[TheForge] blacksmithing in news

[Ron Childers]

Better than "Junkyard Wars" which was all scripted and as fake as
"Operation Repo", etc

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Mike Spencer
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 9:59 PM
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [TheForge] blacksmithing in news


> http://www.theindychannel.com/news/30465647/detail.html

>From the article:

    The hope is to teach the Afghan people how to take scrap metal
    left behind from decades of war and turn it into tools for
    farming, including hammers, chains, plows and wheelbarrows.

    "Primarily what the class is concentrating on is being able to set
    up a blacksmith's shop, a working blacksmith's shop, using
    scavenged and found materials," said Nathan Allen, manager of
    historic trades at Conner Prairie.

    Typically, it takes between 4 and 7 years to learn the blacksmith
    trade.  The soldiers are learning as much as they can in five
    days.


Isn't it Afghans (and Pakistanis) who have been making their own "modern
firearms" in village shops since the days of The Great Game?  Seems to
me that I've read about AK-47s hand made in Afghanistan.

Not, of course, that just any guy on the street corner in a random
isolated village could do that, but I'm guessing that the 5-day
wonders may learn more from an Afghan village blacksmith than vice
versa.

    "They are 100 or more years behind us. You've got to go back to
    that time, find things that are practical and useful to them,"
    said Capt.  Stephen Spencer. "They don't have the Walmarts and
    stores where they can go purchase things."

I've only been in Walmart maybe half a dozen times but I don't recall
seeing much in the way of "hammers, chains, plows and wheelbarrows."
Maybe I was just in too much of a hurry to get outa there to look.

- Mike

PS: That gives me an idea for a competition.  At an ABANA conference
    or similar meet running over a few days, give each of two teams a
    rusty Soviet tank, a trashed armored personel carrier or a
    demolished military fighter jet.  Each team gets two forge & anvil
    stations, 5 tons of coal and any hand tools they can bring.  No
    power tools, electric welders or gas cutting gear unless they can
    build them from parts of their scrap vehicle.  Team that produces
    the greatest number of useful (or at least interesting) forged
    objects wins.  The winners get a free trip to Afghanistan with
    that Indiana Nationa Guard unit.

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