What else do you do?

[Soupyjones]

I have been spending a great deal of time reading this site recently which has semi naturally raised some questions from my better half. My personal favorite so far has been "what kind of people are blacksmiths?". I must admit that I had no answer for her. As a result I am curious what else the members of the forum get up to outside of the shop.

I am an electrician by trade which soaks up most of my non sleeping time. When I get a chance I like to play bad golf and make what I consider good barbecue. I ride my horse when I can. For the most part I just try to find fun ways to drink beer outside.

What kinds of things get you out of your respective shops?

[jimmy seale]

I was a driller in the oil/gas industry until i was disabled. now I do manly stuff like dishes,laundry,etc. But i do my best to annoy the neighbors by creating a racket in the shop!!

[Bowland]

Smiting is a thing that runs as part of my fabrication company

 It don't make much cash but gives me greater flexibility in what I do 

[Culver Creek Hunt Club]

I am a manager for a Construction company, Surveyor by trade. Hunting, fishing and bad golf are a couple of my other hobbies. I enjoy hobby Carpentry work and take on some side work doing home renovations, which could get much bigger for me, but I just don't want to take the leap. 

[Charlotte]

Retired Chem Lab Monkey,  occasional chess player, occasional potter, big time non fiction book reader, chief cook and bottle washer, fisher when funky back says its time to take a day away from the forge or yard.

[Kevin Olson]

Day job is spent painting cars in a body shop. Other intetests are rock and roll drum player,  salsa maker and mechanic for the less fortunate that don't have access to a warm shop and tools.

[JHCC]

I am a professional major-gifts fundraiser for a private liberal arts college. I hold a degree in Ancient Greek Language and Literature, I mess about in the kitchen and the garden, and I have a lovely wife, two darling (if infuriating) children, and and two utterly spoiled pitbulls.

[natenaaron]

Reading intervention teacher at the middle school levels, boat storage business operator (with some minor boat repair in there).

Woodworking, metal working, photography, reading, I was pretty heavily into hydroponic gardening, but put it aside for quite a while.  Food prices, rising like they are, has rekindled that hobby, except now I am looking at aquaponics because I am supposed to eat more fish.

Sounds like the dating game

I like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain.

I am married person #7

[ThomasPowers]

Thomas Powers; married going on 32 years now; blacksmithing around 35 years now as my primary hobby; spent one of those years apprenticed to a sword maker back in the early '80's.

BS Degrees: Geology/Geophysics UofAR, CIS Ohio State University.  Currently employed by Dell as a validation engineer based out of El Paso and associated with the Factory in Juarez MX. Previously I was an integration engineer on the ALMA project for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at the Socorro NM campus. Previous to that I worked for Bell Labs (AT&T/LUCENT) in Columbus OH.  That takes me back to 1989...

Got 7 grandkids; am a voracious reader, and have an long standing interest in the history of ferrous metals processes going back several thousand years and not just the "100" people traditionally use for our traditions...

I'll be the one in the disreputable red hat (with antlers) at Quad-State this year and if weather allows I will be wearing my aloha shirt and lederhosen to go with it.

[LawnJockey]

I am a bum, plain and simple.  I have way too much education for my own good.  I have way to many vices to list. That goes for spawn too.

[JHCC]

Just now, LawnJockey said:

I have way to many vices to list.

I have too many vices, but not enough vises.

[TwistedCustoms]

My background is in manufacturing. I worked for several valve companies that supported the offshore drilling industry before deciding I would rather be happy than successful. These days I forge, fish, do a little trapping, tie fishing nets, read (nonfiction) ,do some primitive woodwork, and spend time with my animals. My only vices are smoking one of my old Dunhill pipes and drinking the occasional cream soda. I volunteer at a living history museum and hang out with other local smiths.

[Stash]

In the landscape/nursery biz for 36 years, the last 22 self employed (1 man shop) Married for 33 yrs, 2 kids, 2 grandkids. I've gardened (edible and ornamental) and woodworked since I can remember. Metalworking/blacksmithing has been my mid-life crisis, and I'm having fun at it. I like beer. Good beer.

