Willis

Grant; you pretty much hit it. The division of labor can only come about once a community reaches a certain size. Guilds-for lack of a better term-have been a part of life since man first became 'civilized'. Even among Cro-Magnon. Not everyone in the village could knapp flint, or make fishing nets, or weave. If you can keep the village small then everyone is usualy willing to work togeather in order to survive. Its when the village becomes a town the town a city the city a mettropolis things get sticky. One flint knapper in a village is good and he passes his knowledge onto his son and maybe even teaches a few select others how to do basic knapping strictly for survivaal purposes two or more knappers in your village and your techniques become a closly guarded secret. Maybe your faster or the other knapper can get a sharper edge to his points. The person who does the best job gets the most in trade for their points. Works the same with any profession, has been for thousands of years and will continue to be so long after we and whatever secrets/skills we have are gone.

The way we do it in the NW region of FABA(Florida Artist Blacksmith Association) is we have a public invited meeting the seconed saturday of each month. All members of FABA and their familes are included and usualy bring a covered dish. The meetings are held at a different forge each month with the owner -usually- doing some kind of demo. We also have a raffel type drawing during the meeting which is also open to the public called iron in the hat or buck in the bucket. Those who donate a hand forged item get 'X' amount of free tickets per item donated or you can buy tickets for $1.00 each. Each item is placed in or next to a small bowl, you place one ticket on the item of your choice and keep its mate. After the demo each item in turn has a ticket draw from its bowl if you have its mate, the item is yours. All procedes go into a scholarship fund that FABA has for any blacksmith who wants to attend any blacksmith class provided they meet certain requirements. After the drawing, we feast on whatever our wives or we have brought to eat and drink and then home untill the next meeting. A lot of times we dont even have to bring food because one of our guys has a grill the size of a small pickup that he hauls and he cooks while everyone else socializes. We have recruited a lot of members this way. Any new comer or member of the public who is intrested in classes we stir toward a member of our group or one of the many schools around the States I know this is a long post and it's mainly directed toward our brother smiths who live in other countries. Maybe this wont work where you live. Its just one way of doing things and maybe this may help. We also find that most folks who aret really intrested just dont come back. .

You cannot teach someone who is unwilling to learn. My wife is a high school English teachr, just ask her.

Someone once said "knowledge is power" and if you control the knowledge of any given craft that folks need to survive on a daily basis you can control the people who need your work, and set the prices. There is always someone or some guild who wants nothing more than to have power over over the masses. Thank whatever being you worship that there are just as many people out there who will share any and all knowledge they have in order to help others.

Be careful. I know folks in Florida that have been sued for building idiot proof mailboxes when a teen broke his arm while playing mailbox ball and hit one with a bat while in a car doing 50mph at the time. The boys parents sued the box owner and won, this even after the box owner explained in court that his box had been wrecked three times over a one month span. I'm with you on this. Build an idiot proof box.

Really good work. The stuff I love the best. Simple but extremely rugged and utilitarian. I'll have to look at the Turks head knot, I like that.

I do know that if you put a drop of iodine on the splinter, it will stain the surrounding skin and the splinter will show up as a black dot. Never tried the bacon fat or banana peel thing.

I figured it was cheaper to make rather than buy the iron work my wife and I needed for our living history hobby. We do 1750-1814 living history events.

After any snide remark I always say "my grand-father lived to be 90". After getting a confused look from the customer they invariably ask me if my grand-pa was a blacksmith and I reply 'no but he did learn to mind his own busnessw and keep his mouth shut'. You can always say 'I'm sorry Mr Bevis would you please repeat that' the customer will then tell you that his name isnt Bevis and of course you reply "I'm sorry, you must be the other one then'.

If you've ever seen the Tim Lively video, he does most of his forging sitting on a stump. He uses a washtub coal/charcoal forge that he makes. Its small but gets the job done for what he wants, and I've watched flint knappers make great points while confined to a wheel chair. All it takes is a little modification and some will power and you can do almost anything. Here's to speedy recovery and keep us informed on how it goes.

