[TheForge] jesse james/uri hofi ( was Re: Why an acetylene leak is not desirable)

Mon Dec 12 10:55:01 EST 2011

I have one of his style hammers that was made by my good friend Chuck Robinson. It works quite well, but takes some getting used to if you have been using traditional style hammers all the time.

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of blakkpawss at yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 10:52 AM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] jesse james/uri hofi ( was Re: Why an acetylene leak is not desirable)

I like Yellin's work a lot.  Not seen much of Hofi, but his hammers.  Never used one, but I like the look of them.
Sent from my BlackBerry(r) smartphone powered by Alltel

-----Original Message-----
From: "Mark A. Pesetsky" <pesetsky at Princeton.EDU>
Sender: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:49:11
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA<theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Reply-To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [TheForge] jesse james/uri hofi ( was Re: Why an acetylene leak  is not desirable)

I've seen some Hofi videos and from what I seen of his work he is no Yellin:

http://www.samuelyellin.com/

Hofi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SAWr0c_wpo

I watched the bike build off and it is true that JJ did minimal forging. They showed a formed leaf as a decorative piece for the bike, but I don't recall seeing JJ forging that out. Even if he did that is a pretty elementary task to travel all that way to Hofi and learn how to do that. I did see him do a local heat on some fairly large SS stock that he was using for the frame and front end and do some simple forming by way of simple bends. But for the most part all of the forging was nothing to write home about. It was, however, more forging than either of the other two shops did, that was none.

These guys do have a lot of talent, but not when it comes to true blacksmithing. I will say that JJ's shop is AMAZING!!!! But hey, when you sell bikes for 50-100k a piece and silly people buy them, you can amass a small fortune I guess. Not to mention the fact of the TV shows and merchandising.

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Paul Novorolsky
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 9:26 AM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: [TheForge] jesse james/uri hofi ( was Re: Why an acetylene leak is not desirable)

Hey Jer,
Can you follow up with a note as to when this was on? I tried searching the national geographic channel to see if I can catch a replay and didn't find it. Nor did I find it on either the History channel or Discovery Channel.

While I'm no big fan of the boisterous JJ, I am curious about Hofi. I've heard a lot about him, along with a lot of criticism of his techniques. 
That link Phlip posted shows him as "the worlds greatest blacksmith" 
(perhaps he studied self marketing with Barnum and Bailey).

I did catch some of that motorcycle fab show last week. And the amount of blacksmithing Jesse James did was pretty slim. That show is so full of bad practices (like MIG welding without proper eye protection!) I will stop on it while channel surfing once in awhile. During one show, they had to stop and take one of the guys to the E.R because he was power brushing something and wire bounce off his face, rebounded off of the glasses and embedded itself in his eye. Next scene after his return to work showed him using a full face shield for wire brushing.

Anyway, I'd like to see what Hofi is teaching so I can make my own decisions about his techiniques. I'll surely learn _something_.

**paul

On 12/12/11 4:33 AM, Jerry Frost wrote:
> The commercials were enough I've never watched an episode, too much 
> cooked drama, tantrums, etc. etc.
>
> On a similar note, this morning I caught something on NatGeo called. 
> "Jesse James Blacksmith." The first hour or so was Jesse taking 
> lessons from Uri Hofi at the kibutz. Makes me think I may have missed 
> something interesting having missed every episode of West Coast 
> Choppers.<sigh>
>
> Jer
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "CraigSchaefer"<calvinjean2 at comcast.net>
> To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA"<theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Friday, December 09, 2011 9:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Why an acetylene leak is not desirable
>
>
>> The folks from Orange County Choppers. Relevant about 7 years ago. 
>> Now, not so much.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Jerry Frost"<akfrosty at mtaonline.net>
>> To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA"<theforge at mailman.qth.net>
>> Sent: Friday, December 9, 2011 1:50:46 PM
>> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Why an acetylene leak is not desirable
>>
>> Miss who?
>>
>> In my more adventurous youth a couple friends and I . . . Oh, that's 
>> right I don't talk about the oxy acet, the 10' weather ballon and the 
>> two 10'
>> methane ballon lift units nor how many blocks away wondows broke . . .
>> Nope,
>> I never mention such things, not me.
>>
>> Jer
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "CraigSchaefer"<calvinjean2 at comcast.net>
>> To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA"<theforge at mailman.qth.net>
>> Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2011 4:26 PM
>> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Why an acetylene leak is not desirable
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "TW, i just saw a commercial for for an upcoming Orange Count 
>>> Choppers episode where they filled a 55 gallon garbage bag with 
>>> oxygen and acetylene... if a static spark had set off that mix, the 
>>> series would have ended right then and there..."
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Is this one of those 'tree falls in the woods' things? Would anybody 
>>> miss them?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> When a bunch of us were greater miscreants than we are now, we used 
>>> to fill plastic milk jugs with oxy/acet and set them off with a 
>>> rifle. They made a pretty good blast at that small size.
>
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