[TheForge] blackened steel finish

[Jerry Frost]

My Father hired a lot of Germans for his metal spinning shop, he always felt 
they were way above average craftsmen. His only "complaint" was it usually 
took him a year or better to get them to stop treating every single part 
like it was a piece of art needing ancient spinning techniques to be right. 
Once retrained as production spinners they were truly outstanding, I learned 
a lot from the ones I knew.

I had to learn blacksmithing on my own, there just weren't any in the area 
of LA where I lived and Dad actively discouraged it, he kept saying I should 
learn a paying trade. He and Mother were depression age kids and that 
colored their thinking throughout. Anyhow, it was a couple decades before I 
actually got Dad to realize I was a hobbyist and not seeking a paying trade 
but he still wouldn't show me any of the tricks he learned as a kid. He 
worked in a blacksmith shop as a kid during the early depression sharpening 
plow shears under a Little Giant.

Dad taught me other things about metal working largely by example and 
experience. For instance some of my earliest memories are of Dad's brand of 
baby sitting, he'd sit me on the ways of the spinning lathe behind the tail 
stock where I could play with the free play in the adjustment wheel while he 
spun. I can still remember how my red race car (copper part) sounded and 
felt as it formed around the die, work hardened and what it felt like to 
push through work hardening, best of all, I learned what the sweet spot 
sounded and felt like for many different metals. Same for the white 
(aluminum) silver (silver) gray (steel) gold (brass) and copper (bronze) 
colored cars. My child's mind, I was four when we moved out of that house, 
said copper parts were the "red" car while bronze parts were "copper" 
colored. As it turned out the lesson in perception versus reality was more 
important than I imagined till decades later. Other grand lessons were how 
to observe cause and effect when working metal and heck, other things, then 
there was listening to the machine and listening with more than just my 
ears.

One thing he really taught me was how to do production work profitably. The 
big "DON'T" is do NOT get emotionally invested in a job or process. Making 
round from sq or sq from round unless it's specced by a paying customer is 
just such an emotional investment. If making a living is the goal then THAT 
is the goal, don't do a thing unless it's profitable. This can be tricky 
because emotional investment can masquerade as integrity or standards and 
visa versa, like so much in life it's a judgement call.

In large part this comes down to, What is PROFITABLE? It isn't always about 
positive cash flow, insisting on every piece out the door bringing in more 
than it cost can literally strangle a business. Giving someone a price 
break, maybe an outright gift can bring in more business than you can 
handle. A little charity or comunity service can be far more profitable than 
a for pay only attitude. Personally I think the only thing more important 
than taking care of business and delivering a little extra is integrity. I 
don't misrepresent what I do or how, while getting IT in writing is basic 
good business, my WORD is still my bond.

Well, hasn't this turned into a long ramble? I guess it gets back to RD from 
SQ and SQ from RD. Without a patron speccing and paying for such a process 
there is only one "Good" reason to use the technique as a matter of course. 
That's personal satisfaction, it's what floats your boat. so long as it 
doesn't drag the whole operation down what difference does it make? The 
difference is personal satisfaction which is exactly why I blacksmith at 
all. I never intended to make a profit at it outside of satisfaction. Is 
THAT emotional investment? I don't know for sure but I figure that so long 
as it doesn't drag me or the lil'farm down it's within reason for a hobby. 
Then there's the real kicker, My wife wanted a doffer, sent me to take a 
look at one made by a friend of mine so I could make her one, I looked, made 
a few mods and darned if almost every gal in the local fiber guild doesn't 
just love the things and is more than happy to spend $50 on one. The next 
thing I know Deb's calling me from the first guild retreat she took a doffer 
to ordering half a dozen for immediate delivery. don't cha know, I'd just 
got my new (to me) 50lb Little Giant placed, running and a drawing spring 
die made so instead of taking a couple hours a doffer only took about half 
an hour plus detailing and finishing. So, with excuse in hand I head out to 
the shop and make half a dozen doffers and later that day head to the guild 
retreat to deliver.

I walk in the door looking for Deb, the next thing I know the doffers are 
gone and I have a pocket full of money! Woo Hoo! A "must have" item that 
isn't a big time and energy consumer to produce and it just sort of 
happened. By time I got home, about half an hour or so there's a message on 
the answering machine from Deb. I call back and discover I need to come out 
the next morning and recieve some custom doffer orders. One gal wants a doxy 
doffer, she has a daschund she loves so of course a doxy doffer is a MUST 
HAVE! The other four or five gals don't want a pineapple twist, it's too 
sharp and rough on their hands so I make them cable twist handles and that 
has become my most popular model. Cable twist handle and leaf finial. I sold 
about a dozen before the Great White attack and haven't gotten back to solo 
piloting the power hammer so there's actually a back log of orders! I figure 
another 65-70 and the power hammer has paid for itself!

I figure I should give anyone who's had the patience to read through this 
long ramble a break. It's hard to believe but since the accident I'm even 
MORE long winded!

Frosty
-------------------------
If it ain't forged
It ain't real
wrought iron is
The Frostworks



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Swisher" <rwswisher1 at verizon.net>
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 4:11 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] blackened steel finish


> Frosty,
> I started learning the grand art of forging metal from D. Marshal 
> Crumbacher, a general blacksmith for  60+ years in MD in the German 
> tradition, long since past.  The journey was continued while working for 
> Ivan Bailey in Savannah, GA, who was trained at the Westphalin Institute 
> in Germany under Fritz Kuhn.  I still want to forge round metal square and 
> square metal round but I have never been able to make any money doing it.
>
> Ron
>