Do you smith with a prosthetic?

[DennisG]

I was talking with Glenn the other day and this topic came up. It seems like a good question since we have young and old alike Blacksmithing. I have read about smithing in a wheel chair before but what about if you have lost a limb or part of a limb? If you do smith with a prosthetic would you be willing to share the ins and outs of your smithing techniques? I wonder how smiths in history over came the loss of an arm, leg, or hand. Even the loss of a few fingers would seem as to add a bit of ingenuity to the smithing process.

I hope this is not offensive to people or thought of as being in bad taste, but it amazes me how people overcome a "disability" to be able to do what the love to do and smithing is a love for us.

[Chris Boling]

when i was 11 i got shot in my right arm with a 12 ga shotgun.the blast obliterated my elbow to the extent that i cannot completely extend my right arm or twist my right wrist.i am 21 now and have been smithing for a year now,i always liked workin with steel and i took vocational traning to become a welder,my hammer hand is still my right arm,my trick is to let the hammer start fallin then add some force mid swing like a wip effect. works pretty good but takes a little more practise on timeing and hammer control but saves my right arm from hurtin in the long run

[Frank Turley]

I have had boo coo students go through Turley Forge school. One man had lost one leg just prior to coming to my school years ago. He became a successful smith working for years at Sturbridge Village, MA.

I have had a handful of students who were illiterate. A couple of them tried to hide it. Being illiterate is not deserving of a prothetic, but interestingly, some states consider it for vocational rehab. Money can sometimes be furnished to illiterates for schooling.

I have a day laborer in the shop at present who, at one time, lost half of his thumb to a solid sledge hammer blow. It doesn't seem to bother him in the workplace.

My old horseshoeing friend, Skip, got a staphylococcus infection in the middle finger of his right hammer hand. It was serious and weakened him so much that I had to visit him in the hospital. When he recovered enough to start working, his finger remained semi stiff and had a crook on the end. He simply learnd to work with a three finger grip and with that middle finger (of all things) protruding.

I had a student who had such a serious cancer that his genitalia and part of his lower bowel were removed. He carried a plastic belt bag under his shirt to retain his bm's. This man was amazing. He knew that he had a limited time to live out his life. Yet blacksmithing was a long-time dream of his, and by golly, he was going to realize this dream. For what he had gone through, he was amazingly upbeat and added some joy to the class.

http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

[Mainely,Bob]

One thing that seems to help me with my nerve damage and loss of feeling/grip in my hammer hand(both actually as I have extensive scarring in my left wrist after the Army doctors pieced in back together)is to drill things like hammer handles and put a loop of cord or twine thru them as a lanyard.Climbers do the same thing for things like ice axes and tools they dare not drop or they will be gone.
Now I just let these tools hang down while I adjust things or flex the hand to get it working again and the a quick flip brings it back up to work.The loop also makes it so I don`t have to grip the handle so tightly in order to maintain control or keep the hammer from flying out of my grip if my concentration slips to the work and I forget to grip as much as I should.
For the shooters out there it`s like the difference between just arm support and the support you get from wrapping your arm thru the sling to shoot.The loop/lanyard does most of the work just like a rifle sling does and that lets you concentrate on the work at hand.

Various 3rd hand devices also help to one degree or another.If anyone is interested and will help with posting pics I can send them some of the ones I have at hand as well as some nifty lay out tools/aids.
If you`re really brave you could try walking this old slow head thru the posting process of something like photobucket or flicker but it would have to be as SIMPLE,as the guy trying to do it.
I had to have 2 people helping in order to post the pics for Larry`s "who are you" thread,and that took me close to 2 days to get right.

[ThomasPowers]

I have a prosthetic pancreas (insulin pump).

My main smithing changes are to turn it down when I'm smithing as the exercise takes the place of some of the insulin and I try to keep it cool in the smithy. In the summer I wear it in a fanny pack with cool packs in the winter I try to keep it clipped to the back.

Also wearing bib overalls helps to protect it from "accidents" and to keep the tubing from getting caught, (postvise is a joker!), or cut by hot metal.

[Frosty]

I'm type II diabetic and like Thomas adjust my insulin intake according to what I'm going to be doing. Happily I'm darned lucky and my blood sugar is darned predictable so it's not a big problem. Still, I carry a couple granolla bars in my right cargo pocket at all times.

