Julianb Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 Good evening, or whatever it is in your own time zone at the moment! My name is Julian and I live in the city of Solingen in western Germany. Blacksmithing and many things related to iron and steel industry etc. have thus always been part of my interests, as I'm quite at a good source around here. I took up blacksmithing as a hobby a few years ago and developed a special interest in anvils, which also led me here. Currently I'm working on an academic paper about the history and making of anvils from the pre-roman iron age up until the present, with a rough focus on the area that is today's Germany and a special focus on Westfalia, the main historical anvil manufacturing area in this lands. Hopefully I'll be able to present a whole lot of new insights into some of the more famous manufacturers as Söding&Halbach, Carl Schlasse, Sichelschmidt&Schlasse, Kuhler, Rauhaus and some more, just to mention a few. It'll probably take years though, as I've barely even scratched the surface on what is to be found in which archive. It is also a leisure time project, as my fulltime job is to teach History, German and Technical education as a secondary school teacher. From the brief glimpse I already got of this forums, there seems to be a lot of knowledge and decent nerdery to be had here, so I'm very much looking forward to it. Cheers! Julian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 I eagerly look forward to reading your work! Here in the USA we have "Anvils in America" that provides a lot of information on US and a lot of UK anvil makers but hardly covers European anvils at all! I assume you can profit from being near the Deutches Klingen Museum and perhaps any Universities that have a history of technology focus within them. Welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 Dear Julian, Please think of publishing an English or bi-lingual edition so that it will be accessible to more folk than just German speakers. Since English is the current world wide "lingua franca" your research and writing will be able to reach many more folk in that format. Since German anvils were widely exported they show up all over the world rather than just in the central part of Europe. You might think about expanding your focus to all German anvils or including anvils from other European countries but that might turn the project into one of a lifetime. Good luck and we would love to see chapters or drafts as it progresses. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 Welcome aboard Julian, glad to have you. That's an interesting login, I don't think I've ever seen "Enter Your Name," used before. I have to agree with George on all counts, an English version would be of great interest and use. What do you make at the anvil? We LOVE pictures of most anything you'd show young children. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julianb Posted November 3, 2021 Author Share Posted November 3, 2021 Thank you very much for the warm welcome! Anvils in America is a fascinating read, I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to get this specific about certain anvils, like the exact dating of a piece due to the serial number... but we'll see where the journey takes us. I'll start the thing in German to be able to publish it at all, as I'm not a full time academic and research isn't my field of work anymore, I'd be happy if it got published at all. Otherwise I'll self-publish, but I'm planning on translating it after it is done! I'd also like to keep a narrower focus as it is right now, just to be able to actually finish at some point. After that, there's still loads of yet almost unknown anvil makers to discover. The proximity to the area here also made it easier to somewhat limit the view I'm taking with this work. I'll let you know once I've actually compiled something coherent and readable (and translated that), right now I've got an enormous pile of notes and about a dozen written pages on different aspects... Pictures will follow, though I really don't find the time to actually forge something these days, so maybe it'll "just" be pictures of anvils for the time being. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 Welcome aboard, eyn, and I look forward to seeing more of your research. You might want to contact IFI member njanvilman, who specializes in the history of Fisher anvils and has just published a book about them. When I visited his museum a few years back, he had some interesting thoughts about the export of anvils to non-anvil-producing regions of the global south -- I imagine this might be a potentially fruitful area for you to investigate as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 One thing I have always liked is a list of the Logos used by a maker and how they evolved over time. Nice if there are dates when it changed but still good to know just the order. I know the difficulties of records being destroyed over time and some of the work arounds, (catalogs, commercial listings, advertisements, exhibitions---items where the information was too widespread to be obliterated.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 Welcome to IFI, I have fond memories of Germany and her people. Not to mention the food... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julianb Posted November 4, 2021 Author Share Posted November 4, 2021 On 11/3/2021 at 3:03 PM, JHCC said: [...] he had some interesting thoughts about the export of anvils to non-anvil-producing regions of the global south -- I imagine this might be a potentially fruitful area for you to investigate as well. Definitely, thanks for the tip! On 11/3/2021 at 3:17 PM, ThomasPowers said: One thing I have always liked is a list of the Logos used by a maker and how they evolved over time. Nice if there are dates when it changed but still good to know just the order. I know the difficulties of records being destroyed over time and some of the work arounds, (catalogs, commercial listings, advertisements, exhibitions---items where the information was too widespread to be obliterated.) Makers marks are on the list of investigation! Sadly, many archives have suffered losses throughout WW2 and also due to recent flooding events, one promising archive might have lost records, I still have to check that once they've reopened. On 11/3/2021 at 4:51 PM, Charles R. Stevens said: Welcome to IFI, I have fond memories of Germany and her people. Not to mention the food... Where have you been located (deployed?), if I might ask? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 4, 2021 Share Posted November 4, 2021 Aschaffensburg with the first of seventh Mid to late 80’s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julianb Posted November 5, 2021 Author Share Posted November 5, 2021 So right next to the Fulda-Gap... I imagine those were some tense times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 5, 2021 Share Posted November 5, 2021 I spent a Summer near Frankfurt, Bad Homburg/Sulzbuch with trips to Schkeuditz, in the mid 1990's doing an installation for a telecom. My next job had me visiting the ESO at Garching in the 2000's. (Always scheduled so our visits to Garching were in February and their visits to New Mexico were in August---the worst weather times for both locations. I guess it kept us indoors and focused.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 5, 2021 Share Posted November 5, 2021 A bit, I was so happy to see unification. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted November 6, 2021 Share Posted November 6, 2021 Welcome from the Ozark mountains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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