[TheForge] Knife sharpening

[Walter]

I would call that sharp!

That daikon flower is interesting.  Could that be adapted to steel?


On 7/7/2017 3:10 AM, Bruce . wrote:
> 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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