Steve Eshelman

[Frosty]

I don't do as much as I did before the accident or should. I grew up in a metal spinning and machine shop and was spinning what I was strong enough to by time I was 10. Then about the time I was 15 Dad's shop became successful enough for the GVT. to take notice and NO WAY is a 15 yr old going to work in a dangerous shop like that! Anyway, I took drafting virtually every semester it was offered, Dad insisted. I took every metal shop class I could, I insisted. A lot of photography classes as well, I've made more side money taking photos than blacksmithing. Held 3 welding certs but never used them, all the trade school instructors I had were expressing symptoms of heavy metals, UV cancers, cataracts, etc. I reconsidered the fabulous career I had planned as a welder. Moved to Alaska in  '72 my Brother got me a job and let me bunk with his family till I was established. Became an equipment operator, then full boat CDL truck driver, etc. etc.

Shortly after I moved out the folks sold the last of our horses, we raised a few for a while. After I left, my sister got married and moved to Texas, Dad didn't have anybody to ride with, the time or kids to do the chores. Times and people change, I loved the horses but they're too much work unless you can devote the time, money and effort. When I married Deb I got involved with raising African Pygmy goats. I always loved goats, first time I met the smart, mischievous characters I was hooked. Deb was worried I wouldn't like them at first but I've liked them since kidhood. We have home grown lamb in the freezer too, good grief sheep are stupid!

Dad actively discouraged me from blacksmithing, insisted I learn a "Paying Trade" instead, I must've been in my mid 40's before I convinced him it's a hobby, not a profession.

I read, almost anything all the time. I learned because Mother handed me a Sci Fi book, "The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree" by name when she was told I was below average intelligence at a PTA meeting. I wasn't keeping up with the other kids my age. What did I care if Dick and Jane ran ran ran and played with the ball ball ball?

I'm a Sci Fi guy, read it all the time and write it though nothing I've thought worth publishing and only a couple I've let someone else read. Got one in the works that's maybe promising if I get the bug again. I also LOVE reading science, Paleontology, Paleoarcheology, Anthropology, especially this gets me sidelined into minerology, geology etc. Dad was a Rockhound so I got packed around with him on many a rock hunt and I can tell a coprolite from a fresh pile, various and sundry petrified . . . things, wood, bone, shells, exoskeletons, etc. etc. know enough about mineralogy to NOT lick the wrong rock and where to look something up I don't recognize. I'm intimately familiar with Leaveright and do.

My memory isn't so good since the accident, it's all still in there and the new gets stored just like before but my filing system got scrambled. I have an eidetic memory for the written word I believe it actually qualifies as "photographic". I can't tell you what what is said in the 3rd. paragraph of chapter 3 in X book. However if I need the info and can't recall it per se I can look at the ceiling, close my eyes, etc. and visualize the book, leaf through the pages scanning headers and read what I need when I find it. Works for pictures, drawings and diagrams too. Makes reading interesting, I don't know how many times I've found an interesting looking book, scanned a random page and discovered I read it sometime in the past. It isn't so useful online though, if I can't remember who or where it came from it's really hard to leaf through the pages and find it again.

I have to make a dump run or I'd go on longer.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

I believe there was a similar thread awhile back, but I'll add mine here too.

Perpetual bachelor whose main career has been in machining, and maintenance (7 years as all around plant maintenance at the Jelly Belly Candy Co). After I was recently laid off from my job as a tool maker due to a huge downturn in orders I am rethinking what I want to do when I grow up. I'll be 51 this year, and working for others has been tough since I closed my machine and fab shop in 93.  The past month has opened my eyes to all of the things I have been missing out on due to getting up at 4am and getting home around 8pm for the last 7 years. I have had several ideas for a new business, and lately they all seem to have a food element to them. I love to cook, and almost all of my home appliances are marked Hobart, so that may be the way to go. I read cookbooks like others read novels. 

Frosty , sounds like our dads were similar. Mine was also a rock hound and I went to many gem and mineral shows. Leaverights and  Love stones  and you don't lick any rocks here due to surface arsenic. Now that my schedule is getting back to a more normal routine I should get back into the Southern Nevada Gem and Mineral Society. Lapidary work can compliment metal in many ways. 

Worked at a wire display company, ran my own shop, worked at a small foundry that made dental alloys, automotive lift service tech, gunsmith, Jelly Belly, worked for a machine gun dealer, then back to making chips as a machinist. Eagle Scout, 23 years with Troop 252 with 11 of those as Scoutmaster.

Other interests? Wood carving, leather working, ceramics, photography, cooking, lapidary, anything with an engine in it, all things firearms related, hiking/backpacking, used to do a lot of fishing and some hunting, basketry, tanning hides, inventing, art- may get back into the Las Vegas Artists Guild, and in general being around creative people.

