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I Forge Iron

Old blacksmithing videos about to be removed...


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Just found a place where there are historical videos about many things but they have several about blacksmithing. I specially liked the one filmed in the eastern Sahara where the blacksmiths forge a dagger. Nice little anvil :) The first link is for the blacksmithing stuff, the second link is for the blacksmith in Sahara.

http://www.iwf.de/iwf/do/mkat/listing.aspx?Action=Schnell&SearchStr=blacksmith

http://www.iwf.de/iwf/do/mkat/details.aspx?GUID=444C47554944009610F294FB2F070027C9B104030103002CF44C860D06000000&Action=Schnell&SearchStr=blacksmith

I hope I linked them correctly and that you like them. In the main website it says they arew removing almost everything by the end of 2010 so I think these are the last days you can see them.

Rubén

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Love it. Here we all are with our automatic fans, fancy forges, "real" anvils and the perfect hammer while that bloke uses a hole in the ground and a stake for an anvil, etc. We all get the picture. Its not the tools that make the smith, its how you use what you have.

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Imagine that, a flat steel bar, a tiny post anvil, an old hammer, some charcoal, a skin bellows, a couple of punches and chisels and a helper and who knows how much practice and your a blacksmith. Even as a novice I feel confident believing that these guys could stand shoulder to shoulder with most "modern" backsmiths. They just don't have any tools newer than the 9th century, but they got the know how. It's almost poetic. At the end you could see that they were proud of their work.

Every newbie should see the video of the two guys in the Sahara. It's only about what you know how to do ... any tool, any metal, anywhere and you can make things if you have some skill, determination and patience. It is about the craft, not the tools. It's not hard to imagine other men from the Far East or Northern Europe doing the same things 11-1200 years ago. Seeing this video makes it much easier to work in my little 6 x 6' homebuilt shed with a borrowed anvil, a cheap rivet forge, hand cranked blower, used hammers, scrounged metal and some charcoal. I have so much more than these guys have in the way of equipment. All I need now is a lotta practice and to not worry about what other people have to work with. I have no tool envy now. I just need to practice, practice, practice.

Thanks for sharing!

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I'm amazed to see how stable and effective that anvil is. You really don't need an anvil with a face any bigger than the face of your hammer. I'm not certain, but it looks to me like he's using a scraper to finish the blade. These guys probably earn a living that way. I love watching "primitive" smiths.

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Well traditional blacksmiths did have a couple to things we tend to lack: trained helpers and *time*.

If you get a chance look up the indian caste of blacksmiths whose wives are the ones that swing the sledges for the smith. I keep showing those pictures to my wife and she keep mentioning that I have to sleep sometime!

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I went to the firt link and a list came up, some of them have a picture by them and these seem to be the ones that have video to watch. It looks like they are all available to purchase. Click the blue writing in the list next to the picture. Then a new screen opens and the picture asks if you want to play in windows media or flash. Also somewhere in there a flag is in the upper right corner, if it is British click it and some of the language changes to english.

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