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I Forge Iron

Samburu blacksmith at work!


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Very interesting indeed Sam! Those bellows are just as described in Harries & Heer. Anvil looks like a partially buried length of rail track. A week to make a spear? Wow. I expect that's from bloom to trading for 2 goats. Captive market too; nice work if you can get it! :D

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Kinda makes me feel guilty for letting 2 good anvils rust along with 30 something hammers and tongs while people like this guy use such primitive tools.

I bet we would make very good work with our amount of resources.. .

I still don;t get how the bellows work exactly.

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The bellows are basically bags with a large opening at one end fastened to the two sticks.

They way they work is you pull back and inflate them while holding the sticks open, then close the sticks together and push to deflate them pushing the air into the fire through a smaller opening fastened to a tube leading into the fire.

The kid has great hand coordination---he must have been doing it for years!

There used to be a picture on the net of a fellow in asia that used a monky to crank a blower for him.

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so how many people out there use hammers without handles?
haha, rather strange, considering they put handles on all there garden tools, but not on hammers

My dad tells me stories about German POWs that we put to work in their various trades during the war. The machinists were issued tool boxes and many would immediately cut the handles off the hammers. I asked why and Dad said it was so they wouldn't be tempted to use them. Supposedly, they felt that if they couldn't perform their craft without using a hammer, they were doing something wrong. :)

Sam's video reminds me of the Dogon tribe in Africa. The blacksmith makes religious idols for the tribe. He is also the tribe wood carver and as you might imagine, makes his own carving tools. He primarily carves large masks, also for the religious ceremonies.
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