Hello from some High School senior

[James Theriault]

Hey I am a high school senior who is interested in becoming a Smith so much so I am doing my senior project research paper with the research question ” Why has there been a resurgence in Blade and Blacksmithing in recent years?” I am currently working on my rough draft and was asked to talk about what camps/associations have been doing to keep/expand interest in the fields. So I would like to ask you all for your input on the subject and some peer review on my paper. There are probably other things I should ask but I can’t remember them. If you are interested in reading my rough draft I will share what I have with you via google docs. Thank You.

 

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[Charles R. Stevens]

Welcome aboard, please stay and let us do more than help you with your paper.

i see a few reasons, in the era of Wally World high quality products are becoming scarce, so restored antiques and hand forged become desirable buy a certain part of the economy. Steel prices have risen in recent years so milling from solid blanks is not as economical as having blanks forged to aproximent size and shape and finished (up to the 80’ when steel prices dropped Arizona Public Service maintained a blacksmith to forge blanks for the machine shops to make unobtainable parts for some of the older generating stations). Further their has always been a potion of the economy who wanted custom work for bragging rights. Historical restoration work and even Hollywood using historic levy acreage reproductions also creates a Niche market. Lastly there has always been peaple looking for hobbies working with their hands.

cuple all this with the internet making it relitivly easy to obtain information. Be it on spinning and weaving or  iron work, peaple have a chance to explore hobbies that they may not have had the chance to inherit from their families.

 

[ThomasPowers]

Frank Turley's blacksmithing school just celebrated 50 years and He was awarded ABANA's Heritage award---I was there for the occasion!

You may want to compare and contrast some of the other Blacksmithing resurgences; like the Arts & Crafts movement, nationalism of the 20's and 30's, or the Back to the Land movement. 

Organizations like: The American Bladesmiths Society and the Knifemakers Guild, ABANA, BABA, etc

The role of historical reenactment groups: Rendezvous/Black Powder (Fur Trade) , SCA (Medieval/Renaissance),  Sealed Knot (ECW), ACW groups, etc.

And of course quite recently things like D&D, computer gaming and films and TV shows like Forged in Fire, Man at Arms, etc.

For a more sociological view; the rise of jobs that are "virtual" and the urge to go and do something with your hands that is concrete and physical---After a hard day of herding bits I really profit from being able to go home and hit something with a hammer, repeatedly.

I'd like to note that each "wave" also included books about the craft; so  a few examples: the A&C movement,  the 1911 Popular Mechanics book by Googerty (Hand-Forging: And Wrought-Iron Ornamental Work),  The tying in of folk crafts with nationalism in the 1930's,  (Geschmiedetes Eisen by Fritz Kühn),   the Back to the Land movement of the 1960's and 1970's  (The Modern Blacksmith, Weygers; The Edge of the Anvil, Andrews and the Last Whole Earth Catalog. Almost forgot to mention The Foxfire Books.)

One thing I have noticed is that people seem to think things "leapt forth from the head of Jove" recently when there has always been an overlooked base in place---Like Bill Moran rediscovering Damascus steel when folks in Europe were doing it on a regular basis.  (Manfred Sachse's father did some beautiful work in the nationalistic period around WWII; or the Hunting and Fishing Museum in Munich has some gorgeous pattern welded hunting guns from that time period as well.)

My first smithing book was "The Modern Blacksmith" by Alexander Weygers I ran across it at a Mall bookstore on the remaindered pile in the late 70's.

 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

My Dad and I got started back in the 70's. Weyger's book was one we used while taking blacksmithing classes at the local community college. So your mention of "recent" resurgence goes back how far?  I think what is driving the surge now is social media, and the internet forums like this one. Back when I started it was all done by mail, and searches at libraries. Today you can access information from around the world with a couple of keystrokes.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard James, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you'll find out how many members live within visiting distance. You'll learn more in an afternoon with an experienced blacksmith than days or weeks of research. Seriously, I can tell you all kinds of things about how soul satisfying it is to move steel with nothing but a fire, hammer, anvil, mind and hands but once you take hammer in hand and do it you'll NEVER KNOW. 

