What is it about?

[Archie Zietman]

Hello.
I was just thinking, and wondering and pensing and pondering, and musing, and I remembered what my favorite glassblower says about his work, he says, "My art is about glassblowing."
Is your work about smithing or about the end result? or both?

For me the end result and making it are completely different. For wheelthrowing it's about the throwing on the wheel and circular motion and the growth of the vessel on the wheel. For glassblowing it's about the blowing and sculpting and thinking "gee, how on earth am I going to make this?" and then completely cannibalizing the approved of techniques and making my own crazy designs and methods of fabricating them.

For smiting o' the hot metals, it's much much harder to say. On the one hand, it's not the process but the end result which gets me of my bum and into the forge. I need the life size drawing on the blackboard above the forge to get me pumped.
It's also about thinking the hammer blows and angles through, though, and letting the hammer and anvil take it where it wants to go. It's more pre-thought out and not as much about letting it evolve on the punty or the wheel. It's more like figure drawing, you want to draw the woman, so you lay out the gesture, and think how you will do it, and have a clear goal in your head the whole time.
It's easiest for me to consider it from an endpoint view, when I'm done. Whenever I have what would be called a finished forging, I look at it and have to force myself to say "okay, you don't want to overwork it, stop. Now." But I also say "Looky see what I made!" and go running around the house showing it to mummy and daddy and my brother like a five year old with his finger painting. It's about both I suppose.

and you guys? what about you?

[Chris Pook]

I'm still trying to figure it out.

its been five years and still counting.

[Seamus]

Beer.


Yeah, definately

Beer.

[ThomasPowers]

For me it's the act of creation; the making of something from what was low grade scrap or simple stock.

It makes finding a coilspring alongside of the road or an old rusty ballpein hammerhead at a fleamarket feel like finding burried treasure!

Thomas

[Strine]

The end result for me is a trifling aspect of the whole game. I couldn't give a rat's toss about the product. In fact I've spent weeks (on and off) forging something and given it away to a total stranger at a demo. Admittedly the total stranger must show an abundant appreciation for the effort. For me it's the process and only the process. I am only interested in the development of an ability to achieve this trifling end result.

[mike-hr]

I read a quote a while back," A painter paints because he wants to, an artist paints because he has to." I don't call myself an artist, but I get mighty jumpy if I don't have a project going... Smithing has been a good outlet for me, I can combine brainpower and sweat, and sometimes get a nice product. I enjoy figuring out difficult projects, because I know I'll build some character along the way.

[Alan DuBoff]

For me, I like to think of it as a means to the end. I happen to enjoy the journey as much as the destination, so find myself partaking in smithing.

I hope to develop my skills so that one day I can leverage it with my woodworking skills to allow me to come up with handcrafted solutions, rather than having to rely on buying products from the BORG or similar.

Ultimately my long term goal is to build a home, and blacksmithing will be a means to that end for me, for tools, components, or actual pieces in chasing that dream...

[J W Bennett]

It keeps me off the streets and out of the bars:<)

[J W Bennett]

Sometimes!

[easilyconfused]

For me it's a mixture too. Depending on the day, I may just go and pound iron for the sake of pounding iron. Most of the time though, it is the creation. Pushing the limits of my imagination. The finished product is nice but I usually start with an idea for something and never really finishing it because something new piques my intrest. The only things I've finished, other than tools, are things that my friends say they want. If they didn't want it, it would still be sitting on my workbench until I think of something else to do with them. I guess you could say that the end product just gets going. Once the idea is there, I'm about the process and art.

[cheftjcook]

I think it is a feeling of Creation & Learning,
It seems to me that I spend time in a kitchen creating food, or a lathe turning wood or a forge hammering iron for many reasons. Though each maybe different, it always ends up being a need to create or the refining of that creation and absorbing Knowledge to grow further. It may make us feel good inside or accomplish a host of other tasks,
even a means to an end, but we like to create & learn and it has many other rewards.

It's like a strange jewel with many facets:
A Time to make something, not BUY it!
A tangible image or expresion of a our thought or feeling.
An Idea concieved in your mind but forged by your body.
The longing for approval from those around us.
A journey of learning connecting us to ages past and generations future.
A journey of learning what we didnt know yesterday
and want more of in a thousand tommorows.
Sharing some bit of knowledge or insight or recieving some valuable morsel.
A time to think, unwind and clear our minds, let the world dissappear and the reality of the heat and the noise and the strength needed to shape this element put us back in to touch...with us.
Time to create a gift to show a dear one how much we think of them
A time to work out frustration or Anger
Making something for someone who wishes they could, but sadly can not.
Maybe a momentary glimpse into the mind of an artist
Or A time to sweat and feel good about what we are blessed with.
What ever the reason of the momment, it sure feels good.
Though many items may never be as refined as I would like, and some other persons creation be better or worse,
they are still created by me with my hands and using the Mind that God Gave me and I LOVE that.
TIM

[pmusics]

For me, it is everything together, the moment, I draw some new ideas "to paper", organize the steel and of course, the smithing from beginning until the piece is done. Then, cleaning up the workplace, closing the shelter and drinking a cold mineral water*, watching the piece made before - it is just fun to do all this. *em, mineral water??? hmm

[Ten Hammers]

For me it is about being in business and satisfying my customers. I seldom draw things up ( which is fine for me ). I keep chalk in the pocket and sometimes make a light crude sketch but normally I have something in a pattern or tooling that will satisfy needs for whatever comes up. Like Bill Epps says, there are truely not many things that are new. Most of it has been done before sometime someplace in history. I do enjoy building new stuff but most times someone will say they have seen something similar. this is not to say that new ideas are not possible. Jeremy K 's forged berries are a good example of this. There are many established smiths in the world that have reputations for good work and business practices. I just try and keep up. I now I have a lot to learn.

