[TheForge] forging techniques

[martin marks]

I still only consider myself to be an apprentice blacksmith/bladesmith. I have been making knives for 6 months now and giving them to friends. One friend once asked me "Why are hand forged knives better than factory made ones?" At first I couldn't really answer. I thought for a moment and confessed that there are very little differences in quality one way or the other. You can get a perfect blade made from a factory or a smith. The difference is the skill it takes a smith to make something by hand rather than a computerized machine.  In the end, I compared it to this: A hand forged item is completely unique/ one of a kind. Its like the original artwork of an artist. The original Mona Lisa is priceless while a factory copy is almost worthless. Both are identical in how they look/perform yet, the original is special, unique, and therefore more valuable. Of course you'll always find the person that doesn't care about that and will purchase the cheapest
 thing possible as long as it does the job. I always include a cover page and letter with everything I make with details about the object, how I made it, how long it took, etc etc. I feel this makes item personal to them. They seem to love that and it allows them to appreciate the process. 

Maybe I'm just dreaming here though. What do you guys think?  


Zach
--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 2/7/14, Andy Gladish <anjgladish at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: [TheForge] forging techniques
 To: "theforge at mailman.qth.net" <TheForge at mailman.qth.net>
 Date: Friday, February 7, 2014, 12:41 PM
 
 I'm making quite a few knives these
 days, and I've noticed something very
 interesting that doesn't get a lot of notice: Our concept of
 what makes a
 knife look "right" especially "traditional" depends totally
 on the physics
 of what happens when you forge hot metal into a knife
 shape.
 I'd say that the same is true of decorative ironwork- the
 joinery
 techniques have a certain visual logic that most fabrication
 can't match.
 The way a piece swells slightly when you use the monkey tool
 to prepare a
 tenon just looks right, perhaps because it resembles what
 plants do.
 I see many instances of fabricated work attempting to
 imitate this- heck, I
 do it myself all the time! Fake MIG welded rivet heads,
 etc...and customers
 love it because they get a more natural look at not too much
 more than fab
 prices.
 Forged joinery and ornamentation have a visual appeal that
 will never go
 away, and the biggest issue is, how do we educate our
 customers to
 appreciate the real thing?
 There are plenty of national magazines that promote welding
 techniques, but
 there's only one that I'm aware of that promotes only
 forging- Keep it that
 way!
 
 Andy
 
 -- 
 "You can never make the same mistake twice: The second time
 you do it, it's
 a choice."
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