Newb Setup for Wood Tool Making

[ThomasPowers]

Can't believe that NM, one of the poorest states in the USA has a better library system than FL!

[Kooky]

Understanding Florida is not possible. That's why I'm trying to leave!

Btw I love adobe, I've wished I could live in an adobe house for years. I have a bucket of clay I still haven't gotten around to out back. I will have to have some fired soon.

[ThomasPowers]

Our passive solar house has a stabilized adobe wall to act as a heat buffer in the room with the solar windows.

[Kooky]

I haven't been able to convince my family to get solar in Florida. It's ridiculous really. I want to take my axe, harvest some trees to dry and build a solar log cabin. Florida is covered in good pine for log homes but half an acre can run $25,000 down here. Absolutely ridiculous.

Two of my smithing books are out for delivery and my forge/tools shipped today! In the meantime I picked up a very solid domain name related to blacksmithing, I'm actually pretty surprised it was available... Now to pay someone on Fiverr to make a logo.

Fake it 'till you make it, right? 

[George N. M.]

As I understand it, there are several ILL systems.  Small libraries often connect with other small libraries in a small region (it sounds like that is what Kooky is describing) but on top of that there are state wide systems and a national and international system.  I would not be satisfied about what is or is not available unless I had talked, in person, to a librarian who knew all the ins and outs of the ILL systems.  

Also, a local library may be in a particular ILL system but another nearby library may be in a different systems.  And, the local public library may be in a different system than the library at the local community college or a local 4 year university.  In most states the library of any public college or university is available to any citizen of the state.

Also, I have gotten photocopies of articles from periodicals through ILL for periodicals which are held in other libraries.  This is particularly useful for academic/historical articles in various academic journals.

So, like most other things a little or a lot of digging can get you optimal results.  Never be satisfied or discouraged by the first negative answer you get.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

 

[Kooky]

It seems my local community college has a search and there are numerous books . I don't know how helpful they will be. Some are available online, just opened up "Farm blacksmithing"... I believe I will have plenty to review.

Everything is in place. Maybe I will setup a JABOD tomorrow while my forge is in transit.

[ThomasPowers]

A lot of the old "farm" books include a section on Blacksmithing and sheet metal working.  I have a copy of "Farm Shop Practice"  on my shelf with a 1939 copyright.  Not nearly as good a getting started book as "The Complete Modern Blacksmith"; but you can learn something from almost any decent source.

I like the COSIRA books a lot too.

[Kooky]

Started reading The Home Blacksmith since not much info about it and the other ones are supposedly good. I will review them all when done. So far this book is good, but there are some things like side notes that are too obscure for me to understand without some sort of photo… 

It also appears I will be learning metallurgy…

Here is the high end woodworker / Japanese tool purveyor’s information blog on blacksmithing, among other things, mostly woodworking and tool care, in case anyone likes Japanese tools. Not sure if it will be useful, though most Japanese master smiths are dying off without anyone to replace them  

https://covingtonandsons.com/category/blacksmithing/

 

[JHCC]

This is something I’ve been working on for the last couple of years. John Verhoeven’s Steel Metallurgy for the Non-Metallurgist is probably the best place to start. 

[Kooky]

I can’t help but feel discouraged already when I see 20 year old YouTubers with huge shops and power hammers and high tech gear.

As I said I am trying to take this seriously but at 28 I’m a bit late to the game to be serious… at least that’s what it feels like. I might just be able to make something of myself if I work constantly at it, which I have the opportunity to do. 

[JHCC]

YouTube isn’t reality. A lot of what you see with successful YouTubers is paid for by sponsorships, Patreon, ad revenue, or well-to-do relatives who are willing to co-sign a loan. That’s certainly a legitimate source of funding, but it’s not for everyone, and it’s not the only way.

We have a whole section on the business side of blacksmithing; you should check that out. 

[ThomasPowers]

I know pro's who started at twice your age and folks who were smithing into their 80's and 90's.  28 is considered a fairly *young* start!  Shoot I got married at 28 and even though other people had 4 kids by then I didn't feel "Late in the game!"

[Kooky]

Alright, thanks for the perspective. I suppose if I can learn some of the science, metallurgy, and techniques as quickly as possible and practice them, I will sooner reach over to the point where it's a lot more creativity-focused. Just mulling things over as my forge is in transit to gain perspective and outlook.

