[TheForge] Knife sharpening

[Bruce .]

And while we're on this subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XW-XdDe6j0

Bruce
NJ

On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 1:55 AM, Mike Spencer <mspencer at tallships.ca> wrote:

>
>  "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/                        ^^-^^
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