[TheForge] TheForge Digest, Vol 213, Issue 2

[JERRY FROST]

First off I'd like to say thanks for breaking the stream of sad posts. I've resisted adding my own to the list. I took a look at the map of the retreat and it looks well thought out and in nice country. I grew up in the San Fernando valley in the town of Sylmar which at the time surrounded the mission on 3 sides. 

I believe blacksmithing would be an outstanding addition to the curriculum. Not so much for the real world skills it holds, finding a livelihood as a blacksmith is a matter of luck and determination, it is very much a niche with a limited market.

What it really offers is learning control. You can't start a fire without understanding what is required and the control to do it properly. Blacksmithing is not about strength as it is controlling the hammer, the temperature of the steel, the fire that heats it and amount of time best for the particular process. Controlling hand tools, the material itself either directly in hand or with tongs, hold downs. 

On and on. Every step a blacksmith makes is about control. A little knowledge and a lot of practice will start developing the required skills sets. Once you reach a competent level, I can take you to a beginner's level in about 4 hours instruction and another 4-6 practice. Once you reach a level the craft becomes very meditative soon it is just you and the steel. You never lost awareness of the world around you but you are focused on the process.

To get there you have to learn to control the tools of the craft. More importantly, to control the others you have to control yourself. Only then can you get in the zone and have THE conversation with the steel. A while ago a friend on another blacksmithing forum posted a link to Cistercian Monastery Blacksmiths. The article that comes up in a web search describes what I'm talking about well.

Our club has a number of vets who suffer PTSD and time at the anvil and self control required has taught several to maintain when PTSD rears it's ugly head. Most have taken up blacksmithing as therapy and turn to it as refuge on bad days.

The more proficient you become the more spiritual blacksmithing becomes. Not the craft or product so much as the process. If that makes any sense.

Anyway, I believe a religious retreat is a perfect place for a blacksmith shop and school. 

You might contact some of the commercial blacksmithing tool makers you might get a sponsor for no more than talking about the donation. Hmmmm?

Frosty

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Eccleston" <edeccleston at att.net>
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2024 10:10:42 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] TheForge Digest, Vol 213, Issue 2

Gentlemen,

       I’ve been a lurker here for quite a while and have had a (mostly) unrequited passion for smithing for decades. As Andrew aptly points out, our lives in general have become rather more complicated over the last few decades than at any time in history…things that seem to demand more and more time, allowing less for the things we, in our hearts, know we really need to do for pure sanity if nothing else. I am certainly guilty of this, coupled with the fact that here in Southern California, there seems to be a dearth of places to go to learn. Years ago I found a shop/school in a county park in Orange County (as best I can remember), and I did go a few times which was wonderful. An older gentleman was on site watching over us, but there was no real teaching/demonstration/explanation….just a number of bowl/coal forges, a good number of tongs, tools and anvils. I thoroughly enjoyed playing with everything and did manage to produce some of the basics such as hooks and a couple of decorative tchotchkes. (Full disclosure, I’m a 40 year licensed contractor who owned a custom cabinet shop for 30 years, so quite familiar with tools and fabrication). 
Yet the rather long drive to a place only open a couple of times a month for beginners was tough, and I haven’t returned. This was also long before COVID and I don’t even know if the shop still exists. 
    So this long personal lament seems to be additional testimony to what I read here so often, but with maybe a thought towards a solution to the lack of younger interest?

    Through a series of fortuitous events, at 71, I find myself a full time employee and trade instructor at a brand new Trade School started last September at the Santiago Retreat Center in Orange County, Ca.  Trade schools are flourishing across the country as an alternative (and antidote?) for those who have no interest in college and want to learn the hands on trades. The location we have is ideal, our plan is a two year curriculum with the ultimate goal of giving in depth instruction with loads of hands on work on site, culminating in not only real time experience, but direct schooling in prep for a California Contractor’s license exam. (One of the hardest in the country). 
    When I signed on, one of the first things I thought of was setting up a blacksmith’s shop and having that be part of the curriculum, just as carpentry, plumbing, electrical, etc. are. We already have an older “barn” type building with a great outside shed roof perfect for the shop location. I can’t think of a better setup to introduce a new generation to probably what can be considered the first “trade” of the metal age. And I’ve got a captive audience as all the men (our ages run from min. 18 to at most late 20’s) live on site and are given a food budget with which they go shopping as a class group and do all their own cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. while also being responsible for jobs around the retreat center in addition to classroom and real work instruction.  
   Another full disclosure, the Retreat Center is a non-profit Faith based Catholic organization, but privately owned and operated.  We do take our Faith as seriously as our commitment to teaching real trades and work ethics to our students. 
    So all that being said, and apologies for the long winds, these trade schools may be a real source of fresh interest in smithing, and I can promise that if you can find one and communicate both interest and hopefully even some hardware (I’m certainly starting from scratch with minimal funds), you’ll get not only a bona fide tax write off, but fresh youngsters who will be exposed to the trade you all love and then pay it forward. 

    Thanks for listening.

Regards,
   Ed Eccleston
   Santiago Trade School
   Santiago Retreat Center
   Orange County, Ca.