On the to do list; paper making, soap making, enameling, glass work, casting - a friend of mine is a well known sculptor and has offered to show me the ropes or I should say copes and drags, 

I can easily get distracted by new activities. My Dad and I got into smithing back when I was around 14. We did that for a few years then my shop got in the way of hobbies. Then the career limited my time. It was quite awhile until I picked a hammer up again. After my Dad passed away I couldn't bring myself to sell the tools off, even though they were not being used. I drug them down here in 2005 when I moved to NV, and they sat piled up for a few years until one day for some reason I just got things arranged and lit a fire up. The last 7 years have been rough time wise, so it has all been dormant again except for a few small projects. IFI has kept me engaged even if I am not hammering myself. What I have been doing mostly is gathering ideas, and planning the next projects. Getting laid off has actually been a blessing in many ways, the main one is I'm getting my life back

 

[Donniev]

I was convicted of robbery and attempted robbery about a year out of high school (cracks a xxxxxxx drug) and did 6 months in and then 6 years on probation, but my girlfriend and wife now stuck with me, why I don't know. She's a registered nurse and works at a hospital. Been around 8 or 9 years clean now, with no desire to go back. I guess I'm in the small group of statistics since I didn't go back to prison.

Poured concrete for about 6 years while I poured another 40+ hours a week playing poker, hoping to be able to go pro. Some days I would go to bed at 5 am cuz that's when the final table ended and wake up at 6 to go to work. Typically put in 18 hour sessions on sunday, playing 60 or so tournaments, everything from a $5 buyin to $50. Finally did go pro, went well with no prolonged downswings for 6 months until the Fed gov stepped in and seized the domain names of the site's everyone played on.  (Since the site's are offshore they didn't report anyone's winnings and uncle sam doesn't like thinking about the few dumb enough not to report them to the IRS and thought they were costing him billions)

Any way, after the feds stepped in in 2011 I finally decided I had to get a "real" job, one that would pay anyway, so I went to school for welding and got a job as a pipe welder for a company out of Omaha. I've got 3 certs now, and it's OK- I enjoy it, I just need to find a company that's more local now

I've been intrigued by the thought of blacksmithing for years now, but I finally got into it just recently and love it- just don't have the kinda time I wish I did to be outside in front of the forge.

I'm 30, been married 8 years and have a 2 1/2 year old boy, and a 6 month old daughter. Daughter was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which in a nutshell means the left side of her heart is worthless. She's had 2 open heart surgeries and has at least 2 more to go. 

 

 

[Frosty]

Donniev: That's a heck of a story, glad it's still going. I'm glad to welcome you to the lucky guy club. Beautiful family I'll say a word with higher for you and yours.

Good on ya Brother keep swinging.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

It's not so much where you start as where you end up and it looks like you are heading *up* at a steady pace...

[SReynolds]

Involved with; Guitar. Banjo. Antique tractors. Diesel pickups. Guns. Ammo. Bicycling.  Steam locomotives. Ohio canals history.  Civil war. Thoroughbred Horse racing. WWII Aircraft

College degree in heavy equipment repair. Automotive repair.  Welding.

Instructor of blacksmithing for Ohio Historical society/connection and operating a school bus garage.....for the local school district. 

 

[notownkid]

All my adult life was spent in the Auto Trade ( Horseless Carriage) as a New car dealer and Parts at retirement.  Did Carriage Restorations along with Harnesses and training driving horses, holding Driving events for Horses.  Also a Vol. Firefighter for 30 yrs, Competitive Shooter in Smallbore, High Power, & Trap for 40yrs. Love Hunting, Shooting, Fishing, trains, barns, farming, tools, WWII and Fixing Things.  Love being a Royal Pain in the Butt to all Politicians and those who think themselves bosses.

Now I'm doing Historic Research on Blacksmithing, Blacksmith  Shops, Barns(writing a book on one Livery Stable in our town long since gone)  and along with my brother researching WWII Combat Glider Operations and their Pilots, our father was one in the Europe theater.  An interesting aspect of WWII Combat mostly  unknown and ignored by the more clamorous Paratroopers researchers, The Gliders followed the Paratroopers in often at night carrying all their jeeps and heavy guns, ammo, and med supplies and additional troops.  . 

