http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e7b_1366565172

I really like this, wish I could do that too... but then again I dont really need it

On 4/22/2013 4:03 AM, Sonnich Jensen wrote:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e7b_1366565172

I really like this, wish I could do that too... but then again I dont really need it

It is amazing that modern man is finally figuring our they can do things
without electricity and build tools like our ancestors have done for the
last several centuries.

I guess that is the reason the the PBS show the Woodwright has been on
TV for the last 40 years. I got hooked in the show where he went out
into the woods and cut an oak tree. He cut a section from the trunk the
length he needed and then proceeded to SPLIT out the two 2X8 that he
needed.

My grandfather was a blacksmith, and I have one of his tongs that he
made to fit his hand. (Missing finger) It is bent so the one arm neatly
fits into the hole caused by the missing finger. With the bend he could
use the tongs with one hand while he used the hammer with the other.

On Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:59:38 -0400, Keith Nuttle wrote:

My grandfather was a blacksmith, and I have one of his tongs that he
made to fit his hand. (Missing finger) It is bent so the one arm neatly
fits into the hole caused by the missing finger. With the bend he could
use the tongs with one hand while he used the hammer with the other.

About the closest anybody comes to being a blacksmith nowadays is those
that shoe horses. In the past this was done the the blacksmith. Most all
iron work nowadays is done with machines. When I was in high school (many
years ago) we was required to do some items using a forge as a blacksmith
would. It was a something you did not forget.

Paul T.

On 4/22/2013 10:16 AM, PHT wrote:
On Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:59:38 -0400, Keith Nuttle wrote:

My grandfather was a blacksmith, and I have one of his tongs that he
made to fit his hand. (Missing finger) It is bent so the one arm neatly
fits into the hole caused by the missing finger. With the bend he could
use the tongs with one hand while he used the hammer with the other.

About the closest anybody comes to being a blacksmith nowadays is those
that shoe horses. In the past this was done the the blacksmith. Most all
iron work nowadays is done with machines. When I was in high school (many
years ago) we was required to do some items using a forge as a blacksmith
would. It was a something you did not forget.

Paul T.

Blacksmithing has made some what of a come back even though it will
never be what it was in the 1900's. Yes there is a large need for the
shoeing of horses, and you can usually find one around a horse show.

The other place to find blacksmiths is the many historical recreations
and historical sites. If you go to some place like Feast of the Harvest
Moon in Lafayette Indiana you will find a dozen working blacksmiths.
Some with a simple forge to some very sophisticate set up. Many
historical sites, have a working blacksmith shops, examples are Marbry
Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Connor Prairie in Indiana, Tryon Place
in New Bern NC, and many similar sites.

While they practice the historic profession, their main products are
hinges, and other simple iron items. I believe I saw one where they
were making an iron fence.

In some historical sites, they do the larger task, such as wagon repair
and construction and other Blacksmithing project to maintain the site
and the historical accuracy.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e7b_1366565172
I really like this, wish I could do that too... but then again I dont really need it
Sonnich Jensen

That was a really great video. Thanks for sharing.
I admire that guy's reuse of tools and creativity.

"PHT" wrote in message news
On Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:59:38 -0400, Keith Nuttle wrote:

My grandfather was a blacksmith, and I have one of his tongs that he
made to fit his hand. (Missing finger) It is bent so the one arm neatly
fits into the hole caused by the missing finger. With the bend he could
use the tongs with one hand while he used the hammer with the other.

About the closest anybody comes to being a blacksmith nowadays is those
that shoe horses. In the past this was done the the blacksmith. Most all
iron work nowadays is done with machines. When I was in high school (many
years ago) we was required to do some items using a forge as a blacksmith
would. It was a something you did not forget.
================================================== =============================
There are plenty of working blacksmiths around.

"CW" wrote in
:

*snip*
There are plenty of working blacksmiths around.

There are also plenty of hobbyist blacksmiths around too. They're probably
like woodworkers, you wouldn't be able to tell them on the street but in
their work space there's a pretty nice set up.

