Is blacksmithing spiritual?

[aparofan]

I'm still a newbie on IFI and still fairly new to blacksmithing but I had to share my experience from yesterday. The other day I posted that I was thinking about going on a power hammer hunt in some of the industrial areas in town. I got a lot of good and positive feedback and even some leads on hammers for sale. When I woke up yesterday I checked my phone and it said that I had a message from one of the members. The e-mail read something like "hey brother, I know where there are 10 or so hammers for sale in a few different states. Give me a call if you want to know more" and gave me his number...so I called. When he answered the phone I told him who I was and he says "hang on a minute, I need to finish this!" The phone drops and you hear the unmistakable sound...tink,tink,tink. When he gets back to the phone he starts with this list of people who have hammers for sale, an overwhelming list at that. Once he gives me the info I was needing then we start talking shop...for an hour! He was so knowledgeable I just listened and at one point I tried to ask a question but couldn't hardly get a word in. at that point he apologizes just by saying  " sorry brother, but I'm just excited for you getting started!" I told him my plan for stepping up my game by building a bigger shop and finding a hammer I can afford to help with the big work so eventually I can distance myself from this dead end job I'm in. He then asked what I do which I told him that I've worked at the same warehouse for 18 years driving a lift for 10-12 hours a night and not happy about it. That's when he said something that got me thinking " dude, I'm sorry that you're not happy...THAT'S NOT GOOD FOR THE SOUL!" I've only know this guy for an hour but he is generally concerned about my happiness. Every smith that I've meet to date is kind and helpful and I don't think my opinion will change the more I meet because we all understand that smithing is more than just banging on hot metal. I guess in many ways it is spiritual.

[Dan C]

Absolutely.  I doubt I'll ever be able to retire from my day job which puts me at a desk and computer, but in the evenings or weekends my refuge is working on little projects.  One of the reasons I like forging knives is in the evening when I need to keep things quiet because of neighbors or the kids are in bed I can still grind, polish or make sheaths and feel productive.  Last night was sitting on my anvil, working on a blade watching the sunset.  Is it weird to feel a certain bond to your tools?  It's like spending time with good friends and good for the soul.

 

Yes, my anvil doubles as a chair sometimes.  Quite comfortable.

[ThorsHammer82]

Definately. The only real smithing I've done was in boyscouts 15+ years ago, but I'm an avid welder and there is definately something spiritual about working with metal. I'm currently in the process of building up a small hobby forge to add to my metal working abilities and knowledge and I can tell you without a doubt The time I am most happy is when I'm manipulating hot metal to my will. I think the only thing that could make me happier, is when my boys 3 and 11 mnths are old enough to learn. I find my zen when I'm welding. creating something from metal is not only a test of skill, but inginuty and artistry as well.

[macbruce]

How could any process that uses earth,air,fire and water in unison not be spiritual? It's the Grandaddy of ALL crafts and key to rize of civilization itself....Primative and raw...I love beating hot metal...... B)

[Frosty]

Any work can be a spiritual experience/exercise, some better than others. Picking a pallet or hooking a tank on a forklift smoothly without rattling the pallet or simply hooking the lift ring without dragging the hook more than just touching the lift eye is very satisfying to a lift operator. Been there done that but doing it 10 hrs a day for a couple decades would wear the meditative qualities off the job.

 

I find forging very meditative and theraputic. It's symbolic value is incredibly high. think of all the ways iron and steel are used in languages all round the world. Human civilization is built on steel at virtually every level. Iron will, man of steel, etc. etc. indicates it's significance to us as human beings.

 

Now take mankind's two oldest tools, something to hit with and fire, add thumbs and a great big brain to plan and manipulate our tools. With our innate ability and will, we use our most basic tools and have our way with steel! We bend it to our will.

 

Therapy comes in as soon as we decide to light a fire. You can't even light a solid fuel fire unless you can control the elements. Once lit you have to manage the fire or you'll get nowhere with the steel, not hot enough or burn it up. You MUST control the fire. then take it to the anvil, now you must control the steel while you manipulate it with hammer, bending fork, vise, etc. etc. None will go well if you can't control it. you can NOT control other things unless you can control yourself. There it is, you have to put things that bother you aside or you'll do nothing but ruin steel even tools but they just do NOT care. You CAN ruin steel but you can NOT hurt it.

