Crowd Control

[coltpax]

As with what ramsberg said, I was told in my psychology class that sound is the sense that brings back the most memories or something like that.

[Leland]

Okay, guys, here's a rejoinder to the comment, "My _______________ was a REAL blacksmith!"

Lean in close to the speaker, look left and right as though conspiring with him/her, and then (in a LOUD stage whisper), say "Yeah, ya gotta look out for those COUNTERFEIT blacksmiths...they're a bunch of FORGERS!"

The English majors in the crow will enjoy the joke :0)

Leland

[Walking Dog]

Instead of using ropes for my perimeter, I have lengths of hand-forged chain with decorative stands. It makes a good focal point for a conversation. Forging the chain also made many good demos, although I am now hesitant to do forge welding at a demo.

While blacksmiths are used to hearing about all the relatives that were "real" blacksmiths, the fur trade demonstrators are continually hearing about the relatives who were "Cherokee princesses."

Sometimes I can't help responding to the "grandpa who was a real blacksmith" with "my grandpa was a Cherokee princess."

[Finnr]

Walking Dog, The nice thing about Medieval demos is I never hear "My grandpa was a Viking".
Finnr

[Woody]

Some of you might find this helpful or perhaps a bit amusing

S0009 The Demonstration

[tribal forge]

I make a single rope fence to put around my forge when I am working doing demos, and believe it or not, I have much more trouble from Adults than I do the kids!!! The kids seem to know that the bright red rope, means stay back! The Adults now, I begin to think they are either brain dead, or just think they know all there is to know!
Like everyone else, I get the "Do you Shoe Horses?" all the time, I just tell them " No, I am a general Blacksmith, I make mostly camping equipment and a few knives!"
To the question "Is that Hot?" I like to keep a piece of iron near the coal and when they ask, I'll pick it up with my Tongs, and drop it in my Quinch tub!! The LOUD HISS and splatter of water answers for me! For Demos, I do alot of "S" Hooks(2 heats), coat hooks from a #15 horse shoe nail(No heats, I do these cold), also do Meat Skewers (about 6 heats, do 5 or 6 at a time)and steak turners(5 or 6 at a time), as they are fairly fast to do!! I also do orders while at these demos, and at times will have 20 or 30 people standing around ooohing and ahhhing! I set up mostly at POW-WOWs, and have a decent following! One of my best customers is a Flint knapper who has over the last couple of years, has bought probaly $500.00 worth of my camp gear, and we have also done a fair amount of trading too! Got my 3lb straight peen from him for a Squirrel roaster!/Selden

[Jörgensen]

also do Meat Skewers (about 6 heats, do 5 or 6 at a time

Maybe a doumb question, but since english isn´t my first language, what is a meat skewer?

[Glenn]

A long thin rod to poke into through small pieces of meat, holding them together so they can be cooked over a grill. Many times vegetables are added between pieces of meat.

[Jörgensen]

Aha, "grillspett" in swedish if anyone is interested.....

[ThomasPowers]

A skewer is a smaller version of a spit used to roast meat, amazing the cognates between the languages!

I made a copy of the early medieval spit in the Lund museum; real WI and forge welding where it needed it, I did size it up a bit since the modern chicken is quite a bit larger than the medieval one...