Although, most of these YouTubers are not tool makers which is what I will focus on. I know, from the Covington & Sons link I posted, he does not have much respect for "BoobToobers". They get views because they're personalities first and foremost. I'd rather be the reclusive high end smith he mentions that the flamboyant advertising personality type.

I can't help but feel a bit of jealousy of course. When I first saw a power hammer in use I was in love... What luck to have one at such an early age.

[ThomasPowers]

Views do not equate to the quality of the information; some people you watch just to see the "train wreck"...

a thousand "likes" by people who do not know anything about a subject are not worth a single like by an expert in a subject---but they are portrayed as being more important.  There is a reason that "Peer Review" is so important in the sciences!   (I knew an editor in an astronomy journal who was hunting for a scientist to review an "astounding new discovery"  that as an old timer; they knew was an artifact of the equipment being used and should have been discarded from the data...)

[Frosty]

Kooky: Welcome aboard, glad to have you.

I sincerely apologize for everything. Please feel free to ignore or block me, I'm sure you wouldn't be the first nor the last.

Be well.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Kooky]

People used to be able to toss newspapers into driveways for money. Simple and straightforward. I hate to say there aren’t that many jobs like that around anymore, hard work has been outsourced. Who did that? Not my generation. Nor are there digital counterparts that are the equivalent of doing something like that. Freelance coding requires tight skill. The American dream has become a facade, everyone hustles for someone else instead of themselves now. 

When I say I’m not a people person, I was refraining from discussing multi-doctor medical diagnoses. If you would like me to go on, just send me a message  

And regarding the mysticism, all of life is magic to someone, or it isn’t, like Walter White’s love of chemistry in Breaking Bad, the great mythos of Ancient Greece, the magical rebellion of American moonshine, or Japanese sword makers… I prefer to feel all of life is magic, beyond the inanimate being arbitrarily animated. What came first, science, or the things science is composed of? It’s easy to see whose head is inanimate  

It’s also very easy to feel superior because of your views and the curmudgeon aesthetic, to bring someone down by trying to dull their edge or darken their spark. I was doing neither by displaying my feelings, your rebuttal is unfortunately hollowed out by that and the rampant negativity by plastering your personally assumed correctness in concrete.

The simple difference here is you don’t believe in iron sprites, I do, but I do not try to persuade you they exist. 

Perhaps all of this mysticism comes from within the human psyche itself. It is no less magical. I love it. 

What an obnoxious narcissist. 

this is absolutely the last time I respond to your simpleton keyboard warrior psychoanalysis of an internet stranger. I have lost 100% of the respect I may have ever had for you. 

cheers. 

PS all Japanese people are idiotic buffoons for praying at Shinto shrines, amiright? I’m just a 14 year old 28 year old. 

[Glenn]

DO NOT let things get personal. 

Click on you name top right, then scroll down to the ignore user option. 

[Scott NC]

  Glad you posted that Glenn.  I was of a mind to post a few thoughts.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

1 hour ago, Kooky said:

People used to be able to toss newspapers into driveways for money. Simple and straightforward. I hate to say there aren’t that many jobs like that around anymore, hard work has been outsourced

thats a fact now is it? 

There are literally hundreds of thousands of simple straight forward jobs to be had,

are there no factories? No farms? No small businesses? no municipalities? no landscape services? No logging or sawmills? No mines or quarries? No construction companies? No mail carriers? No drivers? No spinning a sign out front of a pizza parlor? No grounds keepers? No maintenance? No drywall install? No roofing?

The list goes on an on… 

just how simple of a hard work job are we looking for here?

I know in my area you can get paid to pick strawberries that’s pretty simple yes?
Surely there’s some sort of manual farm labor in the state of Florida? Orange orchards maybe? 

Anyone who says there’s no simple straightforward “hard work” to be had is not looking very hard in my humble opinion…

im lucky if I can find an employee that lasts a month at my repair shop before quitting with some lame excuse…

I personally know many other businesses owners in the same boat, we can’t find anyone who wants to work, 

I interviewed a young man just a week ago, who had no job, no income, no experience, no nothing… 

I offered him a job on the spot and have yet to hear back… I guess the job was to much hard work or to simple for him? 

i have a sneaky suspicion that there are plenty of jobs of all kinds in every industry to be had in your region, just as there is everywhere else…

I respect the fact your looking to expand your horizons and learn a craft and potentially create your own income, 

but let me clue you in on something about being self employed…

there’s no check coming at the end of the week,

there’s no time off,

no one’s gonna run it for you, taxes, parts, shipments, invoices, customers, budgets ect..

there’s no one coming help when your in a tight spot,

What if you get hurt or sick? to bad!! you gotta drag yourself out there an work anyways if you wanna make ends meet,

your customers wont care why you haven’t been able to finish their projects yet 

an the mortgage company? The utilities? Medical bills? Parts or material suppliers? They don’t care either… you still gotta pay..