There are a number of reasons blacksmithing is enjoying a resurgence, I think it's more like being noticed by the public at large but that's another discussion. In large part mass produced products have given everyone in America with a job the opportunity to own things undreamed of by our Grandparents. My parents grew up pretty hard scrabble, 80 hr weeks were the norm, Father dropped out in the 8th. grade to get a job and help keep roof and food in the family. Mother knitted mittens, gloves and socks to put money in the kitty, started when she was 4 and listening to her knit was like hearing a zipper pulled.

WW II put everybody to work, Mother and my maternal Grandmother took jobs at Boeing, "Rosie the Riveters" literally, Mom we called my Grandmother Mom and Mother Mother, a family thing. Anyway, Mom was a "Rivet Buck." She was small enough to crawl to the tips of the wings and buck the rivets while they were being headed from the outside. Mother set instruments as she was very good with her hands and they were small enough to fit behind instrument panels. 

Dad joined or was drafted into the Army but his trade were critical war skills he was a metal spinner and machinist. His skills were in such demand he was made a prison guard in Texas where he trained prisoners and ran a machine, metal spinning shop. 

At the end of WWII America was geared up for war production and all of a sudden nobody needed that kind of production so it got converted into mass producing: automobiles, farm equipment, aircraft, pots, pans, lawn furniture, BBQs, furniture, common hardware, EVERYTHING. I remember as a kid on road trips we'd play a game that consisted of who could count the most: houses and cars,  JUST LIKE OURS. Dad set a limit of the first to 100 won or we were shouting out constantly. And NO, subdivisions and car lots didn't count.

Anyway, my generation grew up with mass produced identical . . . everything and what would be my kids generation grew up to jobs that didn't include much hands on. And yes, manufacturers had to make stuff that wore out soon enough folk had to buy new or the factories would run out of customers. Planned obsolescence. 

I was inspired by an episode of "Have Gun Will Travel" where Paladin was robbed and stranded in the desert with nothing. He found the remains of a wagon train that'd been wiped out by "Indians", I saw the episode in the mid '50s and it was first aired in the late '40s. Indians ALWAYS attacked wagon trains, circling them and shooting arrows at them while whooping. Until the Calvary came charging in to save the day at the last minute, usually the next episode. Anyway, Paladin was left to die in the desert but he found the wagons where he was able to make shelter from the canvas covers, found water in a barrel and flour to make breadlike food. Then he built a fire and stripped some iron from a wagon and forged himself a knife, then he used it to carve lumber from a wagon into an Atlatl and darts with iron tips. Then with a: sack of biscuits, canteen of water, lariat, Atatl ad darts he went bandit hunting. 

Anyway, without telling the story I was hooked a smart person with nothing but his: wits a fire and some iron was at nobody's mercy! I was hooked I wanted to be able to do for myself, anywhere any tie. I've always been self sufficient sometimes to ridiculous extremes but I can make what I need and it gives me comfort in a frightening world. 

You have millions of folk who aren't self sufficient, without tech and community they're in real trouble. NOBODY likes feeling helpless and most like to think they're unique in some way or another. Surrounded by what we called, "pop outs," mas produced everything it's nice to have something that isn't. Something hand made, even if it closely matches the other things in a set has it's own history, the maker's mark is evident if you look closely enough. 

Outside of rare occasions when someone needed a unique tool or piece of hardware everything I've ever sold has gone to someone who wanted one that was different from every other one on Earth. By "one" I mean whatever it was I made, every darned one is different. I also like showing folk how to look at hand forgings you "Braille" them. Your eyes can miss subtle differences but your fingers won't, just running your fingers over a hand forging reveals it's character, it's soul. 