My most recent disability is the result of not being smart enough to get away from a tree I fell. Right now the two most bothersome are nerve damage from a couple skull fractures on my left side. First is to my hearing, my left ear is about 36% of my right ear but as part of normal brain compensation there's significant audio recruitment. Recruitment is your brain dedicating more processing power to amplify signals from diminished areas. This means that not only can't I hear clearly from my left ear, annoying noises become painfully louder geometrically. For instance if I drop a piece of dog food in a tin pan, i't unpleasantly loud, the second one is uncomfortably loud, the third is painfully loud and any thereafter are like having a spike driven into my ear. I now have ear plugs in my pocket all the time, heck, 24/7 in fact, a set are on the nightstand even.

The other new disability is the nerve damage to my left eye, even with new corrective lenses it's bleared. Having a different focus for each eye really screws with your depth perception which messes up things like alignment and corelating objects. Oh say accurately hitting a piece of steel on the anvil. Not only do you miss more often the blows that do hit what I want aren't aligned so the effect is what I want, just making a square taper is a serious challenge, I rombus stock more than a beginner.

However, I discovered what I was doing wrong at a tool making clinic July 24. It turned out I was looking through the reader part of my bifocals instead of the distance parts. I'm pretty sure it was an unconscious reaction to having trouble focusing so I was automatically looking through the close up lenses. When I tilted my head downward deliberately looking through the long distance half suddenly I was not only hitting where I wanted but hitting how I wanted! Suddenly no more rombused cross sections, no uncontrolled curves, no surprise hammer marks.

I still can't see like I used to but I can see well enough to compensate and my smithing is finally on track to recovery. you can't imagine what a huge load this is off my shoulders.

Frosty the Lucky.

[son_of_bluegrass]

While I don't have a prosthetic (unless you count glasses), there is guy in the local blacksmithing club who lost part of his right (I think) arm and has a prosthetic one from the elbow down. He regularly demos at our meetings and turns out better work than I do.

ron

[Ferrous Beuler]

I have a "day laborer" in the shop at present...

[nealj]

left arm prostetic for me but it works great for holding a punch or chisel.

[Sask Mark]

For anyone with young kids, watch the movie 'How To Train Your Dragon'. The village blacksmith has all sorts of attachments for his missing hand.

I took my kids to see the movie in the theater and when he started hammering on some metal, my kids very enthusiastically declared 'Look Dad, he's a blacksmith just like you!'.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

The first thing that came to mind for me was Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness where he has a prosthetic chainsaw instead of his right hand.


With todays technology, we have come a long way from the old prosthetics. I don't see how an interchangeable hand would be that far fetched. Need to hammer something, click. Need to grip something, click, click. Think about the futuristic items Dick Tracy had, that we have today. Prosthetics are getting more, and more advanced every year. The future is now.........................

[Avadon]

Interesting thread. I always wondered about this. I mean most of us work with fire, saws, hammers, and other tools that do not forgive any mistakes. I wondered what I would do if something more severe happened to me. I think at the core of a blacksmith is a very ingenious and inventive personality. I honestly think it wouldn't slow most of us down. If there is a will there is a way. In my 32 years i've come to realize physical injuries heal much faster then many emotional ones. On a daily basis I work in my shop with moderate Raynauds. I have to take a lot of breaks if my feet and hands start going south on me. I put up with extreme freezing/burning feelings in the winter from the lack of circulation and in summer I put up with more of the red and burning hands and feet because of the disorder. It is loads of fun, especially when it hinders me walking around a large store for more then a few mins. I have to sit down and wait for the Raynauds attack to settle. It's been a few years with it and all I can do is basically cope with it. I've tried all the medicine and i'm waiting for something more effective, with less side effects, to come down the pike.

[thecelticforge]

Leg here, but it is still attached. I have to wear plastic/titanium braces most of the time, but I am more capable than most people. I just can't run more than 5 feet without falling down.

