Hello friends.  This forum has always been awesome.   I think Glenn and perhaps other moderators are still around that keep this place sane and not full of trash talk.    In 2016 we flooded and that made a big set back in many things.    Forging being one of them.   And folks, please no sympathy on that.  Life is what it is and we move forward.   And we are doing just that.

Just wanted to say hello again to folks that may remember me (or not, it doesn't matter) and hello to others that don't recall me and perhaps goodbye to others who may have "moved on" in whatever form that may have occurred.  

Borntoolate - Could have been a blacksmith 200 years ago but instead, born too late.    Ended up in the petrochemical industry as an engineer.  Pay is good.  Stress in high.   Retirement is good!

Welcome Back BTL. 

Welcome back. 

Dont know how I feel but I could accept having been born earlier, as things go much of the present and looking at the future lots doesn't make sense to me. We are where we are and we gotta make the best of it.

Good to see you again BTL! 

Too late, too soon . . . . here now.  THESE are the good old days!

Frosty The Lucky. 

B.  T,  L. ,

Welcome back.

SLAG.

Good to see your biline again BTL. 

Hey BTL, I am a new member to the forum so I don't know if this is appropriate but: welcome back!

I used to think like that: being born in the wrong era, but not any more. I am a blacksmith here and now. Payment sucks, stress is high and retirement will never happen, but I enjoy what I am doing. I am not sure I would enjoy being a blacksmith 200 years ago. I also had a glance to the petrochemical industry ( worked for a company who fabricates oil rig and refinery equipment) and it is not rosy.

I hope you find the way to get back to forging again.

I remember you, easy with that handle.

I had a friend who got his G.E.D. (he had some medical issues and didn't graduate high school with us),and started working with Chevron. Out of the Three Musketeers he may be the best off today. Went from operator to pencil pusher, great retirement, great benefits, and fantastic pay.

As to being too late....depends on how late.. I have read about working conditions years ago and kind of like my cushy environs today   But as a smith I like the Art Nouveau era with the natural flowing shapes and designs, as opposed to the rigid Art Deco era.

Desert-Owl-Forge, don't sell yourself short. You are a fantastic smith, you just need the right clientele.

All good points especially on the conditions years ago.   Living in the South I have become quite partial to air conditioning.    It;s kinda in like with Food, Water, Air Conditioning and so on...   It's in the 90s today and I expect that to be the norm through August and usually part of September. 

I kinda like the BTL handle.   I might keep it.   I can probably make many meanings from it.  Thanks for the replies and I hope to be a bit more active here.   I am not yet retired so that is in the future.   And we have a huge turnaround in June/July so that won't be optimum for the short term.   

BUt my shop is all back together, new and improved.   33'x33' by 16' high at the corners metal building and 10' overhang all along the back which we slabbed in fully over Christmas.   All wired for sound with satellite radio and zero commercials.    

Welcome back.

I used to think I was born to the wrong time-period then came to realize it's the ideals of the old ways that I identify with more than the way things were back in the day.  Back then people took time to make things that lasted and the people bought them appreciating the craftsmanship knowing that they could not do it themselves or were too busy sowing the north 400 acres to mess with it.  People weren't in a hurry back then and families / friends meant something.  We've lost a lot of that today and start complaining while waiting at a traffic light for oh say 2 minutes (guilty too of this) in our air conditioned car listening to music on the car stereo system.  So me and my wife are more and more identifying with the old ideals.  The last time the power went out we lit the kerosene lanterns and she read a book by the last evening light and I sat next to her sewing up a bear fur.  It was actually kind of nice.  I barter and sell things to raise money for other things and we pay cash on the barrel for most things.  I think there is a way to live back then, you just have to bring those good qualities back into your life today.  It's the best we can do.  

Welcome back BTL ... on your name the plume theme ... it is easy to idealise the 'ol days' as the times were things were slow and easy going and ideals were high and we made tools and machines to last.

The fact is that stress to make ends meet was as high as ever, security non existing, occupational health and safety a joke, pollution rampant, disease had free reign and ignorance and superstition was as popular as social media. 

Would you have liked to live in those days? Most likely not, but anyone born back then would have known no better and adapted or died.

There is a lot to be admired from those that came before us, the simplest thing was a hard slog to make or to achieve. The one thing I don't desire is to be born before my time. 

If anyone ever achieves time travel, going back as a tourist would probably be interesting but coming back a necessity. Hypothetically speaking of course. 

 

Ugh I keep reading BLT. I must be hungry. 

If I was alive back then---I'd be dead!  (as of 2 years old, high single digits, 28 years old, 35 years old, 39 years old, mid 40's--early 60's)

BTL==Bell Telephone Labs  my family has about 80 years in with them before the crash; between My father, Uncle and Me.

Ok, I will stay in this time period for the time being.   But time will tell.    Puns intended or at least attempted.    I have been overseas in some third world countries and yes it is nice to get back to "civilization" so to speak.    

I keep hoping that medical science can keep at least a half step ahead of me.   Where all you've been if you are willing to share...

The inquisition would have killed me for sure ...

With my luck, I would have been a casualty at Fort Sumter 1861.

of dysentery....or malaria or yellow fever...