[TheForge] the next

[xlch58 at swbell.net]

My eighteen year old started at nine or ten and was pretty serious about 
it by thirteen.   At eighteen he is a pretty accomplished smith, having 
mastered damascus and made countless blades and teaches little ones 
himself.   I have taught boys scouts at about eleven or so for years.   
My youngest is five and my middle child is seven and they both started 
at five -- simple fish tail scrolls made out of about 5/16 material -- I 
hold the tongs and show them where to tap it with a pointer.  Good news 
at that age with small stuff is that they don't try to beat the crap out 
of the metal, so they have some control.   I had the middle childs 
entire indian guides group over to do smithing at age six.  I set up 
with five cheapo harbor fright anvils and ball peens ( I have more than 
enough Peter Wrights at this point for a class, but who wants to tempt 
fate....)   I used 1/8 inch rod for them to make skewers to be used for 
fire cooking at the next campout.  Soft enough it could be formed with 
just pliers, but they heated it up and formed it with the hammer.   
After the boys were done, I let the dads play.   I tell them this isn't 
romper room, and there are no three strikes.  If you are doing something 
stupid I will tell you once and if you do it again you are gone.  If it 
is really stupid, I may smack you in the back of the head and then tell 
you your gone right off.     I do skewers for the little kids and for 
scouts the standard project is a horseshoe knife.  They learn hammer. 
filing and lots of polishing.  I get thick paintsticks like come with a 
five gallon bucket of paint at lowes. I use contact cement to glue on a 
strip of fine sandpaper on one side and coarse on the other.  They forge 
the knife, file it at the forge and then spend the next couple of days 
at camp polishing it on the paintsticks.   I have a lot of handcranked 
equipment now and have several quality old hand cranked grinders  set up 
with buffing wheels, some have been converted to foot power.   The boys 
are really proud of the knives when done.


Charles
 

Washington, Aubrey O. wrote:

>My son started at 10 years old, but he's more into making armor now.
> 
>Aubrey
>
>________________________________
>
>From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net on behalf of schade at acegroup.cc
>Sent: Sun 10/8/2006 8:28 AM
>To: Sponsored by ABANA
>Subject: Re: [TheForge] the next
>
>
>
>yeah I got a kick out of the kid. It's neat to see him getting such an
>early start. maybe 12-13 years old?
>
>Bob
>______
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>  
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