I make a lot of knives from saw blades and use an angle grinder with a cut off blade. Just be careful not to let the metal 'burn' as you cut it. Any area that turns a blue color while your cutting will be a soft spot on the blade. If you have a friend that has a plasma cutter or own one yourself that works even better.

I also have long hair. In the shop I wear a cap or have my wife block it for me in the 1700's style. That keeps it up off my collar and out of the way.

For short time forging, an hour or less, I use my gasser, if I'm gonna be awhile, I like my coal forge. I use a mixture of homemade charcoal and coal. It seems to make a hot fire and makes my coal last longer. Coal is hard to get in FLorida. I also have two coal forges, a G.I issue WWII Army Field forge for large stuff and a small tub forge-Tim Lively style- for just putzing around.

My problem is with the so called 'juried' groups. I make utilitarian things. Specificaly early colonial housewares. I am not an artist by any means nor do I claim to be, I dont even claim to be a blacksmith. Just a guy who has a hobby making things out of iron. But just who are these juried folks and where do they come from? How do you get 'juried' and what does it mean to be 'juried'. Why does a panel of 'juried' artist have to judge my work before I can display it at certain events or even donate it to be auctined at a charity benefit? My wife and I both have been denied entry to certain Living History events, because we were not 'juried', even though our 1814 Living History group has appeared in PBS documentaries concerning the War of 1812. (I took up iron work to support that hobby by the way) Ok, I'm done.

You wake up and think your dead because nothing hurts. You got both a small coke-in a bottle-and an ice cream sandwhich for 15 cents, and you could return the bottle for 3 cents. You live near the coast and Santa Clause shows up on either a shrimp boat or a tug boat. The first 4 years of your life you lived in an old CCC cottage and know what CCC stands for. You can remember when all the now upscale resturants on the bay were fish houses where you went to buy fresh fish, shrimp, oysters or crab and they furnished you ice out of their ice rooms for your coolers. When your parents piled you, your brother and all the cousins in in back of a pickup and drove you to the swimming hole or the river for your bath during the summer. When diving for turtles on the river the person left in the boat had to keep an eye out for inquisitive alligators and kept a can of rocks on hand to throw into the water near you as a warning when one got close. When you could go out to the lighthouse and watch the horseshoe crabs swarm ashore to mate. Yes I spent a lot of my early years in Florida near the coast

I suggest Perma Blue. Paste gun blue by Birchwood Casey. I use this a lot on my blacksmith projects. You just apply it with a soft cloth, the more applications the deeper the color, then rinse with cold water when you reach the patina you want. Its also good for reblueing your guns. :)

Good for you. Good luck and make us look good.

Volums have been written on those five questions. I suggest you get a copy of The $50.00 dollar knife shop by Wayne Goddard. There's a Basic need list at the end of chapter one. As far as a place to set up. You might try one of those storage areas where you rent a space, keep you stuff there and ask the owner if you can set up occasionaly in an out of the way corner of the lot.

There is nothing like using your own forge to make your own stuff. I enjoy using a small forge I made from watching a Tim Lively video using a hair dryer for an air supply. The sence of pride is a good feeling. Good for you.

You might try some of the muzzloading sites. Look thru their book selection. I recommend Track of the Wolf. I've been doing business with them for years and have no complaints.

The hardest metal for me so far, has been stainless steel. I was making a steak turner for a friend and a blacksmith friend told me take it home and work it then bring it back and use my power hammer.

I like the plan. Especialy the rollers. I'm starting to feel my age and I put everything I can in my shop on rollers.

Take into account that right now you have only one boss, as soon as you start out on your own, evey customer you take on is your boss until you get to the point where you can pick and choose your customers. How many years will that take? If you make even one person angry for whatever reason imagined or not, the word will spread, just like it will spread should you prove to be 'one of the best' The hardest thing to gain and the easiest to lose is your credibility. All of the above being said, go for it. You have only one life to live and must live it according to your principles and standards.

Happy birthday Sam. Your only 40? I'll be 60 in three weeks and I feel like I'm just now reaching middle age.:)

Neat site. Think I might try my hand at the sliding bolts. Thanks