I have certifications, years of experience, tens of thousands of dollars worth of tools, equipment an machinery, I have a massive customer base, I own my own shop an everything in it

even with all that goin for me I hit bad spots, I get low on funds, I have bad months, I get to make some hard decisions sometimes…

But your talking about learning a new craft from scratch? Then become self sufficient, self employed, an provide for your family?

How many others are trying to pedal the same stuff they learned on YT? or the internet? There’s only so much of a market for hand made goods

I’m not trying to sway you from your dream by all means become a professional blacksmith!!!!

All I’m saying you better think long an hard before trying to start a company from the ground up with no experience in that field,

I wish you the best best of luck Sir! your gonna need it…

[Charles R. Stevens]

Kooky, your not fhe only one here with a diagnosis or two. Type II bipolar illness, PTSD, dyslexia and ADD, myself. We have more than one member with SMI’s, as well as TBI’s, and other physical disabilities and ailments. Your not alone, and IFI has a good track record of respectfully accepting that. Ethnicity, sex, sexual identity and preference as well as faith are equally represented and excepted. Believe it or not so is age and employment status.  
 now I don’t think anyone would seriously argue that averaging 1.5% wage growth in the face of 3% average inflation since Reagan has helped the American worker, but blacksmithing is usually a boot straps self employed business in this day and age. when some one like TP says to go out and mow lawns and save up for basic tools and then to sell bottle openers to wake up for your dream anvil, he is suggesting that the basic idea that working for “the man” might not get you where you want to be, nor will sitting on your backside wishing. 
Leo you have started on the path my young friend. It’s not well marked nor is it smooth. It is well traveled and rutted however. 

[JHCC]

There are still people who make a living throwing newspapers into driveways. They come through my neighborhood in the early hours at about twice the speed limit, as that is the only way they can get enough papers delivered to make a halfway decent wage.  Judging from the state of their cars, though, they’re not doing terribly well.

[arkie]

I remember a guy back in my hometown who had a big newspaper route.  The paper dropped off a few tied bundles of papers fresh off the presses (man, those smelled good).  He rolled them all, rubber-banded them and packed them in the back seat and passenger seat so high he couldn't see out his rear window.  Just delivering newspapers could be a labor intensive job.  Now, folks just read the online editions.

[JHCC]

A friend of mine (now in his eighties) told me about visiting his uncle who ran a paper delivery service in Hamden, Connecticut. It was a three-man operation, with one driving and the other two standing on the running boards of a Model A, throwing papers to either side, which landed with great precision on people's doormats. They invited my friend to give it a try, and he promptly threw a paper right through Thornton Wilder's front window.

[ThomasPowers]

BTW is "the magical rebellion of American moonshine" referring to the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794?

After the Oilfield crash of the early 1980's; I apprenticed to a swordmaker and was planning to go on my own as a bladesmith later.  Well at 28 I got married to a lady with 2 kids and had a family to support and got a "real job".  Worked in a custom wood shop, worked in a factory on the line while taking EET classes; finally got a job with Bell Labs!  I was lucky; I was able to find out that I was not suited for self employment without dragging my family into bankruptcy.  I also had benefits from my wife's job when we got married which was lucky as about 6 weeks after we tied the knot I had emergency surgery, as in 15 minutes from the correct diagnosis to being put under on the table...Most self employed craftspeople are 1 medical issue from bankruptcy.  11 years after starting at Bell Labs I was diagnosed with Adult Onset Juvenile Diabetes; a sort of type 1 Zebra.   Medical benefits have been a lifesaver!

Generally in bladesmithing we suggest people have a "real" job and work their craft on the side until they are making about 1/2 doing their craft as they make at their day job and then organize the changeover to full time at the craft.  This also allows folks to tool up while they have a steady income.  Learning to run a business is important too.  The swordmaker I apprenticed to had a 2 year waiting list and still some years whether he made a profit depended on how he depreciated his tools!

[JHCC]

To put it another way, the romance of the craft may inspire you, but it doesn't pay the bills.