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I Forge Iron

How to tell if you, are a purist


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purist from what era??? my shop in the museum could be considered a "purist" shop from about 1920.... all the tools i use were available by that time ..... i use electricity for a line shaft cause it was available in the area by 1912(100 years ago)and its no hardship...but by that time most of the tools used today were available (bandsaw, drill press,grinder ,power hammer ,flypress,ect)about the only tools that wernt available are things like plasma cutter and induction forges ... electric welders wernt common but oxy acyl was...but i am not sharpening plow shares and fixing wagons not that i wouldnt just not the call for it... i think its interesting what people think of as "authentic" blacksmithing .. like the bias against trip hammers....they have found evidence of trip hammers as from the roman era....and sledge hammer wielding aprentices are thin on the ground nowadays...but i still get the question "are you a traditional blacksmith" ime not sure what they are really asking tho sometimes i think theyre wanting to know if i shoe horses.....because everybody knows blacksmiths shoe horses!

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If we were being traditional it would not be a kilt it would be a plaid, the kilt as we know it was invented by us Brits :rolleyes:


That'd be Greeks and imported to the British isles by the Romans, same as the pipes, which were of Egyptian origin.

Frosty The Lucky.
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Since this thread has taken on a life of it's own, one more kilt moment: I heard this from someone who was there.

The Prince of Wales and the royal heirs were on the winning side of an epic Tug-of-War, and everyone took a tumble. In her words: "Now I have seen the Crown Jewels!"

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Okay gotta pipe in on the regimental, it is the only way and being breezy is very easy and quite comfortable. Built in air conditioning. Tartan days coming up in two weeks, Three brand new kilts to wear. What I wear under my kilt are usually boots.....
Are'nt boxers more comfy?
And do you tie the laces around your waist!
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i think we should compete to see who is the Least traditional ! who uses all conceivable modern help on gods earth...and is still able to make the work look like "BlackSmithing" through naughty ways and clever tricks... ;)
or maybe someone should set up a trial, two pieces of work done in both ways, one all by "hand" and another using any devilment she/he likes to achieve the work. see if the pros can tell the difference from a photo...

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A few years ago on our PBS station they had a program on a "traditional" Amish buggy factory. They had this huge diesel generator driving this huge air compressor which in turn drove all of the air motors on all of the wood working tools in the shop. No electricity any where in the shop, lighting way by means of gas light provided by propane fueled lamps. Pneumatic nailers, sanders, drills, all the tools were air powered. This way the owner felt he was keeping true to the core Amish beliefs. My uncle lived in Southern Indiana and had some Amish neighbors that would often use his phone to call recitatives in their community in Iowa. These neighbors bought one of his oldest tractors which he thought was strange because the tires needed replacing but he gave them a good price and drove it over to their farm. He went over a few months later to see how it was working out for them. Well it turns out the only thing the were using it for was the power take off, it was sitting stationary with the wheels off, all of them and it was running a line shaft in one of their barns and the men in the family were repairing and making buggies for the local Amish community. They were tired of using only hand tools to work wood and were falling way behind in their work. He said most all of their wood working tools were from the late 1800's, it was like walking into a museum.
Now as to how modern my shop was, I in no way strove to have a modern shop. I just used smithing practices to create my sculpture, nothing more. I liked the concept of smithing but I was heavily criticized by some of the early presidents of the local chapter of ABANA for not striving to be more "authentic" in my shop. My work looked better in many ways than a lot of the people that were on my case but I used a welder a lot where one couldn't see it and what I produced was in no way "traditional", no forks, fireplace tools, trivets or stake turners but totally to their eyes "weird" sculpture of no use.

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"weird" sculpture of no use.




Seems funny to me some folks see their ''applied art'' as useful. Scrolls,twists,piercings etc are all as completely useless on a steak turner as they are on a railing. They were right about one thing, your sculpture is of no use whatsoever.......It's called art..... B)
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Oh, come on man, art has a use!

It is used by its creator to express emmotion and beauty. It is also used by its viewers to experience beauty and feel emmotions that they may not otherwise be aware of.

To me, saying that art has no use is akin to saying that love has no use.

Birds make great use of beauty. Most all of them use big displays of colorfull feathers to attract their mate. For many species, it is the male who is more colorfull and does the "dance of attraction" , if it were not for their built in art, there would be no baby birds. . . I think the same could be said for many people.

Caleb Ramsby

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I'm not

Oh, come on man, art has a use! Birds make great use of beauty. Most all of them use big displays of colorfull feathers to attract their mate. For many species, it is the male who is more colorfull and does the "dance of attraction" , if it were not for their built in art, there would be no baby birds. . . I think the same could be said for many people. Caleb Ramsby


Ya can't see the forrest through the trees here Ram..... :D.....It makes no difference if it's a crow or a bird of paradise, the female bird doesn't see art when she's checkin' out big daddy, this is stimulus and responce pure and simple.....I love to create art and and functional things......Pure art has no functional use and applied art is put on useful things, that's the way I see as defined in a nuts and bolts, hammer and tongs kinda way.Whether or not it makes me feel good or puts money in the bank isn't the point. I couldn't make a living without either and life would also be pretty drab and uninteresting......
I think this quote kinda feels right for this thread.............

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.
Winston Churchill
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