just was this on tv from Indiana, our boys helping Afghanie people with blacksmithing
theindychannel.com/news/30465647/detail.html

What a great start

I'd go and teach a little smithery! good job Hoosier Nasty Guard!

That's cool, but I would have guessed that the Afghans already had some pretty skilled blacksmiths.

My understanding was the same. I had heard somewhere that the Afghanis had been hand building copies of the old .303 Enfield bolt action rifle during the war with the Russians. And they worked.

Did everyone see in the report that they are teaching the soldiers forge work for 5 days. What a joke. Things like this are good ways our government wastes money. No body with 5 days of training is going to be even close to a reasonable teacher of a complex trade. Maybe they should just translate some of the good beginning blacksmith books and just hand them out.

Folks. something that may be getting overlooked here, is that there may indeed be skilled metal workers, in some places. The fact of the matter is, that the populace is scattered far, and wide among those boulder strewn mountains, and that it would be unlikely to find a smith in each village or tribal holding. Please don't discount what these soldiers are doing. In addition to the war being fought against the Taliban, there is a war being waged for the hearts and minds, of the Afghan people. Take away the support network of the Taliban, by securing the goodwill and loyalty, of the tribes, that have historically supported them. If they were not lending support for idiological reasons, but out of fear, then you will find an ally among those tribes. Just my two cents worth.

where is the 'like' button, herchamer? well said.

indeed...too bad we cant set then up an iforge account and internet access as well...

While there are indeed skilled metal workers in Afganistan, those Lee Enfield copies were made in Packistan when the Russians were in Afganistan. The Taliban and Jihadies used Packistan as a refuge then as now.

5 days of training sounds light to me, but then the ARMY way is "see it once, do it once, teach it" AND, if you teach a guy how to knock together a forge and something to blow it, haw to make even a couple of simple things, then he will naturally progress.

As to translating the books, since there are many dialects and many who are iliterate, the books would need to be pictures in most cases. Teaching by a human, also wins those hearts and minds.

Herchammer, Outstanding post! Thank you for putting things in the right perspective for us.

The literacy rate in Afghanistan is about 25%, it seems hands on demos is the best way to go.