[TheForge] question for part-timers & hobbyists

[Michael Horgan]

>Back to the questions.
>What are your personal goals for blacksmithing?

To be able to make real what I visualize.


>Are you more interested in technical skills, design skills, or equally
>devoted to both?

More on the technical side, although I love designing new tools to simplify 
whichever task I'm working on at the time.


>Do you like to do projects or make up your own, or both?

Both.It's fun to do a project from the mind of another smith.  In 
completing it you get an insight into the mind, tooling and training of the 
designer. Many times I'll look at a design and try to figure out why the 
original maker made it THAT way, when it would be ever so much easier 
to  mumble, mumble,,,


>How much time per week, or month do you set aside for your blacksmithing?

I get about 8 hours a week. Part of that time is design time, or reading. 
Between a 3 hour commute to work and a 2 year old, much of my smithing is 
virtual.


>How much time do you set aside for studying blacksmithing in other ways,
>through book research or your own sketching?

most of my free time. <GRIN>


>Do you set yourself certain goals in the shop?- for example, maybe in June,
>you are going to work strictly on collars, or in August, you are going to
>work on perfecting scroll designs.

Yes... For example I just "finished"  up a Smithin' Magician III kit from 
Jere Hoffman. I've come up with several modifications to make it easier for 
me to use, and I bought a couple of sticks of 3/4 x 2" steel that I'm 
converting into tooling. Slitters for piercing bars on the square and on 
the diagonal, dies for making acorn and ball ends, and so on. I'm 
re-reading through all my books and looking at videos for ideas that can be 
converted to this type of tooling.


>If you don't like to work with a goal system- then how do you decide what to
>work on ?

Sometimes the marketplace. I love commissions to do something new. They 
make me expand my skills (and tools), which makes the next job easier.


>What motivates you?

The fun of tinkering. being able to make something that wasn't there before


>Do you have anything else to add that I didn't think about asking?

I started out, many many years ago in lapidary. I had to make some of my 
own tooling then too. That led me to silver smithing to make settings for 
all those shoe boxes of cut and polished stones. Learning repousse, 
casting, and so on. Later I picked up medieval and renaissance costuming 
skills, needing jewelry and oh... knives... Woodworking,  machine shop 
skills, the list goes on and on.  The point I'm making is  that there is a 
serendipitous overlap between the different skills. You get that AHA! 
moment when you realize that in x we did y, and it should work as well for 
z...  Like using tumblers for steel,  or being able to easily make tooling 
stamps for leather working, or a branding iron for woodworking, or being 
able to hot forge a part to near finish dimensions quickly, then put it on 
the lathe or milling machine to complete it.   The cross-overs often make 
me go back and pick up an old skill and look at it again with new eyes, 
opening new possibilities.  Now if I only had more time!


>I'll answer it too, but I don't want it to be about me right away.  I'd like
>to see a cross section of responses from all of the part timers and
>hobbyists.
>-Kirsten
>koka@acegroup.cc
>http://hosting.acegroup.cc/~koka/
>http://www.mnartists.org/?loc_name=viewartistfeature&artistid=2713
>___________

Michael D. Horgan , lughaid@earthlink.net
http://members.aol.com/lughaid/
posting from
  A BRAZEN FORGERY
Blacksmithing and Metalwork
Claremont, Ca.