fat pete Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Man I will tell ya it is not like riding a bike or tying your shoe... I have been tied up in a real job, so to speak, for 5 years. It was a lucrative period in my life practicing something I have doen for over 35 yrs. Trouble is it has nothing to do with smithing.. So I essentially took a 5-6 yr hiatus away from smithing..do not ever do this... I enjoyed smithing very much and at 1 time I started to get pretty good... Well the corporate world and I do not get along for many reasons..and this distributor decided that they wanted to "close my department" ...ok fine ... see ya! well I started that department and built it into millions of dollars of production. When I got there they had no idea of where the geothermal was what was a geothermal heat pump or anything to do with them at all... So as they say sie la vie.... So it took me about a week to gather my wits and kinda of absorb the shock of not having to get up at 4 am and find my way 60 miles down the road to commute to an office of which I never in my life had to report before... So now this weekend i was able to go out into my workshop and start to forge again... what a mess!! I had to start making hooks again to re learn the basic hammer control .. that come with hrs of practicing... lost the finesse ... forgot how the metal reacts... hard time keeping a fire going... geez it is like I never touched a piece of coal before. I am sure it wont take too long to regain the spot that I left off but I am sure I will need plenty of scrap metal before I make something I could actually sell again... I couldn't make a leaf I couldn't put a point on a piece of 1/8 round to make a scroll... so My advice to anyone who thinks they can always just go back... good luck , take your time and do not let your ego run the show....stay with it!. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Heh, heh, heh, I know just what you mean, I lost my touch with the TBI and am finally starting to get some of it back. I have initiation issues though, a TIB issue is just not starting, I'll think about it forever and not just get up and light a fire. I'll walk out in the shop with a project of task in mind, go through the door and start doing one of the MANY other things that need doing but I get distracted and don't get that one done either. Anyway, don't try so hard, it's all there you just need to clear the mental pathways. The brain establishes routes to areas to perform tasks those that don't happen often just get routed through other paths, those tasks that are done frequently or are established by a "memorable" event say escape from a burning building get relatively permanent nerve routes so as to minimize delay and maximize available brain capacity. Survive a TBI or Stroke and you find yourself doing a lot of reading. I do anyway. Anyway, all the reflex skills are still there, they're just in storage, their routes in your brain have been reassigned to other tasks. Your brain will put them back in action much faster than it took to learn from scratch. Here's a good trick to help retrain your brain. Go ahead and laugh but you most certainly CAN train your brain, you can even give it orders from one hemisphere to the other. It's weird but true. Oh the trick, Do ONE thing at a time, go out and just play with the fire, experiment, build the fire without doing anything with it other than getting it right. Then just play around heating stock of different weights and shapes without thinking about taking them to the anvil. Once fire management and heating the stock comes back take it to the anvil. Most importantly, do it for fun. Our brains have two high speed learning situations, DANGER!! And enjoyment. Avoid danger as a teaching method, life and death events tend to burn permanent pathways through the Amygdala, think PTSD in extremes. Don't forget to post pics, we LOVE pics. Your shop, equipment ,tools projects, pets, landscape, etc. About anything you'd show a child you didn't want to have to explain adult things to. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaughnT Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Been there, friend. I took a solid 12 years off and didn't do anything really hands-on. I dropped smithing and building things, sold off all my kit, and got a job that required me to work 12 hours a day and commute 2 more hours! Then life smacked me in the head, hard. After a bit of time in the bottle, I decided to try smithing again with the idea that I could bring in a little extra play money by selling stuff. Wow, what an eye-opener. I was never a Samuel Yellin, but I wasn't a greenhorn, either. Looking at my work the first time I relit the forge, you'd think I had just graduated kindergarten! It's taken me about two years to accumulate a decent selection of tools and find my groove again. Funny how life works out. I might be poor as dirt, but I'm content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 I've never been more than a hobbyist, so my twenty-some years away from the forge didn't take away all that much -- I didn't have that much to lose! One thing I have learned, though, is that time does not take away the sheer joy of the craft. The pleasure that comes from transforming a piece of steel into something beautiful or useful, or the satisfaction of puzzling out a problem of tooling and production -- that is undimmed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Inspirational quote: "time does not take away the sheer joy of the craft. The pleasure that comes from transforming a piece of steel into something beautiful or useful, or the satisfaction of puzzling out a problem of tooling and production -- that is undimmed."