On 2/23/2019 6:40 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"Leon Fisk" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 23 Feb 2019 07:37:18 -0600
Terry Coombs wrote:

Forging it ain't as easy as those guys on Youtube make it look .
snip

NPR ran an interesting article on this last week:

===
SCIENCE
There's A Gap Between Perception And Reality When It Comes To
Learning
February 18, 2019 Heard on Morning Edition by Shankar Vedantam

Increasingly, people feel they can master tasks simply by watching
instructional videos like the kind you find on YouTube. But
sometimes
the gap between perception and reality can be deep and wide...
===

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/18/69563...es-to-learning

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI

Videos don't create muscle memory. I needed trial-and-error practice
to learn to strike the hot steel squarely, so it remained rectangular
as it thinned and lengthened instead of becoming a twisted wedge or
rhombus. This isn't exactly the same as learning to drive a nail
straight because the hammer face to handle angle is different.


Â* It helps a lot if you already have hand skills and an understanding
of how metal works . My blacksmith neighbor saw me at the anvil this
afternoon and stopped by . In just chatting I learned that I'm working
the steel a little too cold and twist is not a problem when drawing out
and rounding up a piece . I admit I have been conservative with the heat
, but that's easily corrected . Too many warnings about "burning the
steel" and ruining it I guess . I went over to his place for a few
minutes , wanted to see the profile of a type of tongs . He reduced the
clutter in his shop by sending me home with a hammer with a busted
handle and a pair of tongs (the type I went over to look at) that had
been "modified" by welding on some pieces . And 3 long pieces of mild
steel rod that had been in a fire - these were the bolts on a wire reel
that a guy burned , looked like pretzels . The tongs have been restored
to original and the steel is a lot straighter now ... I'm trying to
decide whether to leave the hammer as a 2.5 lb baby sledge or turn it
into a cross/straight peen hammer . Plenty of time to decide that .

--
Snag
Yes , I'm old
and crochety - and armed .
Get outta my woods !