Puckdropper
--
Make it to fit, don't make it fit.

"Puckdropper" wrote in message
b.com...

"CW" wrote in
:

*snip*
There are plenty of working blacksmiths around.

There are also plenty of hobbyist blacksmiths around too. They're probably
like woodworkers, you wouldn't be able to tell them on the street but in
their work space there's a pretty nice set up.
================================================== ========================
True. I used to be one.

PHT wrote:
On Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:59:38 -0400, Keith Nuttle wrote:
My grandfather was a blacksmith, and I have one of his tongs that he
made to fit his hand. (Missing finger) It is bent so the one arm neatly
fits into the hole caused by the missing finger. With the bend he could
use the tongs with one hand while he used the hammer with the other.

About the closest anybody comes to being a blacksmith nowadays is those
that shoe horses.

That's a farrier.


In the past this was done the the blacksmith. Most all
iron work nowadays is done with machines. When I was in high school (many
years ago) we was required to do some items using a forge as a blacksmith
would. It was a something you did not forget.

Paul T.


--
Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeros after @

"Keith Nuttle" wrote in message ...

On 4/22/2013 10:16 AM, PHT wrote:
On Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:59:38 -0400, Keith Nuttle wrote:

My grandfather was a blacksmith, and I have one of his tongs that he
made to fit his hand. (Missing finger) It is bent so the one arm neatly
fits into the hole caused by the missing finger. With the bend he could
use the tongs with one hand while he used the hammer with the other.

About the closest anybody comes to being a blacksmith nowadays is those
that shoe horses. In the past this was done the the blacksmith. Most all
iron work nowadays is done with machines. When I was in high school (many
years ago) we was required to do some items using a forge as a blacksmith
would. It was a something you did not forget.

Paul T.

Blacksmithing has made some what of a come back even though it will never
be what it was in the 1900's. Yes there is a large need for the shoeing of
horses, and you can usually find one around a horse show.

The other place to find blacksmiths is the many historical recreations and
historical sites. If you go to some place like Feast of the Harvest Moon
in Lafayette Indiana you will find a dozen working blacksmiths. Some with a
simple forge to some very sophisticate set up. Many historical sites, have
a working blacksmith shops, examples are Marbry Mill on the Blue Ridge
Parkway, Connor Prairie in Indiana, Tryon Place in New Bern NC, and many
similar sites.

While they practice the historic profession, their main products are
hinges, and other simple iron items. I believe I saw one where they were
making an iron fence.

In some historical sites, they do the larger task, such as wagon repair and
construction and other Blacksmithing project to maintain the site and the
historical accuracy.

I know quite a number of blacksmiths... Some from my time working in the
gunsmith shop at Colonial Williamsburg. There are three blacksmiths within 5
miles or so of me right now. Two do commercial commissions and the third is
pretty much retired now being in his late 70s.

Peter Ross was master of the blacksmith shop at Williamsburg when I worked
there http://peterrossblacksmith.com/. Roy Underhill has had him on the
Woodwright's Shop numerous times.

I just posted some photos to abpw of some kitchen cabinets made from solid
crotch walnut with hand forged hinges, etc. These reside in one of my
friend's home in VA whom I visited this past summer on my bicycle trip from
FL to NY. My friend was a gunsmith at Williamsburg and held other skilled
positions at Williamsburg prior to his retirement.

John

P.S. If you want to read about my trip...
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/RVW2013

On 10/3/2013 5:11 PM, John Grossbohlin wrote:
"Keith Nuttle" wrote in message ...

On 4/22/2013 10:16 AM, PHT wrote:
On Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:59:38 -0400, Keith Nuttle wrote:

My grandfather was a blacksmith, and I have one of his tongs that he
made to fit his hand. (Missing finger) It is bent so the one arm neatly
fits into the hole caused by the missing finger. With the bend he could
use the tongs with one hand while he used the hammer with the other.