 

Steel and everything else in the smithy is just highly refined dirt and it doesn't care what YOU think or feel, it's just there. It's up to YOU what you do with it or to it. It's so theraputic it's hard to define. For those times you don't think you'll be right again till you kill something slowly, just building the fire will cure THAT little issue. I've never been able to put a piece in the fire just to beat it to death without finding myself trying to figure out what to make. That's IT, I'm off, problems just become prattle and I'm in the zone, gone and making.

 

So, yeah smithing sings to my soul, I sometimes trance out and live in the steel molecules as I forge it. I find it very meditative; spiritual works.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[tzonoqua]

Smithing is creative, creative energy is pure and universal!! 

 

 

[Dan C]

Getting to pass the experience onto to others certainly enhances the experience.  I had a HS friend I hadn't seen in 20 years come over, kinda lost track of what the final result was supposed to be, ended up with a RR spike drawn out over a foot.  Made an interesting bottle opener for his wife.  I love having my kids or friends join in, though each time reminding them of safety concerns.  Often times when someone comes back over they will bring some sort of metal asking what can be done with it.  That's also how I got my squirrel cage blower.

 

For me the anvil & forge is just the beginning.  Putting to use a tool that you forged from what was considered junk is very satisfying.  I showed a co-worker the knife I made out of a file and she was astonished that a knife that was beautiful and functional could be made in someone's garage.  We're so accustomed nowadays to things being mass produced.  Helping preserve what our ancestor's did is much of what we are doing, from the old salt's on this forum to the beginner's asking about how to forge swords it keeps the knowledge alive.  While many beginners may loose interest, many will forget what first drew them to smithing and see the beauty in a well forged tool, or the elegance of a candle holder.  Then there's the satisfaction you get from the routine problem solving that accompanies our craft.  Each time you overcome a problem you have one more bit of knowledge to add to your tool belt and have a little bit more confidence to overcome the next challenge.

[Matt Smith]

I whole heartily agree that smithing is more than just banging on metal...I am a youth pastor and am currently in collage seeking my masters in Religion Studies.... I believe that God made man with the desire to create and make things with our hands. We have a primitive desire to form and mold something from nothing in a sense what God did with us when he created humanity. This is not saying that we play at being God but that the desire to create is in our souls and for those of us lucky enough to discover this about ourselves it can be a time of development and growth... That's just my 2 cents.

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Aparofan,

 

Wow sounds like you have a serious case of FE-26...  How do you  think I feel ,  Ben doing it for 40 years ..   My last name starts with Coke and my middle name is ART.   Do what makes you happy and do it well...

 

Forge on and make beautiful things..

Jim

[DanielC]

Blacksmithy has truly transformed my love for both art and industrial machinery! I too live in NC and am also power hammer shopping! Most smiths I have personally gotten to know has always been more than glad to help me along the way. Sometimes that was with equipment and other times to help me gain perspective of the whole big picture. I wish you a thousand times over to find the same kind of love for something so elemental.

Eventually your anvils will have a voice. Unforgettable ring or thud of a voice unique to your anvil alone. Treat her well!

If you ever need any help just hollar!

[SmoothBore]

Some days more than others ..... 

 

 

Some days are very "Zen", ... and others explore to outer limits of "Chaos" theory.

 

 

Either way, ... it's what you get, ... so you might as well enjoy .....  :rolleyes:

 

 

 

.

[aparofan]

I think each and everyone of you have proven what I was trying to say. There is a bond in this community that goes deeper than the forge and anvil. There are people that have anything in common from cars to motorcycles to animals and I've know a few. They're always willing to help each other out for the sake of the hobby which is cool but something about this art form seems to bring people together on a whole different level. I've had invites to peoples shops, studios, and homes who didn't know me but they never gave it a second thought when they asked and I kind of chalk it up to the common love and spirit of the craft. Maybe I'm just reading more into it but I'd like to think not.

[Robert Yates]

Facing Trials Like a Blacksmith

One day a friend who was not a Christian stopped at the little gorge to talk to him. Sympathizing with him in some of his trials, the friend said “It seems strange to me that so much affliction should pass over you just at the time when you have become an earnest Christian. Of course, I don’t want to weaken your faith in God or anything like that. But here you are, God’s help and guidance, and yet things seem to be getting steadily worse. I can’t help wondering why it is.”

