Blacksmithing Jargon

[ThomasPowers]

Well a whole lot of the wootz damascus steel wasn't made in Damascus either; it was just traded through Damascus. Central Asia was the hotbed of Wootz making it seems.

Pattern Welding came in through people trying to come up with a term to specify which of the two types of materials that have both been called Damascus for centuries that wasn't wootz...

[hibjib10987]

Originally Posted by HWooldridge

Every profession has a jargon - "fuller" means something to a smith, both as a verb and as a noun. Telling a machinist to go fuller a 3/4" groove on a 1" picket will only draw blank stares.

My grandfather worked in a big agricultural shop in the 1930's that employed many men -very little ornamental work was done, only horseshoeing, repair and rebuild of plows, wagons, etc. When I showed him a tenon set, or monkey tool, he remarked it was for "monkey work", which by his definition was anything ornamental (he also turned his nose up a little when he said it). When I probed a bit more, he said the less skilled smiths were called monkeys in the shop, and not capable of forging and tempering or building something as complicated as a road plow, so were consigned to "easy" work like iron fences and such (of course, he never saw any of Yellin's work but right or wrong, that was his criteria for judging a craftsman during the Depression here is Texas).

So, I think a "monkey tool" can be considered jargon, as can a multitude of other words.

I often work with Solvarr's shop in raleigh and he calls me the forge monkey and with in he historical reencating group i am in i am know as the forge monkey. So i could see where that term comes from though i am not an inferior smith. On a seperate note. I think it is interesting that almost every town had to have a blacksmith and yet the jargon died. I guess the traditions tend to die when there is no one to carry them on. BUt you would think that with so many smiths there would be a good deal of "lost" jargon. I was thinking about this question and something hit me. The phrase " strike while the iron is hot". I can't believe I didn't think of that sooner. That is total blacksmith jargon that carried over to the whole community. Thank you all for your input and if you got any more phrases or jargon keep posting them.

[unkle spike]

"pour the coal to it" that is when you don't grab a scoop or a handful, you pick up the whole bucket and dump it on the fire.

[HWooldridge]

Colloquial phrases and jargon are related but slightly different. "Losing your temper" is a blacksmith based colloquialism that any smith can relate to - you've worked on that knife all day and then you lose it while tempering, so you get angry. This term has moved into the language and anyone who speaks English fluently understands the definition.

An example of jargon might be the word "flash", which is related to various types of molding or forging in a die (it's that little fin on the parting line that occurs where the mold or die halves meet). The average Joe on the street will have no idea what flash means in this application so it qualifies as jargon.

Many parts of the anvil are technical jargon: face, heel, horn, waist, hardy, pritchel - all mean something to the smith but would be lost to most of the population.

[ThomasPowers]

HW do we know which way "temper" went? It might have been used first in the general world and then be applied to smithing as we have "temperate" climates and well tempered claviers and the theory of humours predates the hardening of steel.

Any body got a full copy of OED to see how it originally was used?

[Sam Thompson]

'Fettle' is another metalworking term that has found it's way into common use.
Steel that breaks easily is known as 'short' and crumbly biscuits are called 'shortbread'; is there a connection there?

[Smoky Rick]

Gobs of folks around here (Northern Illinois) say things like "too many irons in the fire" and not many of them really know where the saying came from. Can't think of any others right off.

Smoky Rick

[HWooldridge]

Thomas, here is the provenance I found. My compact OED cites the etymology for 'temper' in this context as:

1. <Meaning> "to make (steel) hard and elastic" is from c.1381.
2. <Meaning> "angry state of mind" (for bad temper) in 1828.

The word entered English around 1000 AD and originally meant to divide or duly portion. The latter one defining anger actually sounds kind of late to me but that's what the book says.

(Sorry, I was an English major in college.)

[ThomasPowers]

what's the back derivation of it? Latin?

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by ThomasPowers

HW do we know which way "temper" went? It might have been used first in the general world and then be applied to smithing as we have "temperate" climates and well tempered claviers and the theory of humours predates the hardening of steel.

Any body got a full copy of OED to see how it originally was used?

Do you have ANY idea how big the entry for "temper" is in the OED? I have the OED Compact with the super duper magnifying glass and the entry is 3 1/2 pages long! Not pages in the OED Compact but regular pages. . . Still!

The first entry and etiology says it means proportion as in well made steel, well balanced person, etc.

I'd look for the complete etiology but I'm out of practice using the thing, it's hard to read even with the magnifier and it's . . . HEAVY!

Okay, snivvle over. I hoisted the thing onto a stool and put a bright light over it so I could read it without straining my eyes or back. Heck, my surgeon would have a hissy fit if he caught me lifting the thing. Did I mention it's HEAVY?

I don't read old or middle english well and there are listings dating back to 1384 Chaucer referring to the temper of a man and steel. Like I say, I don't read the language of the day well but that's what I gleaned from it.

Now to go rest my aching back.

Frosty