About the closest anybody comes to being a blacksmith nowadays is those
that shoe horses. In the past this was done the the blacksmith. Most all
iron work nowadays is done with machines. When I was in high school (many
years ago) we was required to do some items using a forge as a blacksmith
would. It was a something you did not forget.

Paul T.

Blacksmithing has made some what of a come back even though it will
never be what it was in the 1900's. Yes there is a large need for the
shoeing of horses, and you can usually find one around a horse show.

The other place to find blacksmiths is the many historical recreations
and historical sites. If you go to some place like Feast of the
Harvest Moon in Lafayette Indiana you will find a dozen working
blacksmiths. Some with a simple forge to some very sophisticate set
up. Many historical sites, have a working blacksmith shops, examples
are Marbry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Connor Prairie in Indiana,
Tryon Place in New Bern NC, and many similar sites.

While they practice the historic profession, their main products are
hinges, and other simple iron items. I believe I saw one where they
were making an iron fence.

In some historical sites, they do the larger task, such as wagon
repair and construction and other Blacksmithing project to maintain
the site and the historical accuracy.

I know quite a number of blacksmiths... Some from my time working in the
gunsmith shop at Colonial Williamsburg. There are three blacksmiths
within 5 miles or so of me right now. Two do commercial commissions and
the third is pretty much retired now being in his late 70s.

Peter Ross was master of the blacksmith shop at Williamsburg when I
worked there http://peterrossblacksmith.com/. Roy Underhill has had him
on the Woodwright's Shop numerous times.

I just posted some photos to abpw of some kitchen cabinets made from
solid crotch walnut with hand forged hinges, etc. These reside in one of
my friend's home in VA whom I visited this past summer on my bicycle
trip from FL to NY. My friend was a gunsmith at Williamsburg and held
other skilled positions at Williamsburg prior to his retirement.

John

P.S. If you want to read about my trip...
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/RVW2013

Very cool. Bookmarked it on my iPad and taking it to bed tonight for a
proper read. Looks great. Thanks for the heads-up.

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:

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


--
eWoodShop: www.eWoodShop.com
Wood Shop: www.e-WoodShop.net
https://plus.google.com/114902129577517371552/posts
http://www.custommade.com/by/ewoodshop/
KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)

"John Grossbohlin" wrote:

P.S. If you want to read about my trip... http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/RVW2013

Enjoyable read, highly recommended.

"It's now an entertainment, sound bite and tweet world... not much depth to
it."

Seems to be that way almost everywhere.

--
www.ewoodshop.com (Mobile)

"Swingman" wrote in message
...

"John Grossbohlin" wrote:

P.S. If you want to read about my trip...
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/RVW2013

Enjoyable read, highly recommended.

"It's now an entertainment, sound bite and tweet world... not much depth to
it."

Seems to be that way almost everywhere.

Thanks! It was a lot of work keeping up on the journal while on the road...

Not sure I ever posted the link to the 2011 trip. The 2011 trip was through
the Rockies which was a challenge for someone who lives and works less than
200 feet above sea level!

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/RipVanWinkle

"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.

John

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.

--
eWoodShop: www.eWoodShop.com
Wood Shop: www.e-WoodShop.net
https://plus.google.com/114902129577517371552/posts
http://www.custommade.com/by/ewoodshop/
KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)

On 10/3/2013 9:11 PM, Swingman wrote:


P.S. If you want to read about my trip...
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/RVW2013

Very cool. Bookmarked it on my iPad and taking it to bed tonight for a
proper read. Looks great. Thanks for the heads-up.

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:

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





I watched the Texas Country Reporter show that focused on Angel Sword.
Apparently this guy holds some world records

Anyway he demonstrated the sharpness of the sword by cutting a piece of
paper, not on the edge of the paper, he shave a layer from the surface
of the paper to make it thinner.

http://www.angelsword.com/ Located in Driftwood TX

"Swingman" wrote in message
...

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

I'm reminded of my son's comment early on when he was learning
woodworking... "It's like magic." ;~)

John