[TheForge] Re: Forgings.. was Frosty

[Mike Spencer]

> Luckily I dont have to do the ribbons or the cards... but 100
> nails...

The late Slim Spurling demoed at Carbondale in '76.  He recounted
that, at his school (Skunk Hollow Forge), the process went like this:

   1.  Teach a novice how to make a nail.

   2.  Tell the novice to make a nail and present it for inspection.

       When the novice (eventually) presents a well-made nail,

   3.  Tell the novice to make 100 nails.

       If he presents 100 nails some of which aren't good enough, he
       gets sent back to make 100 nails over again.  When he submits
       100 good nails,

    4. Tell him to make 100 nails in an hour.

Slim opined that when the novice can make 100 good nails in an hour,
he isn't a novice any more and can go on to other stuff.

Just for comparison, full-time nailers (in the days before cut or wire
nails) could make 4 nails a minute.  By that standard, 100/hour is just
getting warmed up.


FWIW,
- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^