 

The blacksmith did not answer immediately, and it was evident that he had thought the same question before. But finally, he said “You see here the raw iron which I have to make into horse’s shoes. You know what I do with it? I take a piece and heat it in the fire until it is red, almost white with the heat. Then I hammer it unmercifully to shape it as I know it should be shaped. Then I plunge it into a pail of cold water to temper it. Then I heat it again and hammer it some more. And this I do until it is finished.”

 

“But sometimes I find a piece of iron that won’t stand up under this treatment. The heat and the hammering and the cold water are too much for it. I don’t know why it fails in the process, but I know it will never make a good horse’s shoe.”

He pointed to a heap of scrap iron that was near the door of his shop. “When I get a piece that cannot take the shape and temper, I throw it out on the scrap heap. It will never be good for anything.”

 

He went on, “I know that God has been holding me in the fires of affliction and I have felt His hammer upon me. But I don’t mind, if only He can bring me to what I should be. And so, in all these hard things my prayer is simply this: Try me in any way you wish, Lord, only don’t throw me on the scrap heap.”

 

Quoted By: Lynell Waterman

 

 

Blacksmith

 

“Robert Barnes, My fellow fine,
Can you shoe this horse of mine?”
“Yes, good sir, that I can,
As well as any other man;
There’s a nail, and there’s a prod,
Now, good sir, your horse is shod.”

 

 

The Anvil- God's Word Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door !

 And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
When looking in, I saw upon the floor
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.


“How many anvils have you had,” said I,
“To wear and batter all these hammers so?”
“Just one,” said he, and then said with twinkling eye,
“The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”


And so, thought I, the anvil of God’s Word,
For ages skeptics' blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed – the hammers gone!

 

with this Posted Yes it is Very Spiritual at least for Me ! as I have survived Just a few years of 42 years and I am still in the Fire of life being forged into what the Good Lord wants me to be .

 

Samuel Cro

 

[oddtodd]

I find a kind of spirituality in anything I do with my hands. If I go without making or repairing something For too long, the voices get a LOT worse. I put a contol arm on a chrysler yesterday and I didn't hear the voices for the rest of the day. My arms are tired and my back is sore, but no voices. THe blacksmith's shop is the best for me though.I don't hear the voices for a day or two. The only problem right now is I am trying to get myself back in shape for the museum. I don't have any tours. All of them are done with for the summer. I found out that just pushing a broom and cleaning display cases make the voices a lot worse. I am going to try to talk the director into doing demonstrations on saturday from 1 to 4 cus that's when the museum is open on the weekends. It would be something at least. They didn't tell me that they would only need me for 2 months out of the year when I started volunteering. Now I am so depressed I'm taking apart my airguns and refinishing them just for something to do. I was supposed to fix a car on tuesday with a power window problem, but they moved it to this tuesday. I just can't find enough to do like this and I am having a really hard time of it. I find my spirituality lacking right now and I am sorely troubled for it.I'm looking forward to a 30 by 40 deck, and it's not just for the money. It's freedom. It's creation. It's what I exist for. These projects come fewer and fewer these days and it scares me. This may sound bad but making things for me is better than anything. It's addictive, like a drug. I even bought a toy robot kit to get me thru my Theresa's dequervain's release, and it actually got me thru it without any anxiety meds. This is how bad I am anymore. If you guys have any suggestions I would be more than happy to hear them. I just wish I could get a job. I want to so bad, but if I can't do two easy days at a museum, I can't do hard work in the real world.This may sound bad, but christianity just doesn't do it for me. I mean I believe in god and I go to church, and I want to go to heaven, and I do my best to live right, but it's not enough. I need my hands doing something to make it all work for me. I'm rambling now so I am going to stop. But Life will get better, right?

[Frosty]

Todd Brother mine: We all have our challenges some sore some fine but challenged we all are. what point wold life be were we not to live? "Dum Vivimus Vivimus" While I live let me LIVE. From "Glory Road" by. Robert A. Heinlein.

 

I know how you feel, I don't fight with depression like I used to but the one way I used to get through bad times was to make. Most times I was in a situation where writing was my best outlet. I spent 20 years doing a field job and some 3/4 of that time in another town or tent in the bush. Not much in the way of doing things stuff you can haul along. I managed but still. . .

