What could be better?

[Joel OF]

A lot of us fall over ourselves to say how great metal work/forge work is but for the sake of balance what frustrations do you have with "our" material/medium?

[Daswulf]

About everything to do with it is heavy, hot, and or sharp. 

In A few seconds you can burn up or break hours of work. 

The usual lack of understanding of the trade from people. 

I sure hate those little wires from wire wheels that you only find sticking in your cloths when you move and they jab you. 

The tiny little metal speck that finds its way into your eye. 

Lack of an actual third arm and hand.  boy would that be useful. 

[ThomasPowers]

Not having the time to spend more time at the forge.  Not having electrical service to the smithy---yet.

 

[Judson Yaggy]

You have to jump thru some hoops to make iron/steel survive outdoors.  

Our chosen media can ALSO be worked by any hack with a welder and grinder.  Hard to educate clients about the difference between fab and forge work.  Frankly, it's hard to educate some "blacksmiths" about the difference.  

Everyone you meet thinks that you shoe horses.

Everyone you meet thinks you make knives.  I tell them that knife makers are jewelers for machos.  

Das forgot to say that iron is HEAVY!

Unless you embrace paint, our work has a fairly boring range of colour.  

[Daswulf]

Oh yeah, it's HEAVY! 

And the more you add, the heavier the workpiece gets. 

I totally agree with Thomas, there is just never enough time. ( speaking from someone with a full time day job and this as a beloved hobby)

 

When keeping coal stored out side during freezing weather it's a solid frozen lump you have to chip away at to get forge fuel. 

[Exo313]

54 minutes ago, Judson Yaggy said:

Our chosen media can ALSO be worked by any hack with a welder and grinder.  Hard to educate clients about the difference between fab and forge work.  Frankly, it's hard to educate some "blacksmiths" about the difference. 

There's also a huge difference between good fabrication work and hack jobs. Ever seen the badwelding subreddit? 

I think of fabrication as the whole picture. It may include forging, cold forming, riveting, layout, assembly, design, and yes, welding. Not to mention final finishing.

I think the root issue isn't fabbed vs. forged as much as it's the first part of your "any hack with a welder".

Way too many "fabbers" out there. Along with the "plumbers", "electricians", "finish carpenters", and "handymen". Don't get me started on the "general contractors".

[Frosty]

EXO: How many of the guys out there doing "fab" work do you think actually went to school to learn the craft? While I studied fabrication from jr. High on, they wouldn't even let me enroll in a tech school fabrication course until I earned a "pipe and structural" welding cert. 

The only hacks I don't mind are the ones I use on my power hammer to cut stock, all others should get a real job.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Exo313]

I probably should've been clearer in retrospect. The problem is hacks with welders. Or hacks with framing hammers. Or whatever they pick up and try to be professional at without the training or interest in quality or improvement.

I think fabrication is a fine term, if a bit broad for my taste. And something fabricated isn't necessarily shoddy. And a blacksmith that builds elements made up of more than one piece is also doing fabricating, not just forging.

[Joel OF]

My main gripes are also weight & weatherproofing. How filthy the job is bugs me sometimes too.

[ausfire]

What annoys me? Not much really.

I don't appreciate the know-all visitor who gives a running commentary on what you're doing ... and often gets it wrong.

Burning off the ring on a bottle opener when you've spent ages making a fancy handle. (My fault)

The heat. The forge generates enough without 40 degrees outside. (Can't control the weather)

All up, not a lot to complain about.

[MC Hammer]

As a fairly green blacksmith, I think it costs a lot to get started the right way.  Sure, I know, I know, you can make a coffee can forge & find a HF hammer then hammer on a sledge hammer head as an anvil to technically forge but not really.  Just like a guy can buy a hunting license, grab any gun and go out in the woods....but is he really a hunter hunting?  Yes and no.  It's taken me over a year to get a decent anvil, tongs, forge and the basic hammers.  Sure, a hammer, an anvil of some kind, one set of tongs, and a heat source is all you need to heat metal up and pound it, but you can only go so far with that.  True, the tools do not make the smith, but I think the right tools help a guy learn the skills quicker and safer.

Probably the other thing that's tough is that people think it's all easy to do.  FIF makes a guy think he can get started making knives so when people see an S hook or some other hardware item they think it was easier than a knife thus should not cost very much to purchase.  A lot of work can go into a nice set of hinges for a chest, but people just think that because they can go to their local hardware big box store and buy something that LOOKS similar for $9.99 that your hinges should be the same.  I think it takes another craftsman looking at what we do to understand and appreciate the work involved.  I find myself looking at antique things and seeing the welds and things and appreciating the long dead smith who made knowing exactly how he went about making the thing I'm looking at.  

Maybe this doesn't apply to most, but I have to haul all my forging stuff outside to forge.  I'm happy to do it, but it is a craft that really needs a dedicated space.  If I could sneak out to a dedicated forge building and forge for 2 hours that would be great - rain, shine, snow.  It's just been too cold to forge this way up here in NY this winter.