[Mainely,Bob]

As most of you know humans can be pretty inventive and very little short of death puts us completely out of the game.
Anywhere there is dangerous or heavy work being done there are always a few people who become the victims of unfortunate circumstances.In my day those folks were shuffled off to the side and not talked about much but now things are changing,war does that.
One of the most enlightening experiences I ever had was to be a member of a ward where there were a mixed group of soldiers/marines recovering from various things.No matter how badly they were injured they could always point to someone else they felt was worse off and then do whatever they could to help in that person`s recovery.Suddenly,the potential loss of my left hand was a very minor thing and I came to view myself as a "fortunate one".
I worked in factories and ship yards where you would hear of past accidents and those who survived them.Many times those survivors(that`s a key word)went on to other things or found ways to work around their missing parts to a point where there was little or nothing that the injury kept them from doing.One of my mentors,Cecil Pearce (RIP) lost four fingers on his hand to a shipyard jointer at an early age(his 20`s) and went on to be a top machinist,woodworker/carver and a world reknown plane maker and bamboo fly rod maker.Most "normal" workers had a hard time keeping up with him.There was a hand made sign over the door of his shop that said "The finest tool ever created is the human mind,but it is weak and it is fallible".
I once asked Cecil what he thought was the hardest part about recovery.He told me he never really kept track and now that he thought about it he felt that once he could no longer remember what having those missing parts was like things just fell into place and became much easier.He also told me "I don`t design or modify tools to make things easier for ME I do it to make things easier for us all".My young son much prefered his tools over the ones I bought and owned as they were easier/less fussy for him to grip and adjust,provided more feedback and were more intuitive in the way they worked.
IME one of the biggest mistake someone can make after an injury is to isolate themselves or fade into the sidelines.If you reach a point where you can`t see a clear way through something on your own then go visit someone who also has a shortage of parts and compare notes.You will both come away with new insight.There are a lot more of us out there than most folks realize,we just adapt well enough so the general public is unaware of any loss.
A friend who needs a wheelchair to get around refers to "normal" people as "The temporarily complete tribe".He smiles and says," Everybody begins losing parts and abilities if they`re lucky enough to not die young.Good thing we got a head start eh,chummy" and winks.

[ofafeather]

Great thread. Thanks for sharing!

[ThomasPowers]

Not so recent a thing; in the early 1500's a "robber Baron" lost his hand to a cannon ball and had a prosthetic one made so he could hold a sword in it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6tz_von_Berlichingen

[Frosty]

Thanks Bob, nothing will ease what we feel to be disabilities like helping others get along with theirs.

I'm too old and fat to run if I don't have too I feel it's another reason to live where it's NOT a crime to carry a fire arm and defend myself or others in need, the good lord gave us oversized brains and thumbs for a reason you know.

I agree, GREAT thread, I feel better already.

Frosty the Lucky.

[Brian C.]

My grandfather was an old time carpenter and as a fairly young man he lost his right thumb to a table saw. Rather than learn to hammer left handed, he opted to hold his hammer between his right index and middle fingers. It worked for him, one hit to set a framing nail and one more to drive it home. He did this for many many years. Dad always said that "if the old man could get those two fingers around your neck he could probably pinch your head off". :)

[Dodge]

No prosthetics here, but I have a lot of lower back and leg issues. (Results from an old motorcycle accident) I also have spinal stenosis; a narrowing of areas in the lumbar or cervical (neck) spine, which causes pressure on the spinal cord or the spinal nerves. I find it difficult to stand for more than a few minutes at a time without pain in the back of my legs and numbing of my feet. To alleviate the symptoms, I sit whenever I can, so I have a folding chair and a stool in strategically placed points in my shop. Anyhoo, I have seen several videos of Japanese, Indian, and African smiths working in a squatted position. Now, I can't squat like that either due to both knees being shot; also a result of the MC accident, but I'm seriously considering lowering my anvils (or at least one of them) to "chair level". If that works I may even shorten my forge. If it all works well enough, I will most likely put a chair on wheels to roll between the forge and anvil. I haven't figured out the power hammer usage but it's not like I can't stand at all (for now anyway )

[ofafeather]

No prosthetics here, but I have a lot of lower back and leg issues. (Results from an old motorcycle accident) I also have spinal stenosis; a narrowing of areas in the lumbar or cervical (neck) spine, which causes pressure on the spinal cord or the spinal nerves. I find it difficult to stand for more than a few minutes at a time without pain in the back of my legs and numbing of my feet. To alleviate the symptoms, I sit whenever I can, so I have a folding chair and a stool in strategically placed points in my shop. Anyhoo, I have seen several videos of Japanese, Indian, and African smiths working in a squatted position. Now, I can't squat like that either due to both knees being shot; also a result of the MC accident, but I'm seriously considering lowering my anvils (or at least one of them) to "chair level". If that works I may even shorten my forge. If it all works well enough, I will most likely put a chair on wheels to roll between the forge and anvil. I haven't figured out the power hammer usage but it's not like I can't stand at all (for now anyway )

