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I Forge Iron

So you want to be a blacksmith...the marble story as told by Clifton Ralph


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Well this topic came up in another thread today. I did a search and didn't find anything on it so here goes. My apologies to anybody who may have already offered this.

Clifton Ralph spent his working career as a smith in the forge shop of a steel mill. Now he spends his time teaching others from hobbyists to pros the ins and out of power hammer forging. A great guy and great friend. Here's how he told me.

"So you want to be a blacksmith. Buy a BIG bag of marbles. Every time you buy or make a new blacksmith tool you take a marble out of that bag. When all of your marbles are gone CONGRATULATIONS you are a blacksmith!"

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That is only true if you actually get rid of the marbles. If you simply remove them from the bag and put them somewhere else, then you really still have all your marbles and are not a blacksmith. Although I personally think one should not take shortcuts to success, It is much quicker to put the entire bag someplace safe in your shop. You will likely bury them and forget where they are within a very short time, effectively losing all your marbles. Then you will be a blacksmith, albeit a cheater.

And of course that made me chase down this link:

Lycos iQ | Where does the phrase ‘lost his marbles’ come from?

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