Other than that (and I really had to push away all the things I just think are great about blacksmithing just to come up with these) I love everything about this craft and love learning new things each time I forge.

[Exo313]

I strongly dislike municipal bylaws restricting when and how you can burn things to the point where even having a charcoal forge is questionable.

Re: FIF. I'm highly amused that people look at that show, with all the catastrophic failures, and think "that looks easy". If anything, I watch the show and am less interested in making knives afterwards. 

[JHCC]

39 minutes ago, Exo313 said:

Re: FIF. I'm highly amused that people look at that show, with all the catastrophic failures, and think "that looks easy". If anything, I watch the show and am less interested in making knives afterwards. 

It’s certainly cured me of any impulse to rush into swordmaking. 

[ThomasPowers]

When I lived in the inner city of Columbus Ohio I once had a neighbor that would call the fire department on me. By shear coincidence (or clear evidence of a beneficent Deity) Every time I had the FD show up wedging their big truck down the narrow alleyway I was cooking using our smoker which under the burning laws in effect there was an "allowed exception" (along with heating).   I was told on the quiet that the person who kept calling me in was told there would be a US$1000 fine for the next "false alarm" they called in...Back to forging with coal with on interference!

[MC Hammer]

6 hours ago, Exo313 said:

I strongly dislike municipal bylaws restricting when and how you can burn things to the point where even having a charcoal forge is questionable.

Re: FIF. I'm highly amused that people look at that show, with all the catastrophic failures, and think "that looks easy". If anything, I watch the show and am less interested in making knives afterwards. 

I must clarify...........The editing necessary on FIF eliminates the normalizing, tempering, and a great deal of the other work involved in making a correct knife.  Quite a few people I know that watch the show and do not forge think it looks pretty easy.  I think if you forge and watch the show you know it's difficult.

I live out in the sticks, so as long as I'm not building a nuclear power plant, nobody cares so I don't run into the restrictions a lot of other folks do.  I think the thing that bothers me is insurance.  If they can wiggle out of covering you they will.  I once argued with an insurance adjuster because the sunny side of my roof had lighter colored shingles than the side that sees no sun.  He claimed half were newer than the other and had some concerns about writing the policy.  Only after offering to get my ladder out and have him climb on up with me so he could take closer look did he decide his slick dress shoes weren't up to it and changed his thinking.  Yeah, that's the kind of guy who shows up to your forge fire and says "Sorry, page 942 of subsection 10 part A-6 clearly states that we don't cover.........."  Or they cover the loss then drop their coverage telling you to shop around. 

 

[anvil]

On 1/20/2018 at 11:37 AM, JHCC said:

It’s certainly cured me of any impulse to rush into swordmaking. 

Lol,, how true

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

On 1/20/2018 at 1:12 AM, Joel OF said:

How filthy the job is bugs me sometimes too.

I know when I've had a good day, when the shower drain water runs black.

[Frosty]

Since the accident I'm bugged by way too many things so I make a concerted effort to not be bugged by anything that isn't too terribly dangerous like the time I was riding with a friend and he texted someone I was "dialing" on my cell so he could do me a . . . Favor."  We had words.

Half the things some of you guys are saying bug you are exactly the things guys complaining about, bugs me.

Funny how that works eh? 

Okay, clueless "youtube" how toos bug me, largely for all the false paths they send potential playmates down. However, even the worst of those fools can put a smile on my face. You hear, the "King of RanDumb was arrested on a couple felony charges for blowing stuff up. Yes? And the world becomes a smidge safer. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[rockstar.esq]

I'd say it's a gateway to tool accumulation.  I'd also throw out the humbling effect of learning this craft. Other than pottery, I don't know of a craft that works primarily by moving a volume of material without exclusively adding or subtracting.  Being proficient with power tools or even learning a skilled trade won't adequately prepare a person to think like a blacksmith.

 I've been stuck on something that seems impossible, then I'd run across a really old solution that seems so obvious after the fact.

Aside from the previously mentioned down-sides, I guess I'd throw out the hidden dangers for rookies using salvaged material  like galvanized steel, or sodium filled engine valves.  

Other than that, I'd throw out a tag-on to the youtube comment.  Lots, and lots of blacksmithing videos are heavily edited for time.  I'm not talking about cutting out the heats, I'm talking about forging videos that make it appear as though the smith swatted the project together in half an hour.   

I had specifically tried to follow their example.  I was at it hard for four hours and only got halfway when I decided to stop for the day to figure out what I was doing wrong to be so slow.  That evening I watched the video again and noticed there were some new comments from the smith who made the video.  Turns out, it took the smith 8 hours to forge the project depicted in 45 minutes.

Rookie mistake right?  I watched the video again and was immediately struck by how much the smith went on about how little rookies can get done in a heat.