Crowd Control

[primtechsmith]

It is getting close to time to begin the demonstrations at fairs, and shows. What are some tips you would give other smiths on how to protect the crowd from the demonstration.

How do you handle those questions that come up everytime. "do you shoe horses", "is that coal", or my favorite..."is that hot?"

For us the horse question was answered when we put a horseshoe with a line through it and the caption "We Don't Do Horses" under iton the demo trailer.....How do you handle these things?

Peyton

[bridgtonblacksmith]

Peyton,

I demo at 2 sites and they are at the far extremes from each other. The best location is at a Fairgrounds where we get to demo inside a shop. We usually get the "blacksmith's used to shoe horses" comments from the crowd, but, we quickly tell them the difference between farriery and blacksmithing. We also have a sign which is a silhoutte of a horse with a horseshoe on top of that with a circle and slash through that, but, som people still don't notice it. For keeping the crowd back, the shop has a 3' high 2X handrail along 2 walls of the shop. Under the rail is plexiglass so the kids can scooch down during a forge weld and stay safe AND still see what we are doing. It works very well. We ALSO get the comment of "my father/uncle/grandfather was a REAL blacksmith" which kind of urks us a bit, but, you have to shrug off the stupid comments.

The second place that I demo at is an old historical farmstead. Unfortunately, I get the SAME comments there, BUT, I don't have the luxury of having a handrail to keep everyone back. Also, when the restorers built the forge, they went AGAINST the recommendations of a couple of local smiths and built the forge left-handed. Now the flue is built so that the crowd can't see the fire. Naturally, they crowd around the backside of the anvil to see. When I take a piece from the fire I have to be very careful because I frequently have someone standing at my elbow. I have been making sure NOT to forge weld at this location because of the short range.

Paul

[Ralph]

Paul,
If I might comment about the 2nd place you demo.
Make some rope stantions and place them so you have working space. I volunteer at a National Historic site and we have it set up so that we have the stantions with rope barriers just to keep our visitors back ( in our case 10 feet back, but our shop is about 25 X 35 with 4 forges 2 each end )

[ThomasPowers]

With rope make sure you do at least two levels---adults and kids.

As for horse shoeing, I tell folks that while many blacksmiths in *America* were general smiths and did a bit of everything---we having more of a fronteir culture, (and 19th century and earlier blacksmith day books show them making and shoeing horses and oxen as well as all the other stuff they did. When you only had one smith in town they did everything!); in europe smithing and farrier work was quite seperate---different guilds and asking a smith in Europe to shoe your horse you were lucky if he only threw his hammer at you.

As for myself I just tell them that "Horses are *bigger* than I am and *dumber* than I am and that is just too scary a combination for me..."

I usually have some scrap pine around and if they ask "is that hot" I touch the wood and let them see the flames shoot up---and then say "no" it's down to about 1200 degF and time to reheat it.

Do you get burned "Yes I was cooking dinner the other night and..." "No, at the forge!" "Yes but I get burned worse and more often in the kitchen" and then talk about gloves and tongs and other PSG.

"My grandfather was a real smith"---"Want to sell any of his equipment to someone who will use it?"

Remember if you are demonstrating *DON'T EXPECT TO GET ANYTHING DONE!" you are there to educate/entertain not produce product. If you are expected to "serve two masters" at the same time we usually have a smith and a "talker" and the talker is the one who interacts with the crowd...


Thomas

[Glenn]

Make a rope holder to hold two strands of rope. This is to remind the public to keep at a safe distance. Someone will step over, under or around so be watchful and immediately stop all work till they return to a safe location.

As to the questions, you may have heard it 100 times today, but the person making the comment is usually honest in their question or comment. You need to treat the question politely and with a informative answer. To reply with a quick zinger does not benifit you or the craft. You can simply say that a farrier is a speciality in blacksmithing. Or that in their grandfathers or other relatives day, " blacksmithing was necessary to the rural style of living. Also explain that their grandfather did not own a cell phone, the same cell phone which many people can not live without today. Times change.

[Leah]

Primetechsmith,

When I get tired of hearing "My grandfather was a blacksmith", I usually smile and say something lilke "That is great", and listen if they want to talk a little. It helps me remember when Iwas the one standing on the other side of the rope asking the dumb questions. Had it not been for the patience shown to me that day, I might have not gone home and built my first forge.

I have to admit that, sometimes, I do ask them if their grandmother ever did any smithing :wink:

Just today at work, a fella came up to me and went into a loooooong tale about his grandfather being a blacksmith. I listened, and at the end of our conversation, he told me to come by and he would give me his grandfather's 250 lb. anvil because he had no one in his family that wanted it and he wanted it to go to a blacksmith. I don't know what brand it is or what kind of shape it is in, but I am going to go pick it up next week. I did ask him to write up a little information about his grandfather and what kind of work he did so I could keep the information with the anvil.

[Strine]

To the question about shoeing horses.

No. I only shoo flies. Or:

Yes but I would ask that you supply the stick.....shoo horse, get away with you.

Then wax lyrical about how complex the foot of a horse is and that no one in their right mind would let me near it. It is far better to take your horse to a professional horse chiropodist.

To the comment about an ancestor being a blacksmith, I reply with...mmmm, I come from a long line of chook (chicken) farmers dating from around 1740 (all lies of course). I still can't lay eggs.

Relish the bloke that fronts up, says nothing for quite a while then eventually pipes up and says "I was a blacksmith". That's time to down tools, pull up a couple of stumps and wag the chin (chat) for a while over a brew (cup of tea or coffee)...your shout of course.

[Strine]

To the person that whinges about the price of a trinket - offer them the DIY kit which from my experience should only cost a few pennies. When their eyes light up at the thought of a bargain hand over a piece of rusty old scrap iron.

On the same subject, some will ask how long this or that took to make thinking, I'm sure, they can haggle over the price. Tell them it took two years watching a master then another 4 years of practise to get it right.

If your happy with a price you've set, say $30 for argument's sake and they offer you $25 return the haggle with a price of $35. they'll offer $28, you quote $32. etc etc. Who ever said haggling was always to the advantage of the buyer.

Make a little three heat trinket and ask who'ld like to make an offer. I'm often surprised at the response.

In all these matters I have found it of great advantage to keep a smile on your face and have as much fun with (not at the expense of) your crowd of onlookers. Being a grumpy old smith is fine in the shop but doesn't go down too well in public. Someone might buy something just as a momento of the good time they had watching the blacksmith.

[Rantalin]

Strine, you say a "3 heat trinket", what would be something small and easy that could be made in three heats?

[Strine]

Rantlin you could try pot hanger hooks... just an "S" hook; small leaves don't take long: salt spoons from horseshoe nails (1 heat): hand made nails (1 or 2 heats): nail in hooks: simple sticking tommy? (single candle holder). That's half a dozen things which would fill in the morning assuming you intersperse your forging with some friendly exchange with the crowd and explanations of this or that.

What you found worked a treat last time may not this time "the Public" are a fickle unpredictable lot.

Have fun