[TheForge] reenactors

[Bob Ehrenberger]

Talking about coming back to it later in life.  My son got me into 
blacksmithing because of his interest in making knives.  He was a full time 
knife maker for about 10 years, but when he wanted to get married and and 
buy a home he set it aside and got a job in a factory.  At first he worked 
on the assembly line wireing refrigerators. After a while they trained him 
to be a brazer, then to handle the freon charging. After several years he 
ended up in the sheetmetal shop, the metal working he learned in 
blacksmithing and knife making led to him becoming a set up guy on the 
shears, presses and brakes. He is now the set up trainer, because the 
machines he set up almost never made scrap parts which was common with some 
of the othere set up guys. He doesn't make many knives now, but I expect 
that when his boys get older he will get back into it. It won't be long 
before his boys want to pick up a hammer like grandpa and make their own 
knives.

Robert Ehrenberger
Shelbyville, Mo.
eforge at centurytel.net

---Original Message----

     One quick story about Blacksmithing. I used to have kids come work for 
a week or two with me in the shop as part of their internship. I believe 
they will always remember the three days of Blacksmithing as they were able 
to make a few things that they could give to their Mom, Dad, girlfriend that 
they made.  It wasn't really a blacksmith class as I had real work to be 
done at the same time, but I did provide them the glimpse and an 
appreciation of what a Blacksmith did. They were also surprised at what I 
got paid for my accrued knowledge of Historic Preservation and Restoration. 
I used to point out I was lucky that my job was unique and that I made a 
nice living doing something I truly enjoyed. They got it - I told them to 
keep it in mind and maybe later on you can come back to it and do it as a 
hobby if nothing else. The girls really got excited, but felt it was to hard 
for them, but said they would alway remember their time in the Blacksmith 
shop. The seed was planted w
 ith about 7 interns in 2 years. Now we have to wait and see maybe one will 
take. All of them are going into other fields, Interpretation, Police, 
Administration, Education, etc. not a metalworker one. We can only put it 
out there and hope that someone grabs a hold of the line.
See ya at the Forge!!
Albanian Style!

Vince Nakovics