*****
This is an outstanding video from start to finish and well worth the time to watch.
I enjoyed the hell out of the brief footage of the blacksmith at work. Like I told Elmo, I've seen demonstrations of 'blacksmiths' making square nails and horseshoes for tourists up in the Mother Lode, but I've never seen an actual blacksmith making tools, shackles, fixtures or chains before.
Outstanding. That was some great camera work.
ReplyDeleteDave Engles over at EnglesCoachShop on YouTube does stuff like that. Right now, he is working on a sheep wagon and a manure spreader. His whole catalog of videos is pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteMagnificent
ReplyDeleteBack when I was a kid, I watched the progression as a pair of blacksmith brothers built a railroad-style snow thrower for the town we lived in. Bit of a visibility problem when trying to throw snow into the wind, and the first heavy snowfall, the highway guy drove it halfway through a '50-something car, and there were car parts all over the place. Didn't do anything to the snow thrower.
ReplyDeleteRetired machinist. Huge respect for blacksmiths.
ReplyDeleteThat was awesome. I remember those kinds of men. Look up 'tough', their pictures are there.
ReplyDeleteYou find great stuff, Ken. Thanks.
Fjb & 500 +/- more
Pre OSHA... When you really risked life and limb for a paycheck.
ReplyDeleteThat was awesome. Never saw blacksmiths in action but i have seen guys make truck springs over in Mercerville NJ. Guys swinging 15 lb sledge hammers with a 1 foot handle. Forearms the size that would put Popeye to shame. And as Greg in Idaho says: FJB & 500+/- more.
ReplyDeleteDid Blacksmithing for years, including three years where it was my only income. Would still be doing it if not for a messy divorce.
ReplyDeleteThe Blacksmith reminds me of Alan Hale Jr., skipper of Gilligan's Island 'S.S. Minnow'.
ReplyDeleteI like the little grin he gives the camera after he throws the clevis he just made into the 'Ready' pile. As if to say: "Don't try this at home".
Talk about the very definition of a hard-working craftsman. Mike Rowe could do an entire episode of 'Dirty Jobs' about the man and his work.
In the Clint Eastwood movie 'Hang'em High', Alan Hale Jr. was a village blacksmith.
DeleteCool video, thanks Elmo & WC
ReplyDeleteI've got a retired tree faller neighbor who I am going to show this video to. I'm sure he'll enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteI know I did!
+>~ on the FJB comment
Like to kill me with nostalgia there, Elmo and Kenny. I wanted to leap into my monitor and disappear into that history. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYou and me both, nines. When I was a young man, the county I live in had at least 8 operating sawmills. In 2022, that same county produced 2,977 board feet of milled lumber. That's less than a unit of lumber.
DeleteAlso when I was young I hauled a load of kiln dried, surfaced Ponderosa Pine out of one of those sawmills. That load tallied over 26,000 board feet. One load.
This is the same county whose supervisors just voted 5-0 to not allow the Idaho Mayland mine to reopen. The same Bay Area NIMBY mindset that ran all the sawmills out.
My uncle Harry (grandmother's brother) was an old school carpenter and his arms were like ropes of steel. If he grabbed ahold of you, you were stuck. When we were young, he would grab us, tuck us under his knee, whip out an ugly linoleum cutter blade, grab an ear, and yell "I'm gonna get that ear, boy." At the last minute, you would manage to squirm away, convinced you were lucky to have both ears left on your head. I was 10 or 11 before I learned it was only a ruse. I was scared to death of that old codger, as were all of my male cousins. I have so many memories about that old guy.
ReplyDelete