Traditional Spanish Coppersmiths (video)

[JHCC]

Enjoy. 

 

[Hefty]

Good find, thanks JHCC!

[Davor]

There is tradition like this in Bosnia as well. This year we were passing thru so we bought a traditional coffee pot made like this. I insisted that we buy from the craftsman making it and not from a tourist shop. Except the pot has a layer of tin or pewtr on the inside.

A lovely video and an exceptional channel, a wealth of old traditions preserved on it. Quite a few blacksmith videos. Thanks for the find.

[Frosty]

Thank you John, that is a very good watch and a dangerously deep rabbit hole menu. It brought back memories of metal spinning lathes, split tooling and trying to imagine how Dad would've made the pot. I've hammered a little copper and spun a little long ago, it has a distinct feel in either technique. 

Thanks again.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Davor, the tin (traditional) or pewter lining indicates that the vessel was made for actual use and not just as a decoration in a tourist's home.  The tin protects the liquid in the pot from chemically interacting with the copper which can produce some fairly nasty by products.  Pure copper is probably OK for non=acidic things like water but anything with some acid content, like coffee, is potentially dangerous.  Sounds like you got a good one.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[JHCC]

Copper can leach into non-acidic foods as well, and generally isn’t considered healthy for cooking vessels unless tinned (although not as dangerous as the old forms of pewter that contained lead). That said, French chefs traditionally use unlined copper bowls for whisking egg whites, on the theory that it makes for a more stable foam. 

[Frosty]

Copper oxides are toxic and acidic foods CAN be a problem. If the bowl is clean egg whites aren't acidic clean, pure copper might as well be stainless steel. There's lots of traditional beliefs, especially among chefs, whisking eggs in copper is probably how it was done in the dawn of the copper age so it's how they do now. "Brasso" (directions are on the bottle) deoxidizes copper and it's alloys so you won't poison yourself if you REALLY want to use copper for non-acidic foods. Brasso has been around for at least a century, we had a can under the sink as far back as I can remember. My Grandmother's angel food cake pan was copper and I got to polish it with Brasso when we were going to have her angel food cake. Mother made her special recipe chocolate sauce to go with.  Boy is that a tasty memory. 

Personally I use my Kitchen aid mixer with the Whisk head. It can turn a dozen eggs into meringue in a minute or so max. 

Tin plated is no doubt safest. Just because you CAN do a thing does NOT mean you should. No?

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[JHCC]

Shine your buttons with Brasso!
It's only three ha'pence a tin.
You can buy it or whip it from Woolworths,
But I don't think they've got any in.

 

 

 

[Frosty]

Whip it?  Is Woolworths still delivering by horse or oxcart?

Ahhhhh, I love a good typo, thanks for the morning smile.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

All US Army veterans of a certain age will have fond and not so fond memories of Brasso and Blitz Cloth.  Veteran tip:  Don't try to polish your brass while it is still on the uniform, although, if you want to run a risk you can slip a slotted card behind the brass but this is a bit risky.

GNM

[JHCC]

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

I love a good typo,

No, that’s the actual lyric. I’ll send you a link to the original song. 

[JHCC]

5 hours ago, Davor said:

There is tradition like this in Bosnia as well.

There’s a town in Mexico called Santa Clara del Cobre where something like 3/4 of the population works in the copper trade. Here are a couple of videos from there:

Note that while the contemporary smiths are using electric blowers, their forges are still outfitted with the old manual ones. These appear to be based on two leather accordion-folded bags mounted in vertical frames that are hinged at the bottom and with handles at the top. Here’s a close-up from a screen grab:

We’ve all seen dual manual bellows on Viking forges, African forges, and the like, but those are all worked up-and-down; I don’t think I’ve seen ones that work back-and forth before (other than Asian box bellows, but those are reciprocating within one chamber rather than alternating). I read an article somewhere that mentioned that the copper trade in this town predates the invasion by the Spanish conquistadores and that while the smiths were happy to adopt European steel hammers, they kept this bellows design because it was more efficient than the ones the Spaniards brought. 

[Frosty]

Thanks for the link John, it's a fun song. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Here's a better photo of the traditional bellows:

PHOTO SOURCE

[wirerabbit]

Great original video, John. Did you notice that the charcoal forge used by the copper smith was an updraft, or were my eyes playing tricks on me?

T

[JHCC]

Sorry, in which video?

[wirerabbit]

Your original video. I spent some time looking through the channel of that Spanish documentarian to see if I could spot any other older charcoal forges, but I couldn't. I'm still trying to research the two piece cast iron tuyere I came across on the web