On 6/9/2022 at 1:45 PM, Frosty said:

"making steel do your will."

On a slight tangent (that is to say, much less tangential than most of our discussions), I was just watching video of a Spanish stonecarver who described her work as “coming to a consensus with the stone.“ I very much like the idea of our craft — any craft — being a collaboration between the maker and the material,  one that requires subtlety and persuasion as much as — maybe more than — brute force. 

So, instead of makers we should think of ourselves as collaborators?

Seriously though, no matter what we do, it's a compromise between what we want or need and what's possible, be it collecting enough seeds and insects to survive another day or developing a new element in a particle accelerator.

Frosty The Lucky.

A friend of mine carves some very nice and detailed duck decoys as a hobby.  He told me that it was easy. Just cut away anything that doesn't look like a duck.

In autobody I see too many young techs that want to just learn the tricks without learning the concept first or having a full understanding of the process. 

Like the story of the old timer that gets paid well because he knows where when and how to tap the machine with the hammer to get it working right, not just that he taps it with a hammer. 

 

Ayup, just like all the people who think that buying the tool imparts the knowledge and skill to use it. You know the, "If I had a rifle like that I could could hit a pop can at 150 yds." 

I rode around with Dad while he went through I don't know how many barrels of WWII surplus German 8mm. Mauser sniper rifles before he selected THE one he "sporterized" into his deer rifle. That was 1960 - 61 when surplus stores had confiscated "enemy" weapons by the cardboard barrel full. Marked German, Japanese, Italian and a price.

Sorry, old memories, he made that rifle for me but my grades didn't deserve it so I didn't get it. He gave it to me when he quit hunting and it's taken a couple moose, it's upstairs. Won me a couple dollars on long distance targets like the pop can at a measured 150 yards. The range owner made the bet and would've given me a pass to use the range but I was just zeroing it for a hunt.

Good memories.

Frosty The Lucky. 

Daswulf, Most of the younger guys that I've worked with would rather replace parts, than to repair.  So they soak up all the gravy, while I'm stuck with the big money jobs.   But that's where the "tricks of the trade" really shine. 

My boss is Egyption, no he doesn't walk like that, he told me in one of our many discussions about the area that they had a saying where someone is "caught between the hammer and the anvil".  I need to ask him how to say it in arabic again.   I'd also like a bit more context.   Thinking about it now,  yes you're being pummeled, from my perspective as a smith, those blows are meant to shape and transform into a final product.   They aren't malicious or unneeded.   Really going to have to discuss this more with him tomorrow. 

A couple of my favorites;

"Never be afraid to try something new~

Remember, Amateurs built the Ark and Professionals built the Titanic".

And on doing the impossible:

"If a camel flies, no one will laugh if it doesn't get very far".

Uh HUH. How about, 'Just because you CAN do a thing doesn't mean you SHOULD.'

Frosty The Lucky.

"Going like the clappers" 

The clappers are the wooden valves in bellows

My favorite Chinese saying is "Overseas, the moon is rounder."

I like the Chinese ideogram for trouble, 2 women under one roof. 

However, because this section if for blacksmith sayings I have this one to offer.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!! For our blacksmith brethren who celebrate the American Independence day or heck have any reason to celebrate the 4th.

Frosty The Lucky.

Not sure about trouble, but it certainly caused embarrassment for my future grandmother-in-law when my 4-year-old-wife-to-be asked which great aunt was the real one.

Happy Fourth!

Thickening adult's skin is the 4year old's purpose on Earth isn't it?

Ever listen to your grands stories about you and a child? Sometimes my folks and Mom, my maternal grandmother would get going on round robin stories about my little Sis and me at the game. We played bord, card, etc. games in the evening after dinner or sometimes "important" TV show. 

One of our best sessions was at a dinner up on the hill above their place on Lake Davis, Ca. We started telling jokes and it drifted into dirty jokes. Friends of the folks from town were there as were another couple I don't remember. You have NO idea what kinds of dirty jokes your Grandmother and Mother picked up working for Boeing during WWII.

The scope, depth and breadth of their jokes just had us men sitting quietly except to bid and listen. 

Your childhood stories are some of the ONLY leverage you have on Teen agers, embarrassment when you tell Their friends can really pull them up short. Just don't overdo it or you'll lose them.

Frosty The Lucky.

I was standing in line at a grocery store with my three year old daughter (29 now).  The old man in front of us had one of the biggest, longest noses I had ever seen on a person.  When the old man smiled at my daughter, in her innocence and with all sincerity, she said to him, "I like your Pinocchio nose." 

He just smiled and said thank you. 

Not originally about blacksmithing, but most appropriate to the sharing of knowledge that is the center of the IFI mission for the advancement of our trade:

"There are men who love to keep their inferiors of the same profession in ignorance, that they triumph over them. From such I expect no praise. Their pride will not suffer them to encourage anything which makes others as wise as themselves. But those are unworthy of notice, who only live for themselves, not to assist others."

-- Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (1794)

"Break down the steps into a known skill and it's amazing what happens when skills are linked together. "

--- Jennifer P.

 

Heres one from my buddy James Thomas..      " If you don't mind, it don't matter".. 

Jennifer, we used to say "its mind over matter, i dont mind, so it dont matter" when i was in the Army. 

"If it is not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it." 

-Marcus Aurelius 

My favorite Roman emperor.

The smith forges the iron; it's the work and the way that he works that forges the smith until he and the tools fit each other.

Nobody Special

We are all both the blacksmith and iron in the fire.