Blacksmithing and getting my Retirement and first permanent Shop finished and getting moved full time home to Vermont is priority 1 now.  My anvil has been in so many "shops" in the last 25 yrs that when I back the truck up it jumps on for me (I wish) it's has frequent flyer miles on it now.  I got my start at 10 yrs. old cranking the blower for a fellow who restored carriages and make replacement pieces and have been cranking on and off every since but my Champion forge now is an electric blower. 

[Crazy Ivan]

Started out in that cliche abusive inner city household, ran away after a shattered arm at 14. Homeless for many years after that but I kept going to school (trade school saved my life). Learned metallurgy, blacksmithing, welding, and fabrication between 14-18. Fell into the stereotypical opiate trap that is inner city Boston. Struggled with that for too many years. Started hopping freight trains to travel/get out of my toxic environment and most of the time, it worked. In and out of jail for a while since my lifestyle wasn't quite "legal". Worked as much as I could on the road (do you know how hard it is to get a job while youre homeless!?) and I'm still trying to get myself stable. Started riding freight trains around again a couple years ago but this time to work with other smiths and get more inspiration. Ended up settling in Lancaster PA in January and working for myself here with some subcontractor welding work here and there. Constantly struggling but constantly pushing forward even harder. 

Hobbies include archery, dogs, punk and metal sub genres of music, and constantly learning more and more about steel applications, processes, and compositions. 

P.S. can I still list blacksmithing as a hobby even though I do it full time? 

[Kaylee]

I started out my foray in forging in my freshman year in high school. 2 years of metal shop brought me to love working metal, and gave me enough taste in a variety of things metalworking, from lathe and mill work to oxy/acetylene welding, brazing, stick and mig welding, plasma cutter (they're so cool to play with as a teenager), etc. I recently tracked down my shop teacher from back then and called him to tell him of the appreciation that he instilled in me for working metal. My favorite smell is burning steel, when you hit steel with the grinder and it's that really earthy smell, nothing like it... but paint or anything else on it makes it stink like crazy!

Right out of high school, I joined the Navy, as a nuclear machinist mate. After 6 years, I went on to be trained as a radiological control technician, which is what I do still, but as a civilian. Total just over 8 years in, and I was out. I took 3 years off work to just enjoy life and not fret about work hours, at which point I got my '68 mustang. Now I work at a Navy shipyard, and I'm about ready to start doing something else, though I don't mind staying in the yard. Within the past year, I've started watching a lot of the blacksmithing YouTube videos, which has reignited my desire to swing a hammer again.

My hobbies include working on my mustang, blacksmithing of course, gymnastics (leading into contortion), cooking, guns, puns, dad jokes, movies, anime, cosplay, and photography. I've dabbled a bit into woodworking, general home improvement, soap making, as well as other home-made cosmetics and cleansers (exfoliating scrubs for example). I like tinkering with things that are broken, and fixing them, even if it's easier to just replace it. I'll listen to most music, but my preference is more in Electronic Dance Music.

[Dustin Quade]

My day job is an Architectural Technologist for a firm based in Toronto. Forging has been a huge interest of mine since I was old enough to have interests but for some reason I always took it as something I couldn’t do living in the suburbs. It wasn’t until I started watching youtube videos that I realised that I can pretty much do it anywhere and so I dove right in.

Hobbies are mostly nerdy stuff, I watch anime and cartoons, I also enjoy sci fi and fantasy shows. I played a lot of video games before I got into blacksmithing now most of that time goes into my work outside. I also play dungeons and dragons once a week at a local game store.

[Darious]

Lets see where to start... By Day I'm a full time Security Professional with a long background list of skills. I'm slowly training to become certified in Close Protection/ Executive Protection. I'm just getting into Blacksmithing finally but have been lurking and studying on it since about 2008. Now i'm finally in a position where I have the money/Time/Space to give it a try for myself. I've always been obsessed with fantasy so mostly I want to get into Armorsmithing and bladesmithing. But got to start somewhere.

For now I play Dungeons & Dragons every second weekend. Study Weapons, Military tactics, History, and Survival. I break up the off time with some minor gaming (Destiny and Halo Mostly) and lots of reading. 

2 hours of swimming every week, Rock Climbing and rappelling on the list to come next, and when I'm licensed hunting and shooting take up any remaining time in my life not dedicated to my Fiancee or sleeping.

Cheers.

 

[ThomasPowers]

Kaylee; have you seen the "self repair manifesto"?   It goes in my shop along with my metal Bender poster.

https://www.ifixit.com/Manifesto