[TheForge] Re: Knife sharpening

[Mike Spencer]

 "J. Petrila" <jlpservicesinc at gmail.com> wrote:

> 10 different blacksmiths..  Reason is or was because they were all
> from different areas with different back grounds and training..
> LOL..

Part of the notion of "journeyman" was that by spending a day, a few
days or a few weeks in each of numerous shops you would learn that
what you learned in your apprenticeship wasn't the *only* way, would
learn to evaluate technique and style, choose or develop what worked
for you.

> Today with the internet you have key figures that get followed..
> Brian Brazeal for starters is the big one that comes to mind, Hofi
> another..

I hadn't realized that although I suppose I should have.  I have
Hofi's hammer DVD and it doesn't strike me as making much of a
contribution to a keen young learner.  I learned, hit or miss, from
cranky old geezers, opinionated younger guys, by hanging out with
anybody who had a forge and anvil and by going to a few workshops with
an accomplished instructor..  Some of that was invaluable, some of it,
of course, complete bullshit and some good humor.  (Work at night;
iron stays hot longer after dark.)  A lot of autodidactification after
that. 

Talked to a young teenager in the hardware store today who apparently
has been learning blacksmithing from the internet. (!)  He's built a
working forge from an old barbecue with a 1/4" plate floor, has an
appointment with a smith not too far from me to fabricate a better
one.  And he's been using wood for fuel.  I was able to put him onto
some coal.  Hoping I can get together with him and see what he's doing
or have him over for a visit, maybe clue him in on how to use the coal.

> What this has done is made it so a lot of people base what they do, feel,
> think on these guys working knowledge vs their own..
>
> This has limited a lot of people as now it's Rote and taken at face value
> and don't question Why?

Sounds like a problem.  Hands-on learning with an experienced smith to
watch over seems to me to be way better.  "See, it that particular
thing works better *this* way" and the leave him alone for awhile.

> I'm not complaining..  I have learned there is a technique or short
> cut for everything when forging and it's always the best when someone
> who has learned it shares it.

Just so.

> Mind you I am not an artist nor claim to be one.. I'm just a trade
> smith who doesn't work at a trade anymore.. :)

I got started with a guy like that. In his 70s, he was "too old to do
real blacksmithing".  He had done shoeing, farm & rural work in
Massachusetts but hated the cold.  So he'd go to Arkansas in the
winters to shoe mules.  If Arkansas got too cold, he'd go on to
Florida to shoe circus ponies, repair elephant chains and tire circus
wagons.  Retired in Massachusetts, some art establishment folks from
the university came around and offered him Craftsman in Residence at
the new Craft Center half a mile from his house and a heated shop.
Heated?!  So he got the Sonn books (they hadn't become pricey
collectibles then) from the library and was knocking out Norfolk
latches, Suffolk latches, hinges and all kinds of small stuff that
wasn't "real blacksmithing" to his mind.  And told outrageous lies.
When I asked what the round hole in the anvil was called, he told me
it was the Pritchell hole, named after Aaron Pritchell who invented
it.  I believed that for two years until I saw a picture of a
farrier's pritchell in a book.  Thank you, Bert. :-)


- Mike

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