a 200-year-old tradition of tile-making [video] | Hacker News Reader

A man in Egypt keeping a 200-year-old tradition of tile-making [video]

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113 pointssakopov20 comments

Interesting that he notes the method came from Greeks.

I'm reminded of this video of handmade mosaic tiles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-n03ano-Ak

I’d take that with a tiny pinch of salt - it seems he was referring to the specific enterprise that his family had worked for - but cement tiles were made all over the world in the 19th century, and I’ve a feeling they actually originated in Spain.

There are still workshops in Greece making this type of cement tiles. The workshop equipment is a bit more modern, but the technique is pretty much the same with Saied's.

https://www.tsourlakistiles.gr/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poFEiRG9NEk

Spain too, highly scientifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PytMh1Hoa-U

They have all sorts of designs, and a showroom in Shoreditch, so this is not exactly a dying art: https://cement-tiles.com/encaustic-cement-tiles-online-shop/...

Ha! It’s the same process as the Egyptian.

25 years ago I visited Spain and I was surprised by the workman repairing sidewalks who were on hands and knees hand-cutting stone.

I think about this a lot when I walk through downtown in my city on Long Island NY. Our downtown sidewalks are a combination of real brick, which over time has become uneven (Not a lot of taxpayers walking to complain I guess.) and in new areas of downtown they have poured tinted concrete. A stencil is applied to give the concrete a brick-like appearance.

How curious the Egyptian’s process in Spain is elevated and pretentious (after the hydraulic press the Spanish tile maker gently brushes the tile). Beats being on you hands and knees cutting tile by hand (like your dad’s generation).

The amount of dust that's produced during these processes is substantial. The dusting probably goes along with a generally higher level of conscientiousness—to describe it as pretentious (like in luxury production?) seems extreme. Egypt is a pretty chaotic place and I guess you could say Spain (and the rest of Western Europe) fetishizes order in comparison. I do think you're misreading the cultural signs if you think the Spanish process is precious and rarefied in a silly way, though.

> "precious and rarefied in a silly way"

HA! How very condescending of you.

> "luxury production"

This is your perception. Likely in part due to the contrasting videos.

I admit to pointing out the different cultural behaviors I see in my community are silly. We have traditional brick sidewalks the city does not spend money to maintain. We have fake-brick concrete walkways. I'm contrasting this to witnessing different values outside of my community and my country, namely in Spain.

If there's any ratification, its from the new developments who create fake-brick walkways with concrete. Why not just pave with concrete? Why shouldn't those Spanish public works departments just tear up failing road and sidewalk and replace them with concrete?

Concrete has been revealed to the public in recent years as having high CO2 emissions [1]. Dust from concrete production is also a contributor to poor air quality. What are the alternatives?

Well, there are many attempts to address these problems using alternative materials but they have their own problems. In the Netherlands (2018) there was the "worlds first" bicycle path made of plastics [2], but some reports say this didn't go well. In the UK, India and other developing countries there are projects to test plastics on highways [3]. Event the most pro-plastic reports suggest there are chemical hazards to their manufacture [4]. And, more concerning to me at least, there are worrisome reports of wear and erosion on these plastic roads [5].

Calling me out for rarifying misunderstands my comment, recasts me as promoting unnamed 'processes' (concrete tiles in Egypt or the stone path/roadways in Spain?), admonishes me for misreading cultural signs, and all without having the courage to suggest what are the alternative processes I might be missing.

[1]: https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/11/3/cement-and-concret...

[2]: https://e360.yale.edu/digest/worlds-first-recycled-plastic-b...

[3]: https://www.worldhighways.com/wh6/feature/bangalore-dumfries...

[4]: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d41b34040f0b...

[5]: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/heard-about-miracle-pl...

I suspect the process in the Spanish video was highly stylised for the benefit of the film! I can't imagine there's actually a person in a lab coat slowly measuring out dyes in graduated beakers alone in a factory.

If you want to see amazing tile work, search youtube for "uzbekistan mosque". It's a whole unique central asian art form.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=uzbekistan+mosq...

Always refreshing to see people working on a craft they love and genuinely enjoy doing everyday. Takes you back to the essence of business, create something people want to buy and serve it to them.

> create something people want to buy and serve it to them.

When your customer is going to come back angry when you cheat them it is important to make something that people appreciates. And when people appreciates your work it is easy to become proud and want to improve even more.

One of the problems nowadays is that the people making products and services and the consumers are completely separated. The guy that adds a dark-pattern in a website may never meet any of its customers. It is a way more detached business and less human as a consequence.

That's not a problem specific to "nowadays." It's just a problem that emerges very quickly with scale.

Once the craftsperson (developer/carpenter/artist/baker/etc) decides they want to grow the business, they're going to hire someone to take over some of the work. More often than not, that person is not going to care as much about the craft as the owner did.

Nobody cares as much as the craftsperson/founder.

Which is the main reason why most businesses die after three generations on average.

The figure I've heard is 50% fail within 5 years. Three generations is a staggering success.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2018/10/25...

This is one of my favourites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2BctOSZxSA

I don't understand the hydraulic press part. First, I'd expect the press to somehow mess with the patterns, and second, I would have thought he'd just let the cement take. Anyone knows what the point of this part?

As far as I can tell it ensures that the material is properly compacted.

Here is a pdf with a lot more detail:

http://www3.ipc.org.es/dms/pdfs/Baldosas_hidraulicas/Hydraul...

Very interesting, thank you! So, I guess both the hydraulic press and slow curing time ensured that the tiles were very hard/abbrasion resistant. More so than plain mortar, somewhat closer to ceramic.

Similar tradition also in Malta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaC9ecUP648

This series (still standing) on this channel is quite good.

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