[TheForge] blackened steel finish

Sat Jul 3 17:48:28 EDT 2010

Long winded and a pretty darn good wordsmith Mr F!
It's very pleasing to watch your writing increase in 
comprehension, subtlety and complexity as you recover 
your wits and wit.
I doffer my hat to you, crusty as you are.

williamsiron at comcast.net wrote:
> 
> Okay, Jerry, I'll bite. What's this doffer you're hawking to fiber folk? 
> 
> 
> 
> Mark Williams 
> 
> Snow Hill, Maryland 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jerry Frost" <akfrosty at mtaonline.net> 
> To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net> 
> Sent: Thursday, July 1, 2010 1:44:09 PM 
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] blackened steel finish 
> 
> 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 
>>
> 
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