I grew up in Father's machine and metal spinning shop, I've been running precision machinery since I was darned young and much of what went through his shop was crazy tight tolerance Aerospace close. Parts Dad build have left the solar system, rest on the Moon, Mars, melted to a puddle on Venus and beyond. I grew up in a world where 1/10,000 of an inch was almost slop. Blacksmithing on the other hand is very visceral, You judge temperature by eye and make STEEL do your bidding with the oldest of humankind's oldest tools, a fire and something to hit with. You're done when it's finished, you measure by eye. I took up blacksmithing for two main reasons: First I need very little to become self sufficient and secondly I don't need to take a micrometer to anything, I have a number in the shop but nowhere near the anvil. 

Then there's the publicity of Forged in Fire and a couple others that revolve around the anvil. Before FIF our club was lucky to have 14 members show up for a meeting and all of a sudden 30 is a poor showing. I see at least 5 requests to join the club FB page most every day and new members pay their dues every meeting. 

About that "resurgence" thing. Not hardly; we owned and raised horses in the '60s so we had a farrier (horse shoer) out regularly. Horse shoing is a specialization of the blacksmith's craft, not something different, farriers can make the change to general smith far faster than a general smith can learn to shoe a horse. Anyway, there were more farriers working in the 1960s than there were blacksmiths working at the end of the 19th century. Blacksmithing was no longer the main manner of manufacturing common steel products but it hadn't died. Later though a number of folks organized to make it a household thing again. To encourage folks to make art and artful hardware in the public's eye, ABANA being the premier American organization. There are many in Europe many of the ancient working guilds are still active and strong.

I'll PM my Email address. I'd love to read your galleys but I don't do google docs. <shudder>

Frosty The Lucky.

[James Theriault]

15 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

My Dad and I got started back in the 70's. Weyger's book was one we used while taking blacksmithing classes at the local community college. So your mention of "recent" resurgence goes back how far?  I think what is driving the surge now is social media, and the internet forums like this one. Back when I started it was all done by mail, and searches at libraries. Today you can access information from around the world with a couple of keystrokes.

Recent as in the past 20 to 25 years if that helps at all.

[ThomasPowers]

Ahh the old ascii internet days!  You may want to look for when the RFP for a blacksmithing sub-group was first floated back in the rec.crafts.metalworking net news days!

(And if that reads like gibberish; well some of remember the invention of dirt...)

[James Theriault]

Honestly I have no clue what RFP is or where to look. Can you explain?

[ThomasPowers]

Back in the early 1990s, the internet existed but wasn't graphical.  Everything was done with typed words.  So we had newsgroups very much like the existence of forums nowadays.

I used to hang out in rec.crafts.metalworking that covered all metalworking techniques.  After a while there were enough folks interested in blacksmithing that a Request For Proposal to create a separate news group just for blacksmith was made.  The RFP would be issued and then discussed and if enough folks thought it was a good idea then the new group would be spawned.

If you were to search on rec.crafts.metalworking Thomas Powers you could probably turn up some of my posts from back then---I was using an OSU account back then.

You may also run across the term "bad ASCII art"   as there were no pictures we had to use letters and symbols to try to get an idea across, like I recently did talking about "camber" in pattern welding billet pieces--- [)(]   instead of a picture of a billet with curved surfaces.

Looks like at least some of it has been archived on a google groups forum as I see some of my drivel from 1999.

 

[Frosty]

Ahh, the bad old BBS days and rampant flame wars!  I stopped signing up after watching a few go down in flames. After a little while it wasn't even fun to feed a troll, lead it into a pit and let it fester till it tore itself to pieces. 

I really  miss the email list days and it seems a couple are waking up after being put in a Facebook coma for a couple years. Used to be the Artmetal. list was THE place to go for metal working knowledge, conversation and such, then Enrique opted out of a Uwash.edu server and decided no subject was forbidden. Politics killed it, went from around 5,000 members to maybe 40-50 in about a year and just faded to a ghost memory.  Some of the old gang are posting again though. There IS hope!

Frosty The Lucky.