 

My most creative writing came while I was down, none great, very little published and that mostly articles for magazines but I did my best when I hurt the worst. I met Deb in 1996 and haven't been more than mildly glum since. Then too, I couldn't expect her to live in a mobile home in south Mountain View so we shopped a little and bought 30 acres of forest land and I got to make to my heart's content. Carved out a chunk, laid out roads, space for house, shop, garden, barn and critters, etc. then built the darned house my own darned self. I hired pro help of course but everything but the block foundation pony walls, well and steel roof has my hand in it. Paint, oh yeah, had it painted.

 

Good years, plenty of real time hands on problems to solve AND a job I got plenty of satisfaction from, transferred from the geology section to highways maintenance. Still, normal problems for my line of work and where we lived. Good times. Retired in 2007, got a nice little retirement job and got to spend a lot more time in the shop. Finish building it was high on the list but I was doing stuff in it too.

 

Then came 09/28/09 and I got in the way of a tree I was felling. woke up in a hospital some 3-4 weeks later and have been recovering ever since. the broken neck while healed hurts pretty often but a strong antihistamine usually helps. Awe, I'm rambling now and I didn't want to high jack the thread, just say I identify with you.

 

IFI is loaded with folk who live with pain, disease, loss, many are wounded warriors, some just konked characters like me. We all get great therapy from smithing, making does that for a person. I know this isn't a suggestion to help you deal with bad days, just trying to say we feel it too and you can bring your pain to us, we'll try to share it out.

 

Suggestions for making things when you can't get to the museum. have you heard of Fold Forming? It's a recently invented metal working technique, a quick search with these terms will yield you hours worth of reading. <fold forming Charles Lewton Brain>

 

Fold Forming doesn't take special tools, a small smooth jawed vise, tin snips, a couple light hammers and a small anvil like object, body and fender dollies are good enough but something like a 10lb bench anvil is perfect. Light copper sheet is the material most often used but folk are branching out into fold Forming aluminum to steel sheet under powerhammers and making some of the coolest things around.

 

Finishing the copper is as varied as the ways to finish copper, from polished and sealed to patinated to enameled, to ?

 

It's darned good creative making. Darned good. Good for the soul.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

My wife says that forging is good for constipation of the soul. She will send me out to the shop when I'm grumpy knowing I'll return in a couple of hours happy and serene.

[Nobody Special]

Dcraven, the anvil is a very comfy chair........until you lean/sit on it hot. Not that I've done that or anything..........

 

I'm very much an amateur........but it makes me happy.  Art, craft, the act of creation. Fire, an ancient symbol for life. Very elemental. I love the shaping that takes place under my hands.

 

So little of what I normally do during the day leaves something visible and tangible, and lasting. When I change a piece of iron, it stays changed, and I can see it.  And, when I make something I see or use every day, even just a kitchen knife or a hook with a few twists in it, it lifts my spirits.

 

On the other hand, being an amateur, I've had some days on the forge that'll definitely make you believe in the Devil. :)

[Frank Turley]

One can write reams on this subject, as there are many approaches for an answer. I wrote an article touching on this titled, "Defining the Inner Workspace" for Anvil's Ring back in the 1980's. It had to do with a form of mild meditation which one sometimes enters while working, when everything seems to go right, time is suspended, and at the end of the day, you are tired, but pleasantly so, kind of "rockin' chair on the porch as the sun sets, sort of tired." Mircea Eliade* discusses an alchemical approach in his hard-to-read book, "The Forge and the Crucible." I had a Trappist student once who said he was taught to meditate while working. Aparofan might be talking about a fraternity/sorority of like, sharing souls.

 

In any event, I think blacksmithing can be spiritual, if you bring spirit to it.

 

Sayings and Cornpone

"For all your days prepare.

And meet them all alike.

When you are the anvil, bear.

When you are the hammer, strike.

     Edwin Markham

[John B]

 

I find a kind of spirituality in anything I do with my hands. If I go without making or repairing something For too long, the voices get a LOT worse. I put a contol arm on a chrysler yesterday and I didn't hear the voices for the rest of the day. My arms are tired and my back is sore, but no voices. THe blacksmith's shop is the best for me though.I don't hear the voices for a day or two., and I do my best to live right, but it's not enough. I need my hands doing something to make it all work for me. I'm rambling now so I am going to stop. But Life will get better, right?

My sympathies go out to you (and I don't mean to be patronising), and I have been rooting for you and I applaud all the help you so deservedly have received.

