Why your anvil is all worn out

[Timothy Miller]

Because people did work like this on it. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CGUe6boTiok

[basher]

I love my power hammer !

[Marksnagel]

That was a great video, thanks Timothy. I love to see how people from other countries black/bladesmith. When we start whining about not having the right equipment or building, its good to see how others make do with so little. Humbling.

 

Mark <><

[Neil Blythin]

Good grief!!! The striker in that first group, looked like he was trying his absolute best to knock the horn off of that poor little anvil.

[bigfootnampa]

With anvils two or three times larger they could do the same work with half the effort... I wonder if they know that?

[Jeff Seelye]

Thanks Timothy, Besides my anvil, I would also know why my knees were warn out. All I could think about was being in that crouched up position. How would you work that long in that position? Also noticed no shoes on the smith, makes me feel real fortunate!

[jamierodg]

just a question of what you are used to.  I used to work with blacksmiths in west africa, all of their anvils are a stake driven into the ground, maybe 5 to 7 lbs of iron at best.  Forges are dug into the ground and everyone sits on the floor.   They are lucky to have that anvil in the video, probably considered a real luxury in Dhaka!

[Neil Blythin]

Hmm, you know, that's something I've always wondered about... We hear a lot about how blacksmithing was a nearly 'lost' art, following the industrial revolution and two world wars.  But that of course, is from a western perspective.  

 

When you start talking about (I hate to use the term '3rd world' ... what's the politically correct term these days?), lets say 'developing countries' or 'less westernized' parts of the world, was there ever a discontinuity?  Or have they always had their village blacksmith - going back many generations?  Was there every any loss of knowledge with them - or are they still smithing the way they always have been?

 

In any case, cool video, and certainly something that gives food for thought.

.... but I still feel sorry for that poor little anvil.  That's abuse, that is!

[eric sprado]

Everything else fit except that poor striker in the first film. He is going to kill his body before he gets much older. I just shuttered each time I saw him use only  his back to rise up and lift the hammer!! The folks in the second film seemed more relaxed in form and body. Thanks so  much for posting the films!!! 

    Another quick story: A blacksmith acquaintance graduated in England and was traveling around doing Journeyman work. He and fiancee (who is from India) were visiting in India. He saw some blacksmiths working and was about to stop and talk to them when his wife intervened and informed him that blacksmiths were "UNTOUCHABLES"!! and that her parents would be horrified  if he had contact with the blacksmiths. To preserve domestic tranquility he let it go! I'm afraid I would have had to tell her to go home and I would have had a grand time watching the smiths... Oh well-I've had relationships go bad before in my life! The the thought of considering a blacksmith ANYWHERE as being "untouchable" just makes my blood boil!!

[tzonoqua]

Eric, those you are refering to are the "Gadia Lohar" or "Gaduliya Lohar" a caste of blacksmiths in india who's lineage can be traced back to a once a very cherished class of artisans-

 

"Descended from the Swordsmiths of Mewar, the Gaduliya Lohar have maintained a nomadic existence for over 400 years. They honour a vow made by their Rajput Warrior ancestors to the Maharana Pratap who valued their skills so highly that he spared their lives by allowing them to flee rather than stay to fight and face certain death in a doomed battle when their Fort at Chittaurgarh was seized by Akbar in 1568. Their legendary vow - for them never to settle, never to draw water from a well, never to use a light at night and never to return to the Fort at Chittaurgarh, has, in some parts, been honoured to this day. At the time of Indian Independence, then Prime Minister Nehru attempted to settle the Lohar People. Many have chosen to keep their vow and thus their lifestyle but there are increasing numbers of Lohar who have now adapted to a settled lifestyle due to economic and societal pressures.

 

Basically, they fell from grace and are now dalits (untouchables), ironically because of the prized skills their ancestors possessed. Now they make mostly agricultural and domestic wares. 

 

In the video no doubt that anvil was a coveted object!! That is a human powerhammer, only thing is us humans make mistakes sometimes!

 

Jeff, you do get used to working like that, but it's not easy at first, they sit like that a lot from birth, not like us who sit on chairs, I mean of course sometimes they sit on chairs but they can still do that "squatting" position that we have lost- look at a small child and how they naturally will squat down like that, we lose that ability because we sit on chairs. Also, I have seen a lot of times even if they have no shoes often they will sit on a burlap cloth and have the cloth folded up over their feet to at least protect their feet from the hot scale!