[TheForge] blacksmith process

Thu May 16 15:35:00 2002

George;

   I've watched this debate from the sidelines, haven't yet built my
first forge, but know there is one in my future.  I have lots of
fabrication and machine experience of various descriptions.

   I'm with whomever said that, "a CNC machinist is a "modern"
blacksmith".  If you want to pin a certain time period and reproduce
the methods and products of that time, So Be It !!  No one should tell
you that it isn't "true smithing", because it doesn't have this or has
too much of that or shouldn't have that at all....
   Until mass production, anything fabricated of metal was a smith's
work, so how far back or how far forward do you want to go to define
it?  I really enjoyed the bit someone wrote with the StarTrek
characters arguing the point, that was right on the money.

   Argue about correct methods for certain places and periods in time
if you want, it's all metal working.  In fact, don't you find things
"out of place"?  I mean aren't  there tools or items found in places
where they don't fit the time period or area?  I'd really hesitate to
dismiss such finds as out of place and time if it could have been
accomplished given the tools and materials.
   Any smith could have and probably did make things that were later
recognized from a certain period.  Someone had to make the first of
everything didn't they?  Who says the prototype wasn't from a long
time before and carried in from far away?  We are talking about the
most creative kind of craftsman and men that weren't "whimpy".  I have
to believe creation was a daily thing, always making something to do
something specific, that didn't exist before.

   or maybe I'm all wet...

   Jeff   ><>

----- Original Message -----
From: "George Dixon" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2002 10:11 AM
Subject: [TheForge] blacksmith process

> Does it seem reasonable, in regards to process, that blacksmithing
has
> an array of processes, as does machine-shop work or cut & weld
> fabrication.  So what makes "blacksmithing" (as delineated by
process)
> either "traditional" or "contemporary" is the design and/or motif
rather
> than the process used to make it.
> Perhaps the interplay about traditional v modern mixes the very
separate
> concepts of process (timeless) and design (ever evolving).  A very
> modern design executed by blacksmith process would use the same
tools
> and steps (process) as the execution of a period design.
> So a forged and fabricated piece does not define "modern
blacksmithing"
> so much as it represents a multiple selection of metalworking
processes.
> George Dixon
>
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