[TheForge] blacksmith process

[Jerry Frost]

The multiplicity of process in blacksmithing is not only reasonable it's an
observable given.

It's your second sentence that seems a bit mixed.

Process and design are different things and don't really delineate, define,
nor limit one another. Provided the design is within the limits of the
process there is no reason a design produced by the latest, most free
thinking, radical designer can't be produced by 18th century processes.
Conversely one most certainly produce 18th century designs using 21st
century process.

So I just restated what you did. I'm lazy okay? <grin> But you hit it on the
head. Process IS. Design is POTENTIAL. Process is defined by period,
location, material, etc. Where design isn't defined nor limited by anything
but the imagination. A design may be unrealizable today, for example the
star ship Enterprise or one of the many truly revolutionary, wonderously
earth shaking designs I have rolling around my head but don't know how to
make.

Of course a designer can define the process and in many cases must. This
allows a design to be faithfully produced to the designers vision. Still it
can really open a can of worms when the designer doesn't have the knowledge,
experience, sense, etc. to intelligently define process. This last is
something we see all the time.

What it boils down to is: "What is Modern?" Modern is a perception except
where it's clearly defined as in architecture, just as traditional is. As
with anything, even clearly defined things can be confused by those who
aren't familiar AND by those who are but are so stuck on "correct"
terminology they can't or won't interpret the uninitiated's
misunderstandings, mistakes, etc.

This is why I ask them to pick a period and place if they want to define
process.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. <grin>

Frosty
------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

----- Original Message -----
From: "George Dixon" <george.dixon@mindspring.com>
To: <theforge@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2002 7:11 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
>
>