Dodge, your story reminds me of the jazz pianist, Dave Brubeck. As a young man he broke his neck in a diving accident. Fortunately he wasn't paralyzed but has lived many years with chronic pain and discomfort. He has to change his position quite frequently so he arranged to have pianos and keyboards at his house in all sorts of positions so he can sit at different heights or stand. He even had a keyboard suspended upside down so he could play while lying on his back. (Can't see how that would work for a smith though!)Of course having money helps! He can afford to do those things.

I'm truly amazed at what other cultures can do. In Japanese culture (as well as others) squatting and kneeling is so prevalent in everyday life. I don't know if they have problems with their knees long term, but they don't seem to. My American knees can't seem to handle it, though.

[Frosty]

Dodge and anyone having trouble standing for any length of time: have you heard of Z-Coil shoes? They have coil springs under the heal and take all the shock out of walking or standing. A couple years ago they started making boots with covered springs so they're no more trip hazard than regular boots. I have a pair and they work pretty darned well. No other connection to the co and not advertising for them, just saying they may help.

Frosty the Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

A lot of the europeans use powerhammers sitting down, you might look at how they do it. (one I've seen uses a suspended chair that he can swing from the forge to the hammer with the stock.

[Mainely,Bob]

No prosthetics here, but I have a lot of lower back and leg issues. (Results from an old motorcycle accident) I also have spinal stenosis; a narrowing of areas in the lumbar or cervical (neck) spine, which causes pressure on the spinal cord or the spinal nerves. I find it difficult to stand for more than a few minutes at a time without pain in the back of my legs and numbing of my feet. To alleviate the symptoms, I sit whenever I can, so I have a folding chair and a stool in strategically placed points in my shop. Anyhoo, I have seen several videos of Japanese, Indian, and African smiths working in a squatted position. Now, I can't squat like that either due to both knees being shot; also a result of the MC accident, but I'm seriously considering lowering my anvils (or at least one of them) to "chair level". If that works I may even shorten my forge. If it all works well enough, I will most likely put a chair on wheels to roll between the forge and anvil. I haven't figured out the power hammer usage but it's not like I can't stand at all (for now anyway )

You might also try a tall stool so you can half stand and slightly bend your knees and rest your butt on a small seat that will tilt forward while your feet stay in contact with the deck.
When they found the foremen at the shipyard having problems from standing at their work stations all day they brought in these tall,adjustable stools and that solved the problem.
Many of my co-workers did much the same thing by backing up to the nearest bulkhead and placing their backs flat against it and bracing their legs out at an angle.Took the pressure off their feet and hips and aligned their spine at the same time.
The stool thing may be an answer to the power hammer problem as it lowers your center of gravity and hand position by a couple of inches at most.

You could also practice riding a unicycle around the shop while working.It may(or may not) speed things up and you could probably go on America`s Got Talent with it.They love acts with fire,bending metal and people doing dangerous stuff on wheels.I know I`d vote for you if you made it to the finals.
If you became famous you could hire me to work security.I know the government always wants you to secure their stuff by posting "one armed guard".A position I am now well suited to fill. ;)

[DennisG]

Yep, we as a people will find one way or another to keep doing what we love. I'd like to find the person who came up with the term "disability" and smack them.

If you know of people in your community or others in your life with a challenge they may have over come, or are trying to, invite them in for a few hours of smithing. Seems that we have a hobby/lifestyle/work that drives you to think outside the box that you have been placed in and that may help or reaffirm them.

[Marc]

I've got a prosthetic testicle, and I don't believe I do anything special for that. However, my teacher had a prosthetic leg. He was a farrier before diabetes took his leg. He then went to just blacksmithing and teaching both smithing and farriery. The only thing that slowed him down were the stairs going to and from his shop. There was one funny episode, though. One time in class he dropped something that set his jeans on fire. One of the guys in class saw the smoke - "Hey Ken, you're on fire!" Ken didn't notice because it was the prosthetic leg.