[TheForge] The mind 1st to go
Jason Nass
me at wargoth.com
Tue Oct 12 21:59:05 EDT 2010
Additionally, I have no interest in being goaded into a flame war over
something as silly as this. I have tried several times to clarify the
points that you are either misunderstanding or blatantly ignoring. While I
respect your opinion, I don't agree with it at all. The initial post was
meant to be a bit of humor, and you have managed to turn it into me
espousing far more on the topic than I want to. Congratulations sir, you win
the pissing contest.
Jason Nass - MacTalis Ironworks
me at wargoth.com
-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Jason Nass
Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 9:09 PM
To: 'Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA'
Subject: Re: [TheForge] The mind 1st to go
Peter,
I ask for no sympathy whatsoever for my divorce, I merely gave my background
so you might understand a little more about where I am coming from. While I
am not currently a full time smith, I was working the west coast
renaissance circuit for about 4 years as a full time professional smith and
had been forging for a good 8 years prior to that. I was initially taught
bladesmithing, and eventually took more and more interest in decorative work
as time went on. I don't want you old coots to die off and leave me all your
tools.
For the most part, if I need a tool, I make it. Though there are a handful
of things I'd love to have, but can't find for anywhere near a reasonable
price. If you want to be completely self-serving and mark that HB 165# that
you scored for $20 at some garage sale to $300, great... you are entitled
to. Myself, whenever I score a great deal like that, and find myself no
longer having need for it, I pass it on for what I paid for it. Just my
ethics I guess, I am more interested in helping the next guy out.
Again my email address is my PERSONAL email address. Wargoth is a nickname
given by a very prestigious haunted house acting troupe that I have
volunteered with for the past 22 years. I own the domain of wargoth.com. It
is a fairly standard format to have an email of me at mydomainname.com and I
merely adopted that same INDUSTRY STANDARD format.
The request I initially made to send me all your spare tools was a tongue in
cheek jest, sorry, if that didn't convey but the concept of passing
un-needed or rendundant tools on to someone who can really use them will in
the long run help to ensure the future of blacksmithing. At Quad-state this
year, one of the coolest things I heard was someone passing up bidding on an
item because he found out that one of the young bucks was desperately in
need of it and had less $$$ to spend than the other guy, who already had 3.
Now THAT is class.
Jason Nass - MacTalis Ironworks
Email: me at wargoth.com
-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of peter fels & phoebe
palmer
Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 7:05 PM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] The mind 1st to go
Hi again Jason:
At 40 , you are not all that young to play that as a card, and while i have
sympathy for your grim divorce, that was a consequence of your poor choices,
and i have no desire to soften that.
Apparently, you are not a professional smith so the "keeping the trade
alive" argument gets weaker.
A 47 year old friend and fellow blacksmith, who lusted after my tools
Crassly urged me to write him into my will.
He died last month of a heart attack.
I've been selling his tools pretty cheap at the tail gate sales, and out the
back door.
Tool prices are set by demand, in theory, as they always have been.
You are part of that demand, thus the prices.
If all us old guys were croaking,
they'd be cheap, just as you desire..
You had tools, and didn't protect them.
We have survived divorces too, you know.
Work hard and pay the fair price
or trade your personal skills.
Alternately, it sounds like you have quite enough tools to make or fake
anything you need yourself.
As to" ME at Wargoth"..you named yourself.
I don't much want to subsidize " ME at Wargoth", myself, sight unseen.
Crap, i sound like bloody Ann Rand!
On 10/12/2010 12:57 PM, Jason Nass wrote:
> That's great policy Mike, guys like you are what are gonna help keep
> this trade alive.
>
> Jason Nass - me at wargoth.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Mike Spencer
> Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 3:18 PM
> To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [TheForge] Re: The mind 1st to go
>
>
> Jason Nass wrote:
>
>> ...as for shedding tools at the swap meets...Sure, it's capitalism,
>> but it's also not doing anything to help keep our craft alive.
> What he said.
>
> I hate to sell tools. Tools, at least the old, well-travelled smithing
> tools, have mojo. Sell one and what do I have? Money. Money doesn't
> have mojo, is fungible and quickly goes away long before I find
> another buyable tool with similar mojo.
>
> Okay, I guess big stuff like power hammers that run in the thousands
> of bucks -- significant in my very modest domestic economy -- I could
> bring myself to sell. But as a rule:
>
> + Swap. Something I can use in the shop, maybe something I've
> wanted for years or haven't been able to find for a project in
> exchange for for something the other guy is really overjoyed to
> have. I swapped a working, 100# Palmer Power Spring Hammer for a
> non-working 300# Alldays& Onions air hammer. Both parties
> tickled pink. Swapped an Acadia single-banger missing a part and
> with a cracked water tank for a Wisconsin engine [1] on a
> trailer, a post drill and a small forge that I fixed up and
> passed on to my son.
>
> + Something that's extra/redundant for me and I see another guy
> really could use it? Give it to him, no strings. I saw a guy do
> an enthusiastic and successful demo, but with a helved chisel
> that was just totally inadequate. Well, I had several new-old-
> stock Atha hot sets so I helved one and gave it to the guy.
>
> + Iron in the hat. If something has been laying around for 20
> years waiting for me to get around to fixing it, reassembling it,
> finding a use for it, I put it in Iron in the Hat at a Maritime
> Blacksmiths' meet. Somebody gets it cheap and has fun. That
> makes me feel good and I don't have it hanging over my head any
> longer. Compressor I had for years, IIRC picked up for free as
> junk, eventually disassembled to see what I had. Then it got
> upstaged by a nice big, working compressor. Compressor in a
> Basket off to Iron in the Hat. MBA made money, guy that got it
> was happy.
>
> Unless you're experiencing hard times, money is only money but an
> anvil is a good smoke. Or something like that. [2]
>
>
> - Mike
>
> [1] Anybody have a 50# LG (or equivalent) they want to swap for a
> Wisconsin engine? How about for two Wisconsin engines? :-)
>
> [2] http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Betrothed_(Kipling)
>
> "...a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke."
> -- Kipling
>
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