Scholarship Articles
The “Art” of Understanding
Blacksmithing
: Steven Bailey 2013
Blacksmithing (correctly known as forging) is the art of turning
a cold, hard, metallic substance into something organic, flowing and beautiful
(Unless you’re like me). There is no feeling comparable to lighting up that old
coal forge, cranking your blower and forging a hot piece of metal into some
practical form or art piece. In a sense you are an alchemist; you’re combining
the four elements - earth, fire, wind and water. It turns us into a scientist.
As most of us probably learned in school, science is a “method” and if you don’t
conform to this method you definitely know nothing about science. In reality
that is the furthest from the truth.
The definition of
a scientist in the Oxford dictionary is “a person who is
studying or has expert knowledge of one or more of the natural or physical
sciences” “Natural or physical sciences”. What does that mean? Well, natural
science would be Biology. We use and understand biology to forge organic shapes,
like leaves or flowers. What is a physical science? That would be the
understanding of physical properties of something, like metal. We understand the
properties of steel, and how to heat treat it and temper it to make a useable
blade. How else are we scientists?
Observation is one of the largest parts
of blacksmithing. Without
observation, we would not be able to see how our hammer affects the material we
hit. We also observe others to learn from their knowledge and
experience.
Blacksmithing isn’t just observing –
it’s thinking outside of the box! Many a blacksmith meeting have I walked up to
the show-and-tell table and seen some new contraption of Mr. Dan Tull’s to make
some sort of hinge or tool. This also makes us very ingenuitive. One man told me
that “if you got 100 blacksmith’s in a room and asked them to build a nuclear
reactor, and they had no knowledge of building one, they could build it within
one week”.
I just got back from a week long class
at the John C.
Campbell Folk School, partly paid for by
the blacksmith guild, and I had no clue what to do my article on. I drew up a
little thingy but wanted to do something more. Therefore, I made this. I hope
this helps you understand blacksmithing and realize your potential not only as a
blacksmith but also as a person and a scientist.
Thanks Ocmulgee Blacksmith Guild for the
Class,
Steven Bailey
“It takes a special breed of person to be a
blacksmith. You have to love the way things work, be more stubborn than your
material and engineer your way around problems.”
: Unknown
Blacksmithing
: Steven Bailey 2013
Blacksmithing (correctly known as forging) is the art of turning
a cold, hard, metallic substance into something organic, flowing and beautiful
(Unless you’re like me). There is no feeling comparable to lighting up that old
coal forge, cranking your blower and forging a hot piece of metal into some
practical form or art piece. In a sense you are an alchemist; you’re combining
the four elements - earth, fire, wind and water. It turns us into a scientist.
As most of us probably learned in school, science is a “method” and if you don’t
conform to this method you definitely know nothing about science. In reality
that is the furthest from the truth.
The definition of
a scientist in the Oxford dictionary is “a person who is
studying or has expert knowledge of one or more of the natural or physical
sciences” “Natural or physical sciences”. What does that mean? Well, natural
science would be Biology. We use and understand biology to forge organic shapes,
like leaves or flowers. What is a physical science? That would be the
understanding of physical properties of something, like metal. We understand the
properties of steel, and how to heat treat it and temper it to make a useable
blade. How else are we scientists?
Observation is one of the largest parts
of blacksmithing. Without
observation, we would not be able to see how our hammer affects the material we
hit. We also observe others to learn from their knowledge and
experience.
Blacksmithing isn’t just observing –
it’s thinking outside of the box! Many a blacksmith meeting have I walked up to
the show-and-tell table and seen some new contraption of Mr. Dan Tull’s to make
some sort of hinge or tool. This also makes us very ingenuitive. One man told me
that “if you got 100 blacksmith’s in a room and asked them to build a nuclear
reactor, and they had no knowledge of building one, they could build it within
one week”.
I just got back from a week long class
at the John C.
Campbell Folk School, partly paid for by
the blacksmith guild, and I had no clue what to do my article on. I drew up a
little thingy but wanted to do something more. Therefore, I made this. I hope
this helps you understand blacksmithing and realize your potential not only as a
blacksmith but also as a person and a scientist.
Thanks Ocmulgee Blacksmith Guild for the
Class,
Steven Bailey
“It takes a special breed of person to be a
blacksmith. You have to love the way things work, be more stubborn than your
material and engineer your way around problems.”
: Unknown