[TheForge] Job hunting...

Thu Jul 17 02:50:00 2003

Blake:

As usual, Ries is right on the money in his comments.

Blake if you want to learn the basics and get some skills, save your money and drive to Santa Fe and take Frank Turley's three-week class for $2k. There are numerous schools: John C. Campbell Folk School in NC has classes about 48 weeks a year, and then there are the schools in New Jersey, Maine and Missouri.  Go to the ABANA website and it can give you details on how to contact them all. Colorado has some great smiths; try contacting Mike Boone in Dolores, Co  or the guys in Paonia (South of Carbondale). There are others, just start looking. Chances are you'll have to move if you are serious.

But blacksmithing is kinda like golf. You can read about it, watch it done, dream about it, sketch it.... but there is no substitute for beating on steel for learning. 

If you want to get a formal education simultaneously in both welding and blacksmithing, pack up and go to Austin, Texas. Austin Community College has a great 2-year degree program with two outstanding smiths, Bill Bastas and Larry Crawford, as instructors. Great shop to work in. Heck, you might like not shoveling snow in the winter and stay!

Reynolds

 --- On Thu 07/17, RIES NIEMI < [email protected] > wrote:
From: RIES NIEMI [mailto: [email protected]]
To: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 22:41:09 -0700
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Job hunting...

on 7/16/03 9:10 PM, Blake Williams at [email protected] wrote: > Hey everybody, I have a question about finding a job. I guess this could > be for people in the Colorado Springs area but perhaps others have tips for > me. I am 18 and right now I work in a feed yard, been there for 4 years and > it is a job that is going to take me nowhere. I have taken 1 year of > welding in HS and have tinkered around a bit on my forge but have had no > real training. I want to find a job that I can start at where I can learn > more of a trade. I am finding that a job in the metal field is kind of > hiden, buisnesses dont get out in the public, you have to find them. Where > would be some places to look where not much experience is needed? Thanks > for the help in advance, Blake Blake- speaking as someone who has hired quite a few young people over the years to work in my metal shop, my advice is - go to your local community college o
 r vo-tech, and get a 2 year AA degree in welding. You will take courses in metallurgy, blueprint reading, math as it applies to making things, as well as really learning how to weld. Learning to work with hot metal is a definte plus for any blacksmithing employment. If your local place has blacksmithing classes, take em. Otherwise, try to save up and take a week or so at one of the places nationally that does have blacksmithing. The more you know, the more hirable you are, and since there are only a few blacksmithing jobs, but lots of welding jobs, I would get the training as a welder. I know this is going to be a really controversial statement, but I can hire someone with a 2 year welding degree into my shop, have them doing productive work the next day, and teach them how to forge as they work. On the other hand, I cant hire a blacksmith and teach him how to weld in a day, or even a week. A good welder can pick up blacksmithing pretty
 quick- I have trained 3 in the last few years. But learning to weld is something not all blacksmiths can do, and certainly not always quick enough to make it worth me paying em to learn. So I say, if you want to work in the metal industry, learn to weld first, then forge. If you want to blacksmith as a hobby, thats different- just do it. If what you really want to do is blacksmith above all else, find a blacksmith, and hang around- sweep the floor, carry heavy stuff, and sooner or later he will take pity on you and teach you something. Ries _______________________________________________ http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge theforge mail list group photo site is http://www.photoaccess.com Login: [email protected] password: anvil ___________

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