What are the signs blacksmithing has taken over your life? Is it rushing home from work and skipping dinner so you can work at the forge, collecting rusty metal, the ton of coal in the back yard?

What are the signs we need to look for ?

You'd rather go to the flea market on Saturday to look for punches, vises, hammers, etc. than to watch your (previously) favorite college football team.

uh ohh.. I've been described so far,

You consider yourself fortunate for living so close to the railroad.
Your computer history is greater than 50% iforgeiron/other smithing websites.
you never see this thread because you are currently in fact beating on some metal somewhere.

I guess blacksmithing never took over my life, I couldn't wait to get home from the shop, take a bath to get unblack and grimy and get down to the wood shop to play and relax, never had any desire to cruise RR tracks for junk iron, had enough at the shop why bring more home to fill up the junk iron barrel. Never really enjoyed demoing smithing on week ends cause I did it all week long as a job, But I did enjoy demoing hand tool Woodworking as no one else was doing it. And I got a bang outa watching the wannabe smiths demoing near me.

when my wife texts me an hour before work is over and does not mention dinner but asks Are We Gonna Hammer something this evening.

when my wife texts me an hour before work is over and does not mention dinner but asks Are We Gonna Hammer something this evening.

SW you are a LUCKY MAN!

No he is not! You *never* want to share a hobby with your wife; sure you get to use more of the household funds buying tools for it; but they they always want to *use* those same tools when you want to! You have the urge to work in the shop and you find out the propane tank's empty, you can't set up to work on a project cause the DW's project is hogging the layout table, etc.

Far better to have hobbies that don't share the same space of tools!

My wife of 23 years is a spinster and has no need or urges to bring her materials or equipment any where near the smithy! Sheer Joy!

BLACKSMITH'N HAS YOU :WHEN A WOMAN ASK "ARE WE GONN'A HAMMER SOMETHING" & AN INNUENDO DOES NOT CROSS YOUR MIND !:p

LOL, Good point!

I've had rusty metal and tons of coal in the back yard for a long time. Guess that makes me a lifetime addict! What's even worse, I've noticed on days when I not smithing.....and happen to walk by the shop, that I'm drawn in to the smell of the doused coke from the last fire!
The aroma tells me "Time to hammer some iron"!

Let me count the ways
You start a new guild in the state
you build a new shop just to have a better meeting place for this new guild.
Your wife is appointed to the board of directors of ABANA
You cant stop buying blacksmithing related items.
Your every thought seems to revolve around the next meeting " ie " who do get for the demo,what to serve for lunch,what to put in iron in the hat,the weather, how many do you think will show up,where will you park them etc.etc.etc.
your spare time is used designing t shirts and logo's
you are on this site and others looking for things to make or do.
the highlight of your year is QUADSTATE so you can aquire even more blacksmithing stuff
Your username is burned into the screen because you are here so often.


HOLY SMOKES im turning into a CYBERSMITH

I NEED HELP
thats the first step right admitting that you need help

Mike Tanner

The second step is to divest yourself of your temptations


I'll send a truck over!

Thomas
I never said that I wanted help / I only said that I needed help :)

Boy there are some sick people here You may or may not know (but you do now) that the rewind and pause functions were put on your remote so you can revisit and study ironwork in movies whether they be from Paris, London, Rome, Texas , or Harlem.

When I text my husband to say, "I need you to hammer something for me this evening" and he knows that I am (most likely) NOT speaking in innuendo, but actually need his help striking for me!!
;)