[TheForge] blacksmithing / metalwork formal training and higher education

[Bob Ehrenberger]

---Original Message: 6----
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 06:33:57 -0700
From: Ries Niemi <ries at riesniemi.com>
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [TheForge] blacksmithing / metalwork formal training and
higher education

The thing is, the original question was specifically about formal training 
and higher education.
And so, the list of colleges and community colleges is an appropriate 
answer.

Knowing, as I do, a couple dozen world class blacksmiths with MFA's from SIU 
Carbondale, I am convinced that the education you receive there is not 
mediocre.
It includes a wide exposure to other ideas and techniques, a great facility, 
and people whose job is to teach.
The problem with apprenticeships, particularly in the USA at this time, is 
that the blacksmith you are apprenticing with needs to make a living- and, 
as such, doesnt have a lot of time to teach. I have hired a lot of guys over 
the years to help in my shop, and, no doubt, have taught them a lot- but 
only in terms of specific skills to do the job we were doing at that time.
I cant afford to teach a core class, I need to get the work out.

Also, for a variety of reasons, some people can afford to go to school for 
two or four years, but cannot spend months or years just practicing and 
learning on their own.

Personally, I dropped out of college twice, and have no degree. I am 
primarily self taught. But I think for some people, college is the right 
thing, and I think now, more than ever before, there are viable, and very 
high quality, college and junior college programs in blacksmithing where you 
come out the other end actually having learned a lot, and being employable.

ries

----Reply----
Ries has a point,  back in 2000 I took a forge welding class from Bob 
Patrick.  It changed my life and forge welding became a normal part of my 
work.  Before that it was kind of a last resort.

I might have figured it out on my own if I had spent a whole week just 
practicing forge welds, but that wasn't going to happen in my shop where I 
had paying work waiting for me to do.  It was hard to block out a whole week 
for a class, but was well worth it.

I can only imagine what would be learned if you could dedicate a whole year 
to just practicing new things and not trying to turn out sellable product.

My tendency is to only take jobs that I know I can do and avoid the ones 
that have a big learning curve, knowing that I will loose money on them 
initially because they will take a lot longer than they should as I learn a 
new technique.  In the long run they probably make money because they give 
me a skill that I can apply to future projects.


Robert Ehrenberger
Shelbyville, Mo.
eforge at centurytel.net