Do you work with a plan?

[jayco]

First of all, I don't do a lot of complicated stuff.
But ,to get a piece or job finished, I still have to have a plan of some sort.
If I can't visualize or 'figure out' what I'm going to do beforehand.....the results in my case are likely to be poor.

If it's something I've done before, the planning is easy:
Get the proper stock and tools ready....the proper fire for the work, etc.
Step:1 Step :2 Step:3

When it comes to something new, that's when things become interesting.
When I realize I didn't leave quite enough metal to draw out the way I wanted
When that bend didn't happen exactly like I planned

At some point I say to myself, "Gee, that didn't work!"
I guess it's what you call LEARNING.........
Now I have three options:
(1) scrap the piece and the idea
(2) Put it back in the fire and try a different approach
(3) or lay it aside until I come up with a better plan

For me, no. 3 usually yields the best results.

James

[mtforge]

I've got a 3 ring binder full of instructions in sheet protectors with info on the items I make. I record the stock required and step by step procedures to make them. If it helps I'll take digital pictures and include them. This helps me repeat the items and my daughters, who work for me in the shop, make some things too.

Mark

[Bentiron1946]

Plan? I think I've heard the word before but seldom use it or at least that's what my wife says.

[Phil Patrick]

For myself. I find that I will build anything about four hundred times in my head before I put it to paper or sharpie or soapstone to steel. Being able to visualize is paramount to what I do both in my hobbies (blacksmithing etc) or my job, which is in the sheetmetal fabrication business. So yeah, I know I plan everything. I find though that certain projects will find their own path, I just follow.

[Johannes]

I pitty the fool!
who does not plan :-)

i make scetches, calculations, and usually a rough 3d drawing.. but not for simple things, I just gowith guts on simple things

[Nick]

Some things, especially ones I've done many times, I'll not plan at all. Sometimes things I've never done I'll do off the cuff as a sort of initial experiment. Large and complex projects, I'll plan out the design in detail, but I don't always hold myself to it. I almost completely redesigned the frame and elements of one complex project while I was making it, as I thought of a better solution which hadn't occurred to me until I started. I guess the whole thing is very fluid.

In terms of proccess, I have a standard way I lay things out, especially for very structured and repetitive tasks like making nails or arrowheads, or raising where I need maximum effeciency each heat. I've worked out these 'plans' in the course of doing them, and once I hit on something that works very well I rarely deviate from it, unless for special circumstances or another idea.

Cheers,
Nick

[Daryl]

I follow the advice of my first teachers, the same from a book by Otto Schmirler and strangely enough, Francis Whitaker provided the same advice when I met him at CanIron II. Most everything beyond a candle holder is planned out full-scale on a piece of thin sheet tin. It is infinitely easier where accurate measurements can be made for material calculation, details such as finials, twists, whether collars, rivets or mortise and tenon may be employed. Because the plan is on metal, the hot iron may be placed directly upon the plan for immediate comparison.
My two cents worth.

[habu68]

when I worked at a historical park my master smith would teach by having each of us make the piece by doing each step then cutting it off and doing another one from scratch adding the next step and cutting it off again, and so on, until you had a whole set of pieces that showed each step in the process. We would then string this instruction on a piece of bailing wire for future reference. This taught muscle memory and you ended with a complete set of instructions. His set was then hung on the wall of the shop for use with the public as a pass around as a smith would demo. Great learning tool. Andy Morris, my master smith did a 6 month apprenticeship with Francis Whitaker. Francis told Andy to do a candle holder of his own design. Andy made a beautiful 3 legged candle holder with twists, welds, tennon, and cup. When it was completed Francis told Andy to "now make me a set of three just like it." Andy had failed to make a drawing and cut list of the parts and spent half the night at the forge, trying to replicate his first piece.

[philip in china]

No. ;-) :-)

[dablacksmith]

not usually if it is a new product or item ile try a few different ways and see which works best .. if its a standard item ive got the dezign memorized so i dont need um generally.. tho i know a smith who has all his dezigns written down step by step with measurements and everything . he can duplicate any thing hes ever produced ...Ile never be that organized but that is the engeneering mind set....