Follow Your Dream

[Flaming S Forge]

[divermike]

to each his own, if someone becomes too critical when espousing "traditional technique" I like what Jay Burnham Kidwell said to me, " then I'll expect to see the traditionalist starting with a rock and a stick". If the old timers had plasma cutters, they would've used em. If however you are making a choice to do things in the old ways, I commend you, it has proven to me to be a much more difficult and time consuming way to go.

[Jerry W.]

We find us a corner. We scrounge, make or purchase a forge, a blower, tongs and anvil. We study up on the subject of blacksmithing where and when we can. We light our first fire and turn out our first product. The nice thing is, we are in our shop and we can do as we please. I don't think anyone is trying to tell you how and what to do in your own shop. The problem comes when you want to market the items that you have made. If you use modern tools, that is not a problem as long as you do not lead the customer to believe that they were made using traditional techniques....
Just my thoughts on the subject.

[DKForge]

Hey Flamin S Forge, I appreciate your post. As someone fairly new to blacksmithing I try to carry the same philosophy. While I understand and acknowledge different ways to do things I think for most of us we are in this primarily because we like working with fire, coal or gas, steel and our hands. I am sure there were plenty of smiths in history who did things their own way and it is through them that we came up with new and different ways of doing things.

I like your comment to the "gentleman" with the comment about hand crank blowers unless you live around Lancaster County, PA and it was an Amish fellow you were talking with.

Thanks again for your post.

[Glenn]

If the check clears the bank, you did good. (did well - for the Language police)

[Ice Czar]

not to derail the topic (or its conclusions with which I wholeheartedly agree with)

“Where would we be today if farmers didn’t adapt to modern technology?

better off?

which "in context" means again learn from mistakes and find a "new" balance

[Blacksmith Jim]

If only my dreams payed good money.. like tomorrow... then it would be a lot easier!

[divermike]

I learned a valuable lesson about the difference between a hobby and running a business, it cost me one of the great loves in my life. That is why I will never try to take my love of the art and make a business out of it, as soon as you do that, it starts stealing the passion and unless you are a rare individual, it can ruin it completely. May I suggest that if you get really good, the business will come to you, to pick and choose from, maybe only the projects that look a challenge, and would be fun to make? That is the state of my craft as of now, and I turn away most of what I'm asked to do. And what I do do, I tend to give away, only occasionally accepting enough to cover the materials. it's like the old saying, if you go into business with a friend, you will end up deciding which one you need the most.

[ThomasPowers]

Or you can tell the heckler that real clothing is hand spun, hand woven and hand sewn and tell him to take off everything he's wearing that isn't! Works better in cold climates I'll admit.

[ironrosefarms]

This brings up something I have thought about a bit. I have heard many a women state that men are "so un-romantic"... Yet I know a good many men and maybe especially smiths, who are so incredibly romantic with the history of what they do... At one time I was pretty staunch in doing everything the old way, during that time I learned a lot of hard lessons. I also learned a lot of hammer control and technique because of those lessons (also sometimes called mistakes).

I don't think it is any more wrong to pick a date in history and re-create the technology and art any more than it is not wrong to use the most up to date techno advances, as long as you are honest enough to offer the product as exactly what it is. A few years ago I set up at a local festival, about 12 booths down from me was another man selling shepherd poles and such and declaring them both verbally and with his signs as "hand forged". What he was actually doing is in the trailer behind him was a hydraulic bender that he would bend the curves with cold, then he would walk out heat the end put it on the anvil and put a slight point on it. His representation of hand forged compared to mine was very different and so was the price. Was he wrong for stating it was hand forged? well maybe not since he did wack each piece with a hammer four times... but was he honest in his presentation and advertising? I'll let you decide.

[Flaming S Forge]

That's a good one. How about this bare bones approach.Tell them to place everything presently in their possession not made in the USA on a pile in front of them. We as blacksmiths can proudly say made in the USA.

[ThomasPowers]

IronroseFarms; interesting take on it; so many blacksmiths are the "PreRaphaelites" of the craft world? (an artistic movement in the 1800's trying to bring painting back to what it was before Raphael painted)

Traditional is such a slippery word in regard to smithing; Since I do a lot of pre 1000 AD LH stuff I consider the london pattern anvil and mild steel and coal to be non-traditional; others draw the line at not using a side draft forge with a bellows. In general what I have discoved is that "traditional" is whatever level that smith uses with whatever changes he rings on it which are quite allowed and understandable; but NOT any changes a different smith has found allowable and understandable. (LH groups can get quite silly that way and quick to anger when you point out all their metalwork is done using mild steel dating to *after* bluejeans were available in dry good stores...)

[griz1955]

nice post, we are all individuals with different ideas, nothing wrong with that as long as we're doing what we love to do

[Doug C]

All boiled down you should do what works for you, have an open mind about what other folks do or don't do. Above all else keep learning whatever your chosen route. Just when I think I have learned the right way to do something some one else comes along and shows me otherwise. I think the great variety of tools and techniques is part of what keeps us interested.

[ThomasPowers]

My stated policy is to do what you feel you have to but NEVER lie to the customers or crowd even though that generally gets me giving my history of ferrous metallurgy processes talk many times a day at a demo. Only time I look down on folks is when they try to pretend that the changes they allow are OK but put down others for the ones they have made. As I tell folks being period is not a binary its a sliding scale; none of us are perfect!