-JHCC I might just have to put that framed on a wall of my shop....... Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fat pete Posted September 30, 2016 Author Share Posted September 30, 2016 cool guys thanks for standing by the same anvil and holding the same hammer guys... lets hear some more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausfire Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 Great story, Pete. A humbling experience for you. I'm sure you will be 'back on the bike' soon! Cheers and best of luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notownkid Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 I hear you brother, I've been trying to do blacksmithing for 40 yrs, classes, setting up a shop, accumulating tools & stuff, working 60 hrs a week running a business, running a Vol. Fire Dept. and on assorted local boards, moved shop and got divorced, moved 200 miles for work, moved shop, retired but stayed 200 miles from home helping get my wife's farm ready to sell, had a new shop built on home farm, moved shop 200 miles north again but time & $ keeps things from getting done. Now that everything has moved once again(for the last time) it's scattered around between 3 buildings but at least all on one farm but still short of time. Looks good for a move of rest of house and us in 60 days. Yah Right! Super, not so fast says Wifey, we will be going to Florida for 3 months but you can get started when we get home right after everything for the house gets settled. ( will have to admit I wasn't looking forward to working in the shop at -25F either ) Sounds like a Dog race where that blasted rabbit is just out of reach or the carrot on a stick trick. As I have said before my anvil has moved so many times all I do now is back up the trailer and it hops right on. Oh Yah I think I've forgotten how to ride the bike too. After all this I have noted that I haven't lost my Forging abilities I can still make Scrap with the best of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batesblacksmithshop Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 i just cant stop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandfatherForge Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 I was getting pretty good for a "hobbiest" when I threw a few clots and ended up in the hospital for a few weeks. Off work for several months, weak as a puppy. 85% chance of mortality from this event. Couldn't even pick up a hammer, much less swing it. The wife said "Sell the forge and tools. You can't/don't use them." I refused. Worked little by little till I got off O2. Still not 100% but I've fired up the forge a couple of times and it's coming back. I know what to do. I'm just a little slower. IFI has been good for me. I "live " through you guys. Don't post much but read everything! Now that the weather is cooling off I plan to spend more time in the shop. As notownkid say's "I can still make scrap with the best of them!" Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Slam you head on the concrete one time and suddenly a bunch of your old students won't let you carry anvils or other heavy junk---one told me last night that "he hadn't learned everything I could teach him yet". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JME1149 Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 1 minute ago, ThomasPowers said: "he hadn't learned everything I could teach him yet". I can't think of a much nicer compliment from a student. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Better than "come on out and overdo things; I've already talked with your wife about your tools..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 9 hours ago, GrandfatherForge said: I was getting pretty good for a "hobbiest" when I threw a few clots and ended up in the hospital for a few weeks. Off work for several months, weak as a puppy. 85% chance of mortality from this event. Couldn't even pick up a hammer, much less swing it. The wife said "Sell the forge and tools. You can't/don't use them." I refused. Worked little by little till I got off O2. Still not 100% but I've fired up the forge a couple of times and it's coming back. I know what to do. I'm just a little slower. IFI has been good for me. I "live " through you guys. Don't post much but read everything! Now that the weather is cooling off I plan to spend more time in the shop. As notownkid say's "I can still make scrap with the best of them!" Dave Here's pulling for you a 100% recovery! Smithing is a good therapy; mental or physical. Takes your mind off everything but the "scrap" you're hammering on. Stick with it, but not to extremes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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