[TheForge] The True Path in the 24th century.

[Larry and Pat Brown]

Hi,
Traditional smithing is in the eye of the beholder,
Metal working traditions started with copper based metals and moved to iron 
with variations in technique that showed themselves as necessary. Now when 
does tradition end and new fangled ways begin?
Does it begin or end when all iron is refined by hand with sledges?
Does it begin or end when all iron is refined by water driven trip hammers 
beating wrought iron?
Does it begin or end when all iron is refined in factories instead of small 
shops?
Does it begin or end when all iron is only forged by hand with forged welds 
and mechanical fasteningusing rivets and collars?
Does it begin or end when all iron is forged by hand and power hammer with 
forged welds and mechanical fastening using rivets, collars and Bolts?
Does it begin or end when all iron is forged by hand, power hammer and 
hydraulic press with forged welds, gas welds and mechanical fastening using 
rivets, collars, bolts and Self tapping screws?
Does it begin or end when all iron is forged by hand, power hammer and 
hydraulic press with forged welds, gas welds, arc welds and mechanical 
fastening using rivets, collars, bolts, self tapping screws and plasma cut 
parts?
My self I'm looking forward to catalyst welding (Like pvc) and ultra sonic 
forges and maybe a wand that will weld with ultra sound.
Then my grand kids will consider me and my welding equipment traditional.

Yellin had a shop full of power hammers, a shop in Garfield, NJ, I visited 
had Yellin panels from a building in Manhattan. They had a few apart and as 
I was trying to figure out how the frames were made I decided that the 
inside fillet in the corner was a gas or electric weld that had been filed 
smooth. I could tell this by the variation in weld metal color and visible 
penetration. These joints were not visible on the finished piece and 
judging by the mass of the pieces I felt that there was a good shot at 
these welds being early electric welds. The blacksmith in the shop told me 
he had cleaned it up looking for a mechanical fastening (Covered screws or 
bolts and was surprised to find these results also). Yellin ran a business, 
the end product was quality and his vision of style, but the means to get 
there still had to be competitive, economical and quick. Is his period 
Tradition?

The problem is there are a lot of stop and start points.
Now the guys using stone tools, NOW that's tradition!
Larry Brown


At 01:46 AM 3/3/2002 -0500, you wrote:


>Peter Fels and Phoebe Palmer wrote:
>
> > At 10:27 AM 3/2/02, you wrote:
> >
> > APPLAUSE!
> >
>
>Yeah, me too ;-) I've forwarded it along to some of my SCA friends- I 
>think they'll
>get a good laugh out of it ;-)
>
>One of the concepts I've been having trouble dealing with on this List, is 
>just
>what you guys are meaning by traditional smithing. I mean, I know what I 
>mean by
>it, and I know what I'm trying to accomplish, as do the others, like 
>myself, who
>are into reenacting- basicly, to make ironwork in the same way that 
>someone in our
>preferred time periods would have done, only using such modern shortcuts 
>as don't
>affect the quality of the work. This is a goal for our own enjoyment, and 
>study of
>the periods we reenact.
>
>But, with some of the rest of you, I'm not sure what you're striving for. 
>If all
>you want to do is join two bits of iron or steel together, I can't see that it
>matters whether you use a forge or an arc welder or a rivet to do it, as 
>long as it
>looks nice when you're finished.
>
>And yes, taking a bit of stock and making it into, say, a leaf, or 
>upsetting, or
>drawing, are basic techniques, and they've been around for a while. But, 
>I'll tell
>you what, when someone successfully does it for the first time, it's just as
>brand-new as if they invented it themselves.
>
>Phlip
>
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