What does it mean to be a Blacksmith?

[lordcaradoc]

Working at a craft or any other skill, professionaly forces a level of discipline and competence that is hard to match otherwise. You must perform all day everday whether you feel like it or not. You must complete projects on time even if you lose interest or run into technical difficulties or get sick. You can't have serious gaps in your skills. Don't like fitting collars? Too bad, there's 150 of them on this project and you have no choice but to do them and do them well. Dont like math? You had better learn whats needed for your work. You will have to take on work that you don't enjoy and will learn a great deal from it. You will get to do maintenance or repair on other peoples work. You may hate what they did or admire it. In either case you will learn a lot. You will work on large projects and sometimes collaborate with other craftsmen. You cannot bask in the kind compliments of friends and family. Your work is out in the cold wind of the competitive market and will take harsh criticism. If your work doesn't perform as expected it may affect your livelihood or worse expose you to legal liability.

I do as I please in my shop. Sometimes its obsessive and I put in longer days and more effort than a professional. But only because I feel like it. I can stop smithing for months at a time and my shop will still be there when I return. If I dont like a technique, I avoid it. As I see it,to call myself a blacksmith would be to ignore the fact that I am in a completely different class from the people who do it for a living.

An excellent point Maddog, also good grounds for calling myself an Artist Blacksmith as the Muse can strike hard one weekend and then either the family demands my time (always a higher priority with me) or she may strike in wood or leather and, like you I may not make it to my shop for months. I hope not, but it happens.

Regards,
Tim

[Whittler Kev]

Well I got news for you... Your a Blacksmith!

I actually had the same worries a few years ago.. I felt like calling myself a blacksmith somehow was being disrespectful to the "true" blacksmiths i knew... I had a situation where I was taking a workshop from Darryl Nelson... And if you dont know who Darryl is well he is a blacksmith for sure.. I was talking to someone else in the class and I had said I dont feel comfortable calling myself a blacksmith... Darryl said something like "Did you drive a car here? Well that makes you a driver... Just because you couldn't win Daytona or Indianapolis.... The act of driving makes you a driver!"
So just because your a blacksmith.. doesn't mean your some expert at the craft.. It just means you hit iron with a hammer...

On a side note I am a firm believer that "thoughts become things" If you think about being a blacksmith... do the things a blacksmith does.. call yourself a blacksmith because that's what you are..

A genuine concern for several of us and an honest answer. Thank you :)

[bajajoaquin]

Working at a craft or any other skill, professionaly forces a level of discipline and competence that is hard to match otherwise.
....
As I see it,to call myself a blacksmith would be to ignore the fact that I am in a completely different class from the people who do it for a living.

Well said. I'm glad I kept deleting the comments I had on the subject. You said it much better than I would have.

[Francis Trez Cole]

Here as a blacksmith are not considered an artist you are just a craftsmen so I was told the art community is tough to break into well I will proud to be called a craftsmen and a blacksmith. Those artist who need there tools there money is green and I would not turn it away. they can walk back to there car with the noses in the air they will surely smell my fire and leave with coal dust on there feet. I will laugh all the way to the bank

[KingAZAZ]

I've been lurking around the boards for a while, usually while I'm at the office, and wanted to add this tidbit to the thread.

My fiancée studies French and, after I'd been forging for a couple of weeks, she told me that the French expression equivalent to our "Practice makes perfect" is "It is through forging that one becomes a blacksmith."

I like it. :)

[Frank Turley]

I started heating and beating in the early 1960's. This was before Internet; before ABANA; and before Blacksmith Resuscitation. Around 1970, I met Tom Bredlow, a good man at the anvil. Tom had a way with words and a way of looking at things, so I thought I'd relate three Bredlow stories.

In the 1970's, ABANA was getting started and they had the 'Anvils Ring' newsletter, which at that time was dinky and possibly mimeographed(?). Tom wrote an article titled, "On the Anxieties of using the Arc Welder." I think he summarized by saying that it could be used by a smith in a judicious manner, let's say, that one plug-welds a handle to an escutcheon from the back side, etc.