By now you have a fair grounding in the blacksmiths skills, and perhaps its time to look at other aspects of the craft, Fold forming as Frosty suggests may be useful and one way to go, another I would recommend is to investigate and have a go at is repoussee, you don't need many tools and what you do need you can usually make yourself from ordinary mild steel. It is very absorbing and small items can easily be made like picture frames, flowers, buckles, or dishes with scenes on them that will be sellable, and don't take up a great space to store or work on, so you can do this at home.

Whatever you do I wish you well and fulfillment, Physically location wise we may be far apart, but spiritually we are alongside. I wish you both the very best and that you finally put the voices to rest.

[Francis Trez Cole]

That is for sure. in old times and new when doing a bloom of iron ore the furnaces were given an offering to today some use hot peppers. Blacksmiths were revered They can control all four elements and in a pagan community that was mystical and special. To day people a more reserved in there opinion.  When the God's and Goddesses are on your side all goes well.

 

It was said to me by a strong religious man one day after he watched me forge for a few hours. You must be a strong man that Fire is right on the edge of good and evil all the time. I like to think the things I make are for good.

 

When iron was found in Greece he said it must be from the devil because any thing that had to be forced out of the earth and burned in a fire had to come from him.

 

then there are the blacksmiths that shod the devil that's why blacksmith ring there anvil to remind the devil to stay away. 

[ThorsHammer82]

This is something I wrote for the passing of a well respected member of a welding forum that i'm part of. I feel it'll ring true here as clear as the call of an anvil.

 

"Heaven is not a place where the streets are paved with gold. It is a place where people are at peace and never out in the cold. Heaven for me is not wings and harps and song. It's beads and sparks and tongs. My heaven is a work shop filled with every tool. A place that cleans itself and is always the perfect tempature of cool. The beads are always perfect. The settings always true. and when I pass through those gates to join those who went before me. I'll dawn my hood for the last time, for there's work to do before me."

[Avadon]

Unfortunately you do meet some people who have the wrong attitude in the community, negative, unhelpful, judging, condescending, etc. Sorry to diminish your high. Thankfully though these people are quite few and far between. Like many artistic communities, the majority are willing to bend over backwards to help you get started by offering sage advice and even sometimes tangible help with materials/tools. Many people here have helped me from day one and continue to do so. Therefore I'm a big believer of paying it forward to others who are just getting started. I think this is par philosophy in the blacksmithing community: Use the knowledge and skills that are given to you and pass them on to others so we can continue this great art.

As for it being "spiritual" that is a tricky question. I think any art can be anything from relaxing to becoming the basis for a religion and everything in between. If you ever played the game 'Thief' by Eidos, there was a religious sect called the "Hammerites" and they were blacksmiths, forgers, and mechanists. It was fairly intriguing simply because you could see something like that happening in a medieval world. The actual history of art and religion are nearly inseparable as art (an expression of the human condition) has chronicled religion (an expression of mankind's belief in the divine) in so many countless ways from painting to engineering and everything in between. Blacksmithing itself has been chronicled in the iconography of the medieval time and championed in the age. I believe politically though this was mostly due to smithing being the engine of warfare  as this is where the society would turn for weapons, armor, etc. But clearly the blacksmith was as important for that age as a supermarket is for our age. Neither age could hardly survive a day without it.

[eric sprado]

Anything you do that allows you to "get lost in it" and which does no harm to your fellow man,can be spiritual. I'm blessed to have my smithing,my fiddle, and writing. All of which allow me to "get lost in them".

[John B]

 

That is for sure. in old times and new when doing a bloom of iron ore the furnaces were given an offering to today some use hot peppers. Blacksmiths were revered They can control all four elements and in a pagan community that was mystical and special. To day people a more reserved in there opinion.  When the God's and Goddesses are on your side all goes well.
 
 
When iron was found in Greece he said it must be from the devil because any thing that had to be forced out of the earth and burned in a fire had to come from him.

And in Egypt the Pharoe's embalmers used iron from the Gods(stars) in the form of meteorites, pre iron age to make their tools, so were blacksmiths around before the iron age?

[Mark Emig]

Spiritual?? I don't know. Blacksmiths, like all others, are good and bad, and do good and bad. I was reminded once that a Smith made the nails that cruified people, and many other insruments of torture. Me, I just make pretty stuff, for the most part.