Forging in the developing world

[spicehammer]

I'm interested in learning the sorts of skills that a village blacksmith in a developing country would need. One of the smiths I know of spent time working as a village blacksmith in Sri Lanka after he completed his apprenticeship and his work is incredible (his name is Jake James, he started in the UK but he's in the Pacific Northwest now). My goal is to do a similar thing to build up skill. Seeing as my country doesn't have a formal apprenticeship system I'm going to continue to learn on my own for the next few years before taking my next blacksmithing certificate course, during which I'll focus on honing these particular skills under an experienced teacher.

I know that each village would differ in its needs. I'd like to build up a diverse skillset so I'd have a good chance of doing well wherever I went and and not being incompetent. I'm sure that forge welding, heat treating and tempering, and recycling would all be useful skills to develop to a high degree, amongst many others. If anyone has any experience with or stories about forging in these conditions I would love to hear about it. 

[ThomasPowers]

There are 3 manuals written for the UN just on that subject.  They were written with respect to Africa but I think you will find a lot of commonality 

May I commend to your attention:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/ah637e/ah637e00.htm

For the Basic manual; also look for the Intermediate and Advanced manuals as well.

 

[Charles R. Stevens]

I second Tommas's suggestion

[spicehammer]

I've been looking through them, and they seem like exactly what I was looking for. Thanks very much Thomas! 

[John McPherson]

Also useful guides along the bootstrap route are:

"Basic Blacksmithing, Intro to Tool Making"   1993   Harries, David & Heer, Bernhard

Written as an Instructor's guide to teach self-sufficient tool making to Third World farmers, starting from scrapped car parts. Good line drawings, and builds on skills from simple to complex.

and "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" by Alexander Weygers

A trained machinist and blacksmith, world traveler in the 30's and 40's, who shows how he built workshops from junk wherever he went.

 

[ThomasPowers]

And I second "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" as it's very much "from the ground up" including making basic tools that most of us would never think of making as they are so cheap and easy to find----in the first world!

[tzonoqua]

Hi Spicehammer, 

I worked in Western Rajasthan, with a tribe of Blacksmiths called the Gaduliya Lohar. Was quite an amazing experience but was also incredibly challenging. Pm me if you want more info. 

 

[spicehammer]

Thank you all for your replies! I've already got a copy of The Complete Modern Blacksmith which I've been going over, but I haven't heard of the other, so I'll definitely find it. Basic Blacksmithing sounds really good, recycling has always been interesting for me. 

tzonoqua, I'll do that for sure - really appreciate the offer!

[VaughnT]

Check out Mark Aspery's videos.  He's just started a line of them that covers "old school" things.  It was a real pleasure to see a big hook being made because a lot of what's written in old books just doesn't seem to translate in my brain.   Trace Hook, "Old-School" project #1

Rowan Taylor is another one to keep an eye on.  He's doing a lot of "simple" projects and his work is top shelf.  Blacksmithing: making a rush-light holder.

I really appreciate their taking the time to do solid videography and not crowd the scene with cheesy soundtracks and the like.