Poll - Where do you learn about blacksmithing

[Pault17]

Hutch,
I know how you feel. I am still very much a noobie after a year and a half. I remember staring at the parts for my first gas forge and was almost afraid to put it together. plain failure, fire, explosion, etc. Well after a few weeks and my wife telling me to get off the pot, I did it and have been learning ever since. banging for me is either practice or a nice product (practice that worked), and I learn from that too.

[Fionnbharr (finn:-)]

I read a lot and that helps, and I have gone to local hammer-ins and picked up a few things, and the internet tosses out a nugget fairly regularly, but it has been the trips to SOFA, and the IBA conference where I get to see high quality demonstrators that has taught me the most. I have only taken one "class" which was Tong making with Steve Parker, at the Sun Foundation in western Illinios. Which was a fabulous learning experienceand really helped with my tongs:-) I only regret that I hadn't made it a priority to attend more conferences and classes and hit up every talented smith I met to learn more. It reallys is a shame that it took me so long to get serious about this... ;-)

[Frosty]

I learned the bulk of my skills by myself in spite of the best intentions of my parents. They're depression era kids and saw no point in putting so much work into something that wasn't going to put money in the kitty.

So, even though Dad was reasonably accomplished as a smith he wouldn't show me anything except occasionally heat treating something. He insisted I work in his metal spinning shop in my off time.

Metal spinning taught me a feel for metal, all kinds of metal. Believe me you learn when something has been pushed as far as it'll go without breaking really quickly if the metal is a blank in a lathe spinning at a couple k RPM!

So, I built fires, poked various pieces of metal into them and beat the crap out of them. I say metal and them because coming from my background I didn't think "Iron or Steel" when I thought about heating and beating.

If you grow up in Southern California you learn quickly you can't just build a fire without having all kinds of official unpleasantness descend on you. Sure, all I was doing at first was playing with fire and hitting things with hammers but nobody'd let you get away with THAT! If on the other hand you said you were "blacksmithing" they'd smile indulgently and tell you all about their blacksmith, father or grandfather. So, that's what I did, I pretended to be blacksmithing while I played with fire and hammers.

My first forge, "real forge" that is, came about because Mother got tired of me heating things on the kitchen range and using a brick or rock on her counter for an anvil. I remember what she said pretty clearly even though we moved out of that house shortly after I turned 8. She said, "GEORGE! Build the boy a forge and anvil. If you want to eat again you will get him out of MY kitchen!" Or something to that effect.

Dad gave me a little chunk of steel for an anvil, maybe 25-30lbs. tops and made me a "forge" by giving me a reject steel pan spun in his shop. It had no legs, no air grate, tuyere, etc. Just a lousy steel pan. I propped it up and used it anyway but couldn't get much going as I'm sure you can imagine.

We moved from that house shortly after I was 8 and the new house was on a commercial acre so there was room for me to get out of sight and do my own thing. My first REAL forge was a brake drum set into a washing machine door that was packed to the drum's rim with adobe clay. It was powered by a hair dryer of the old plastic hood and hose variety. It was laid on a stack of cinder blocks and burned charcoal. . . Once the wood burned to coals that is. I was maybe 10.

My anvil was 2" x 4" x 24" +/- a piece of mild steel bar stock I lifted from Father's shop. Mounting it on cinder blocks wasn't too successful but wood worked once I figured out what was wrong.

This basic set up lasted me for a long time, with mods through high school in fact. After I got out of school I found myself butting heads with the real world and had to get a paycheck job. Smithing turned into a back burner thing. A couple years later I moved to Alaska and smithing really took a back seat to making a living.

It took a few years in AK to get established in any sort of stable way. Then I got a job with the State and shortly there after found myself working for the geology section and living a good deal of the time in the bush.

I was never very good at being an off duty driller, a half rack of beer was just not much fun. After a couple years of trying I started packing a pair of tongs and decent hammers along to play in the campfire. It wasn't long before I made a RR track anvil and that was my kit for years. A home made track anvil, a couple pair of tongs and a couple hammers. I used tools off the rig for the rest, chisels, hacksaw, pliers, visegrips, etc, etc.

I was talking about smithing at the materials lab one day and one of the guys said his neighbor was selling his anvil. WooHoo! A REAL anvil at last! That's where I got my 125lb. Sodorfors Sorcoress #5 and a pallet full of tongs.

Well, I was still just pretending to smith but getting better. One day I was wandering through a local book store. . . (I tended to read a lot instead of drink when I was off duty, I was such a PITIFUL driller. ) Anyway, as I was walking by the clearance table I saw an interesting title. It literally reached out and grabbed me! "The Art Of Blacksmithing" by Alex Bealer.

Seemed the book store ended up with a dozen copies by mistake. I grabbed one and after thinking about it went back a couple days later to buy another copy. They were all gone; boy what a mistake ordering such non-selling titles was!

