[TheForge] Sacred cows are better eaten than catered to.

[Bruce Freeman]

Reis,

I don't argue with your point of view.  My point (in a separate sub-thread) was that if 50% of your people HAVE power hammers, then a goodly number of those have shops in which power hammer work can easily be demonstrated.  Have such demos there, not at a fairgrounds or college campus.

However, if someone WANTS to bring a power hammer to an out-of-shop conference, more power to him.  No pun intended.  There's nothing wrong with doing so, it's just a lot of trouble.  

Bruce
NJ

>>> ries at riesniemi.com 3/15/2007 3:48 PM >>>
Well, I have to disagree.
First, I have paid, on average about a thousand bucks, to go to 5  
conferences. And if it was an all hand hammering show, I cant say I  
would do that.
And I think that a lot of the other people who actually do pay, and  
attend, would feel the same way. There are numerous demos of hand  
hammering, all over the country, all the time.
me, I have no interest in most of em, and certainly wouldnt pay the  
bucks, and take the time off, to see one- even if it was 5 days of  
Peter Ross.

As far as ownership of power hammers, maybe I run with the wrong  
crowd, but I would say most of the smiths I know have em. Big boys,  
too, and often more than one.
I wouldnt say they are infintesimal, at all.
Here in the NWBA, an average meeting is 175 or 200 smiths, and I am  
sure the power hammer ownership percentage is at least 50%.

At a national Abana conference, I dont know if its that high, but  
certainly out of the 500 to 700 paid attendees, there are several  
hundred power hammer owners there. I know I talk to a lot of em- like  
the guy from Norway who has 5 Beche's.

Any smith who is serious about producing work, either buys or builds  
one eventually.

And many of the techniques developed on power hammers, and demoed on  
them, are then transfered to smithin magicians, fly presses,  
hydraulic presses, and so on.

But the bottom line is the most interesting demonstrators are the  
guys who live and breathe forging- these are the guys who have been  
pushing the envelope for the last 40 years or so, and inventing all  
these new ways of looking at hot metal, and they usually work with  
power. So to see them demo, you need to give them the tools they need  
to show you.

And as far as who wants to see giant industrial machines operating-
I DO!
every day, and twice a day on weekends, please.

ries