Saw this on FB......It kinda defines primitive blacksmithing, human inginuity and will power rolled into one........ B)

The word traditional was intentionally left out..... :P

I sure wish I had a mailing address for those men. I would give them a few steel hammers and a steel block anvil. I am sure they are getting it done but my back aches just looking at the rock hammer.

Really makes me appreciate all that my ancestors went through to get me to this point.  It's mind-boggling to think that I can walk into any flea market or yard sale and get better kit than that for $30 or less.  

 

I agree, MLM, if I had their address, I'd ship them some kit just because I can and they could use it well.

When I see this stuff it always strikes me that they have very primitive tools but they also have modern clothing.   Might be very cheap stuff but they ain't wearing furs.

Actually a lot of poor people in Africa wear american cast off clothing distributed by charities.

Thanks for that. I just printed it out, I'm gonna laminate it and tape on my power hammer to look at the next time I feel whiny and tired.

"...wear american cast off clothing..."

 

As an interesting aside - I was watching a special on the making of the superbowl a few years ago and they showed how the promoters had to print shirts showing both teams as the victors because, obviously, it could go either way.  When the host asked them what they did with the "wrong" shirts after the game, they said that they were shipped to africa.  They even had footage of the boxes of shirts being opened in some african village and everyone soon parading around in the shirts!  Very funny stuff. :)

30$ = about 30 days wages if you're lucky enough to have a job, in much of the 3rd world. In South Africa that would equate to 3 days minimum wage.

Different thought process!
Ian

That's a perfect example of what does the work. It isn't the tools, they're just highly refined dirt. It's the minds and hands of people that do the work. I just wish they had some kind of eye protection.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Some Swiss anthropologists visited the Dogon people in Mali, and saw that they were using mostly auto junkyard steel. They knew that the people had an early iron furnace technology for making iron, and they inquired whether it could still be done. The answer was "yes." Several blacksmiths and ironmasters said that they could still produce iron the old way. They found hematite and made their charcoal. They built a furnace with induced draft tuyeres, no bellows. In a little over 30 days of hard work and ritual, the iron masters had produced more than one bloom resulting in several pounds of iron. In refining it, they showed the strikers in motion using the same stone method as shown in the still photo that macbruce submitted. 

 

The film is titled, "Inagina the Last House of Iron," a truly astounding work. We can be thankful that such technology was recorded.

I generally shop in thrift stores preferring to own good used clothing over cheap new clothing that falls apart after being washed a couple of times.  So I may be wearing a "designer" shirt to work but I paid under US$5 for it and yes I have worn clothes pulled out of dumpsters before---even the blood soaked army shirts (someone improvised a sling to carry a deer out of the woods and didn't want to deal with the mess----three runs through the laundrymat and I had a handful of nicely made hard wearing shirts for wearing in the shop!)

That photo must be photoshopped. No way that could be real.

They don't have a London pattern anvil or even a designer hammer so how could they be smithing at all.

Gotta be fake.

That makes me wonder if in 100 years there'll be an equivalent photo/message going around with a different country and culture depicted.  I appreciate the work ethic, and the resourcefulness.  I do also wonder why it takes so long for such folks to improve their industry.  

 

Then again, I see pictures of Detroit and it's hard to imagine how industry could decline so quickly.  Maybe I've answered my own question.

Maybe they have a nice anvil and a power hammer on the other end of the shop and they're just demonstrating the primitive way of doing things. :P

At a wage of $1 a day, and a government that doesn't subsidize food production it's hard to buy modern tools that the industrialized countries take for granted. A high school kid squanders more money in a month than they make in a year.

That may be true, Charles, but I wonder why they haven't used their knowledge to make better tools for themselves.  Surely they've come across derelict cars that they can salvage an axle from to make a decent sledge of some type!

 

Of course, then I'm reminded of the PLO's deliberate use of stone tools when the media was present so they looked like down-trodden protestors.  Who really knows the story behind this picture?

 

It's got us all saying we'd gladly donate a hammer or three, or money, so maybe it's done it's job?

It would appear in the picture that the age old allure of the blacksmith shop is world wide.  2 guys working, 2 guys watching, one standing in the doorway could be in any shop in the US, but I'll bet they have no liability insurance problems.  The fellow with the rock, he's big enough to  be a striker in anybody's shop. 

That photo must be photoshopped. No way that could be real.

They don't have a London pattern anvil or even a designer hammer so how could they be smithing at all.

Gotta be fake.

I bet they don't have access to on-line blacksmithing forums either.  What they know they learned from the old guy down the road, and by just good old trial and error.  Honestly, the world could use more of that type of spirit...

Just some interested guys fooling around with an antiquated technique.

 

Serious "re-enactors" would have foregone the plastic shoes and smooth-shaved heads.  :unsure:

 

 

But that's OK too.

 

Same thing happens when a neighbor stops by my shop.

 

They might have thought they were just going to get a part welded, ... fabricated, ... or machined, ... only to learn that the "History Lesson" was integral to the process.  :P

 

 

 

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May I commend to your attention the UN manuals on blacksmithing (published by their food branch!)  that were written WRT Africa and so use the tools common to the area to make common items used in that area.

 

Due to the high cost of scrap metal it can be hard to find derelict cars in some places...

Hopefully kids in Detroit will be able to read that UN manual - sadly their time is coming.  On the plus side, there's plenty of derelict cars for them.

 

 

The film is titled, "Inagina the Last House of Iron," a truly astounding work. We can be thankful that such technology was recorded.

Frank,

Just watched this film (bought the dvd and a few others from an online store)...well made.

Thank you for mentioning it!

Ric