Reading "The Art" cover to cover a couple times was a real eye opener for me, it told me WHY some of the things I'd been trying didn't work, told me how to do them "right" and in general made me into something similar to a blacksmith.

I now have a pretty complete library of smithing books and have read them all cover to cover sponging everything I can.

The web has been a font of information and interaction with smiths and other metal workers. It's undoubtably the source of the bulk of my knowledge. It's a lot like a book except it has lots of opinions and you can ask questions. You still have to experiment on your own and unlike a book you can't have it laying open on the bench to take quick looks while you work.

My second best source of learning is watching other smiths, swapping techniques and lies. It's a quality over quantity thing and really sharpens the old learning curve. This doesn't happen nearly often enough around here, unfortunately.

Number one on my list of education is teaching. NOTHING has taught me more about the art than teaching it to someone else. There's NOTHING like having to explain why I just did it THAT way to make me THINK.

Okay, that was REALLY long winded. . . But you asked.

Frosty

[ThomasPowers]

Frosty; I was a mud-logger in Oklahoma when I started smithing. Didn't do any on site; but did pick up a lot of tools and scrap in the small rural towns that were near the rigs. Did a lot of reading too as the 12 on 12 off until the hole was done didn't leave much time to drive the usual 3 hours back to my apartment; so I'd camp out in my van, fish and read on my time off.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by ThomasPowers

Frosty; I was a mud-logger in Oklahoma when I started smithing. Didn't do any on site; but did pick up a lot of tools and scrap in the small rural towns that were near the rigs. Did a lot of reading too as the 12 on 12 off until the hole was done didn't leave much time to drive the usual 3 hours back to my apartment; so I'd camp out in my van, fish and read on my time off.

Thomas:

Oil patch geologist?

I was an exploration driller, taking pre-construction soils samples, placing instruments and doing infield tests for bridges, foundations, etc. We seldom went more than 200' down as all we were interested in was the soils mechanics as it related to supporting a structure.

Most of our jobs were in the Alaskan bush and Alaska doesn't have much of an industrial history. I have lucked out on a couple occasions but not often. Twice in fact in 19 years drilling. We were almost never close enough to drive home after work, heck, frequently we were flown to the site or close anyway.

The guys on the centerline (drilled roadbeds rather than bridges) had trailers, campers and the like but we didn't. Most of the time there wasn't a road to our locations yet. We spent a lot of time in tents, occasionally a cabin, lodge, roadhouse or hotel.

I quit hunting, fishing or camping for fun after about 3 years on the drill crew. I'm really, REALLY good at camping and other outdoor craft it just isn't much fun anymore. Seriously, I can bake a scratch made pizza at a campfire. You should've seen the look on my bride's face when I did just that on a rainy evening while we were building the house.

Lots of memories. I won't be making THAT mistake again.

Frosty

[Blackbeard]

I have been working construction for about 14 years. I like working with metal and i think thats what led me to blacksmithing. I still do not know a lot about the art. What i do know ive learned from this site and the net. I have now built my own forge and am planning to make a living out of doing blacksmithing and metal work. I also pick up a lot of info from books. In my country there are not a lot of blacksmiths- so i learn by trial and error.
This site has a wealth of information and a lot of very skilled blacksmiths who dont mind sharing their knowledge. To someone learning the trade this is where youll find what you are looking for.
Bb

[781]

Conferences and Hammer-in
I film each event I have been at since 1988
To see were I have been and who I watched go to UMBA Online then click the library.
Have crossed paths with frosty a couple of times.
He was in my neck of the woods last month but I had another comitment.
781

[Frosty]

Hey Roger!

Good to see you posting, welcome aboard. I fully expect to see you dominating the "It followed me home" thread very shortly.

Next year's Dig is at Lynda and Elmer's in NC and 2010 is here. I don't know about 09' but will try to make it. A number of people who'd planned on attending had stuff come up. Not surprising, most folk are pretty busy.

One last thing. Anyone wanting to see how IT is done, Roger has video taped more smiths in action than anyone else and you absolutely can NOT beat the price.

Frosty

[Bottomgottem]

Originally Posted by 781

Conferences and Hammer-in
I film each event I have been at since 1988
To see were I have been and who I watched go to UMBA Online then click the library.
Have crossed paths with frosty a couple of times.
He was in my neck of the woods last month but I had another comitment.
781

That looks like one heck of a resource. Maintaining that library must be a huge job.

[Glenn]

I feel I learn more about blacksmithing by going to - - -
There were 79 votes as listed below.

21 votes or 26.6% The Internet

20 votes or 25.3% Local group conferences - hammer ins

19 votes or 24.1% Visit other blacksmith's shops

8 votes or 10.1% Blacksmithing Schools - classes

6 votes or 7.6% Books and magazines

4 votes or 5.1% other sources

1 votes or 1.3% Major blacksmithing conferences (ABANA CanIRON etc)