Another time, Tom was in his smithy forging away, and a visitor walked in off the street. The visitor spied an arc welder at one side of the shop and spouted, "Hah, I thought you were a blacksmith. What's that welder doing over there?" Tom replied, "I am a blacksmith; I'm just not a stupid blacksmith."

I was interviewed by editor, Rob Edwards, for his 'Anvil" magazine a number of years ago, and Rob kept prodding me with hypothetical questions about, "What if an 1800 blacksmith could have had an arc welder, would he have used it? What if he had a water jet setup, etc., etc." I kept evading the questions as best I could, and I finally told him a Bredlow story.

Tom had made a National Cathedral gate commemorating the Packard Auto family, and he was hauling it to D.C. for installation. It was crated with 1/4" plywood and it just fit the bed of his old pickup truck. On the way, he pulled up in front of my shop to show it off. I had a class in their 2nd day of instruction. Tom peeled back the top board, and there was revealed a quality piece worthy of the cathedral. I looked at it carefully, and finally blurted, "Tom, is there any modern day welding or machining done on this gate?" His good answer, "NO, BECAUSE THAT WASN'T WHAT IT WAS!" This means that he set out to do it entirely in the forge, and he did so.

I studied anthropology in school, and we learned that there are some societies that do not use hypothetical situations, because it isn't in their language or mindset to even pose such things; interesting. One snippy response in English: "If my grandmother had wheels, she'd have been a truck."

I am presently helping on a gate with its two side-throws, designed by a journeyman smith who had worked in Germany for five years. It is composed of channel iron, angle iron, and solid round and flat stock. It is arc welded, riveted, and tenoned. It is fabbed and forged, because "THAT'S WHAT IT IS!"

I think I have not given a direct answer to this initial thread question, but I enjoyed sharing these stories.

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

[monstermetal]

I've been lurking around the boards for a while, usually while I'm at the office, and wanted to add this tidbit to the thread.

My fiancée studies French and, after I'd been forging for a couple of weeks, she told me that the French expression equivalent to our "Practice makes perfect" is "It is through forging that one becomes a blacksmith."

I like it.

That is perfect! What more could be said?

[fciron]

That is perfect! What more could be said?

I think I have not given a direct answer to this initial thread question, but I enjoyed sharing these stories.

Sums it up well for me.

[stretch]

I have been hammering iron for about 35 yrs. Since I have been fulltime I have been call a blacksmith when I made everything without any electrical tool at all because we had no electricity to now I have a tig, 60 KG air hammer, flypress and a friction screw press to help me out and now people call me an artsmith, artist, blacksmith and have even been call a master. I just enjoy hammering iron and asking it to do what I think it should. If that makes me a blacksmith then I guess I are one. There are still a lot of things I would like to produce, just have to pay for the shop and a little wine, so have to do whatever people order, it is just done the way I like and don't comprimise the quality going out my door, even if it means a few more minutes or hours to get er done. Never actually considered the question, to busy having fun

[wolfshieldrx]

When I meet someone new they often ask "What do you do?". My answer goes something like this: "What do I do, or how do I makey living? I make my living working as a hospital pharmacist. What I DO is spend as much time as I can with my family and friends because we never know when this precious gift may be gone forever. I squeeze in a few minutes or hours of crafting bits of wood and metal into items I hope others will find useful, beautiful, or both. I teach adult Bible class on Wednesday nights because I believe there is something beyond the here and now. I fish for trout in the spring, raise a garden in the summer and hunt squirrels in the fall. I love one woman worship one God and pledge allegiance to one country. And I truely try to live in such a way that none of the three will ever be ashamed of me. That's what I do." So am I a blacksmith? Yea, sometimes. A pharmacist? Often. A farmer, fisherman, hunter? Some would say so. A Christian, husband, father, brother, son and citizen? I pray so...let's not let ourselves get too worried about labels. Sorry for the rant and thanks for listening...you guys are all inspirstion for me...allthe best. Bart