On 10/4/2013 8:32 AM, John Grossbohlin wrote:
"Swingman" wrote in message
...

Nova recently did a show of a blacksmith/swordsmith reverse
engineering a viking sword, pretty interesting if you've ever done any
banging on hot metal yourself:

The reverse engineering thing is quite common among the museum crowd.
;~) My "hero" in that respect is Wallace Gusler... Wallace redeveloped
the 18th century (and earlier!) technology to make guns. If you've ever
seen the movie The Gunsmith of Williamsburg you'll understand why I feel
this way! There is DVD titled "Forging a Flintlock Rifle Barrel" with
Jon Laubach that is available from www.americanpioneervideo.com that you
may find interesting (as well as others including The Gunsmith of
Williamsburg). I worked with Jon at Williamsburg on the "dumb" end of
barrel welding and reaming (hand turned reaming bench). I visited with
him this summer too... learned a LOT from him!

Looking at tool marks on original pieces, whether iron, silver, copper,
wood, stone, etc. gives clues to how things were done. I think the trick
is finding the patterns across different similar items. This as, as
those of us here on the rec know all too well, there are myriad ways to
do things... some excellent, some good, some bad and some just plain
ridiculous. Also figuring out if the work was done by a beginner vs. an
expert is important. I've seen original Shaker pieces that probably
(clearly?) were the work of beginners and if they were the only pieces
I'd ever seen I wouldn't be terribly impressed with the Shaker's work!
One questionable one that comes to mind had half-tails on the ends and
the tail board curled (cupped) at the edges.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient...ing-sword.html

I'd seen ads for that... will check it out.

I've a lot of respect for the art, having been exposed to it for a time
myself.

My paternal grandfather was a blacksmith. I grew up around horses,
learned to cold shape and apply and reset shoes early on, but started
hot shoeing in earnest after I got out of the service.

Since I'd already gone to college, I used the GI bill to attend Bud
Beaston's (RIP) "Oklahmoma Farriers College", which had a pretty good
course in basic blacksmithing, as we were required to make all our own
tools that we would later use in the craft.

(some of which I still own, and those I don't, my Dad, who still rides
at 90 and owns a racehorse farm, inherited the rest ... (reminds me, I
need to get my anvil and stand back one of these days g))

And, being taught by a respected Master of the art, it was an excellent
course in the specifics of hand forging horseshoes for corrective purposes.

As anyone has who has ever tried it will appreciate, there is a definite
art to shaping, to effective purpose, hot metal, with tongs in one hand
and a hammer in the other, particularly to the precise shape of each
individual foot of a horse with the express purpose of influencing their
gait.

I got proficient at it, and made a good living for a few years while I
was single, but decided it was not something that would ultimately send
kids to college after getting married ... also got extremely tired of
the modern horse business being more for the vanity of the man, than for
the good of the horse, a conclusion/aversion I still harbor to this day.

For those Houstonians who have been there, and unless my Dad still has
some which I don't know about, the last known example of my hand forged
horseshoes was still hanging on the wall behind the bar of McGonigel's
Mucky Duck last time I was there.

--
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KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)