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I Forge Iron

How many "younger members" do we have?


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Me, HS class of 73. BUT, proud that in my 33 year Metal shop teaching career so far, I have taught the basics of smithing to over 2000 students. I am not sure how many did any after High School, but I know of a few that continue to pound metal. And one of my former students is now employed at my school, teaching AutoCad. He will slide into my spot in a few years when I retire. The hammer gets passed on.

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I started to learn to Blacksmith about 6 yrs ago, after a yr I brought my 2 girls along to meetings. I stopped after 3 yrs and just got back into it about 1 yr ago. My oldest has moved away but my youngest is the artsy type and is now coming over weekly to relearn and start making things she has thought of. She is 17 now so was 11 - 12 when she started. I will post her stuff when she makes them. I just hope she gets on here to learn even more then I could possibly teach her.

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This past Christmas, my wife's nephew and I were trying to avoid shopping with the women-folk so we slipped away to a local museum of technology. In one of the salons that dealt with metal and magnetism I met a girl that worked there as a guide. When I told her that I forge iron she was fascinated. She said she was an art major in college and hoped to someday work as a metal sculptor. I'd put her age at about 18 or 19.

This was in the city of Cuernavaca in the Mexican state of Morelos, about 100 km south of Mexico City. Maybe she'll come on our site someday although I never bothered to ask if she speaks any English.

The point is, they're out there and they're not all just young guys that want to learn how to make knives and swords. I hope more log onto IFI. The fresh perspectives, I'm sure, would be welcome.

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I turned 58 a couple weeks ago and darned happy for the chance.

While I started messing around with fire and hot steel when I was pretty young I didn't really start smithing for some time.

One of my greatest pleasures has been having youngsters in the shop or at demos. In general they ask the BEST questions. Seems a lot of adults are afraid to look like they don't know something as old fashioned as blacksmithing.

The young folk also have some of the absolutely BEST ideas too. Heck, sometimes they'll just say something that'll give me an idea. For instance Wampus' Was saying his neighbor and mentor can forge to boggle the mind and gave me a great idea for a shop name. How about "Boggle Forge"? cool eh? B)

Frosty the Lucky.

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I'm sixteen, going on seventeen in April. I started smithing about a year and a half ago. I already have a 25x25 wood shop all to myself but soon I am going to wall off a corner to use for blacksmithing. right now I do all of that outside.

I home school so, basically, as early as I feel like getting up then I just finish earlier and I get to spend the rest of the day in the shop, However, there is a limit on how late I can sleep.

I sell a few things here and there so I kind of have a small, make that very small, business.

IFI has been a wonderful resource for information.

Andrew

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well, i am aparently too young to be a smith ,according to the spectators at the local events i demo at. and i look older than 18!(or so ive been told)
just fyi the events are the meyersdale maplefest, the farmers and thresherman's jubilee, and the chickentown tractor show, all in western PA. i go there with a blacksmith named Terry, and most people i see there and tell my name remember me the next year. Ed Steinkirckner mustn't be hard to remember.

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ummm.. i misspelled my name there. :P it is steinkirchner, but in my defense alot can go wrong in 13 letters!


Good one Ed! As soon as I stopped laughing I hit reply. If you look at bottom of a message YOU post you'll see an "Edit" button. Click it and you can make corrections. I think there's a time limit on how long you can wait to edit a post though but what the hey.

I'm laughing because of the number of embarrassing mistakes I let ride because I didn't notice the edit button. Oh sure, I didn't mis-spell my name but Frosty is pretty simple. Thank goodness!

Next time someone tells you you're too young to be a smith ask them if they know what the average age of a cowboy was. . . 15 yrs and the average wages were $15 per month on a cattle drive.

Of course, if they're looking to have you make something for them you might NOT want to tell them about the average wage. B)

Frosty the Lucky
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My name is Dave Custer, I'm 17 years old and have been beating on steel for about four years. I plan to make a career out of smithing/fab, and maybe some jewlry later on. I do not have a roof so I'm at the mercy of the weather. I do small stuff mostly but have lately begun to tackle larger items. I do the craft fair curcuit each year demoing and selling products. I am seeking outlets through art galleries for my projects, and I am also seeking a formal education in metal.

Yet another kidsmith!

Dave!

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