[irnsrgn]

As I can not make a living at smithing full time here, very little call for it. Smiteing hot iron with a hammer is a way I relax, same with the hand tool woodworking I do. There something about working hot iron or wood that has a calming effect on me. I am a 3rd generation blacksmith but make my living repairing things by welding, machining and sometimes blacksmithing.

At times I feel like my Grandfather who passed before I was born, and my father are looking over my shoulder and smiling.

[Rick Barter]

Interesting question, Archie. I would have to say that I have no idea what it's about. I do a lot of things that seem to make people ask 'why?'

I don't know where it comes from, but I love to work with my hands. My hands like to feel the different things. They like to be cold, hot, sore, bloody, greasy, etc.

I think I started this because my great grandfather and grandfather were welders/blacksmiths and I never really understood what that meant. I don't know much about my father's side of my family and I think getting involved with metal was a way to try and relate to them; albeit after they were gone.

Also, I just like the way it feels and makes me feel. You feel the hot fire, the cold steel, then the hot steel, the steam from the slack tub. I haven't made anything very imaginative, creative, or beautiful. I have made some useful things, but mostly I've concentrated on learning technique. I would like to make nice things, but I find that all that takes a back seat to just getting out there and experiencing it.

For too long now I've experienced life through something else (a book, movie, computer). I find that smithing makes me get out there and do it for myself. It spurs action. That's another reason: the action.

So, I guess for me it's about three things:
1.) The feeling
2.) The emotion
3.) The action

[Archie Zietman]

Lately I've been swinging in and out of love with it, because what I produce looks like crap, basically, which kinda gets me down, and I've been turning more to the process, but my lack of skill and tools and the sheer slowness of the craft is making the process less enjoyable too, but I'm keeping going with it, because I have a hope that eventually I'll turn on again. I'm hoping that it's just teenage hormones ;)

[Rick Barter]

Don't be too hard on yourself, Archie. Everything ebbs and flows. If it's not fun, take a break and do something else. When you come back to it you'll be re-energized.

[Frosty]

Archie:

You're trying too hard. There are too many other ways to make things other than blacksmithing so if you aren't doing it at least in part for the fun of it why do it at all?

Take a break. Don't be so critical. Have fun. You're technique will come. Once you have the technique and have it down to the point you don't have to think about every blow, step, etc. you'll be having more fun than you ever imagined.

After a while you won't have to think about where, how or with what to hit the work. At that time your conscious mind can concentrate on the design while your reflexes make it so.

Brother it's the most fun you can have.

Frosty

[HWooldridge]

I always liked the fire and heating up a piece of steel then swatting it into a different shape. Although we barely had two thin dimes when I was a child, I was fortunate enough to take art lessons one summer about 40 years ago. I enjoyed pottery the best so blacksmithing is probably a hot, sweaty extension of that interest.

[mcraigl]

Archie,
My reasons echo many others here. It is more about the journey, and the learning for me. I've been in a stale job for a while, but the pay and benefits keep me here. Forging gives me a creative and emotional outlet. If I get frustrated at work (daily occurence), getting something hot and beating the daylights out of it makes me feel better. Take a break if you need one. Most of my stuff comes out looking pretty rough also, but every now and then I have a breakthrough. many "simple" little projects are really good practice. For instance, I built 3 sets of tongs one weekend quite a while ago (my first three sets). They're functional, but not pretty. Then last week while visiting Mike-hr, I got a wild hair to build another pair. Even though it'd been 6 months since my first attempt, this set came out real nice. The simpler things I'd made in the mean time made my technique much better. Keep at it, and you'll have a breakthrough also. Sam actually gave you some good advice there too. If there's other smiths around you, go visit one for an afternoon. Just watch them work for a while. Notice the little things about how they adress the anvil, or use the hammer, or maybe learn new ways to use different parts of the anvil etc. etc.

[Alan DuBoff]

Find a smith in your area, get some help.

Take Apprentice up on his offer if you're in his area.

There is no better way to get yourself headed in the right direction than finding a chapter of ABANA and getting some help from folks that know what they're doing.

I can't say other ways don't work, but this has been working for me, and I continue to learn from the smith I found from the local California Blacksmithing Association webpage.

There were 3 or 4 in my area.

Good luck, hope things get better for you.

[easilyconfused]

One thing I've found that works well for me in the forge and anything else, is to take a step back. Instead of beating your head on the same project, do something quick and easy that works on your basics. Not only will you maybe notice something that wrong with your basic skills, but by actually completing a project, even if it is easy, will breath new life into you. From hockey, to roping, to forging, I've been taught the same thing. When the advanced stuff isn't working, it's usually because of something that you've forgotten in the basics.

[Ed Thomas]

Sometimes I feel like a broken record. Seek out the BEST blacksmiths and references you can find. The difference in inspiration is enormous. Mediocre artisans and well-meaning beginners won't do you a lot of good when you are aiming high. There is nothing wrong with your current frustration. In fact if you harness that restlessness for perfection, you can improve dramatically. Go look at superb ironwork. Touch it. Wonder at it. And go try to capture whatever makes it superb in your own work. Finding inspiration will focus your energy in one direction, and then seek the skills that will get you there.