Took my daughter to check out a blacksmithing class in Brooklyn and was pleasantly surprised to find there was no open fire at all. The iron and steel are heated by an induction machine. Just use the tongs to hold up your material near the coil and press the pedal and voila, it soon starts to glow red hot. The space is small, maybe 3 students at a time plus a teacher, but it was bright, tidy, and clean. Not at all the dark, sweaty cave of fire and fumes that I'd imagined, and interesting to see tech slightly more modern than fire.
I'm hesitant to get into physical project hobbies (e.g. low-voltage electronics, wood-working, 3D printing) because I'm afraid of all the hazards that I don't know about. Seeing these warnings (while greatly appreciated in a theoretical sense for me) just reinforces this fear I have.
Do woodworking. The whirling blades are pretty apparent. Wear a dust mask while sanding, and take comfort that Jesus was a carpenter and didn't die of respiratory illness/failure.
Don't do your own rigging or wiring, and you'll probably be fine. I do much of my own on both and I'm still ok.
Watch the tommy bar on your vise, and mind your marking knife. The apparently harmless things will get you because you pay them less mind.
Source: am a furniture maker. I still have 10 fingers. Haven't died of respiratory illness yet. Nor have I burned my shit down or crushed myself moving machinery. I have definitely made an unplanned trip for super glue after slicing myself with a marking knife.
+ ear protection + eye protection. Table saws and routers need some healthy respect, some training won't hurt. You can do a lot with hand tools and that can be fun too (and pretty safe).
I've heard more people are hurt each year by angle grinders than any other tool.
I've only been hurt by two power tools: one was a drill, it slipped off the screw and made the pad of my finger into hamburger.
The other was my table saw, twice. Both kickback events that threw wood at my abdomen. I'm a pretty careful user, definitely not a cowboy. Mistakes are easy to make. I'm very careful with my fingers, at least!
> I've heard more people are hurt each year by angle grinders than any other tool.
Angle grinders are used a lot on jobsites by jabronis who like to remove the guard and suchlike.
In the workshop I'd be most careful around the bandsaw to be honest. It's slow moving and doesn't make much noise, but will cut through three fingers before you notice the pain. At least table saws and friends have a tendency to bounce off of bone so you don't tend to end up with full on amputations.
Kickback is somewhat nonintuitive though, so watch for that!
Tool-vs-tool danger comparisons are all apples-to-oranges comparisons.
How does a handheld danger that can move around or be dropped compare to a heavy, stationary danger that's in a predictable location?
How does one big danger rank against several smaller dangers? What about a clearly obvious danger vs a less obvious one?
Which safety procedures can you assume to be followed? Welders wear a mask and gloves at all times, but not everyone using a table saw uses a pushing stick.
How much experience and skill should you expect the users have? Users who are expecting a tool to buck or bind will be ready for it - does it matter that inexperienced users might not be ready?
If two tools are equally dangerous in a spacious workshop, but one can also be used up ladders and upside-down in crawlspaces, is it more dangerous because of that?
Do you just rank classic tools like hammers and drills, or do you have a broader definition? Is a ladder a tool, for purposes of the ranking? Is a car?
I own a bandsaw and it doesn't scare me. It just does what it's supposed to do. If you put your finger in it then it'll cut it off... So I just don't do that ;) A router can literally jump out of your hands, a table saw can pull you in, or kick out- you really need to know what you're doing (use a push stick, don't stand right behind the piece etc.).
> If you put your finger in it then it'll cut it off... So I just don't do that
Ah yes, simply don't make any mistakes ever ;-P
Fair enough though. I suppose the thing that makes table saws / routers / etc seem safer -- to me at least -- is because they look and sound scary. An untrained novice is much more likely to be careless around a band saw than around a table saw.
You need to be "present" when using the tool, respect it, and maintain very healthy safety margins. Before I flip the bandsaw switch on I think about what I'm doing. I don't get close to the blade. For me this is what makes this safe.
The router, even when you do all the above, it can jump, it can throw material off, it keeps spinning for a surprisingly long time after you power it off. All these characteristics make it less predictable. You need to understand it at a somewhat deeper level, how much can you cut, what direction to go, what direction is the grain going. You need to hold/brace it understanding that it can be unexpected and has a lot more power than you think. That's what makes it a more dangerous tool. Ofcourse properly used - it's fine.
I've never been around a quiet band saw. Mines easily as loud as my table saw. To be fair, my table saw runs smooth as butter, but the band saw has some slight imbalance I've been chasing for a couple of years.
None of them sound like the router though. It's a banshee from a nightmare. I don't even like using it when it's mounted.
As blue collar guys, there are some risks my dad and grandfather didn't account for such as dipping their hands in and breathing carcinogenic solvents. In general, it's wiser to overdo PPE than play hard tough guy and shortening one's life for nothing. Safety regs are written in blood, but only after the fact.
Those hazards usually take a long time to kill you. It's a problem for people who do it 40+ hours a week, but a hobbyist is going to struggle to reach the level of exposure needed for it to matter. You'll learn about them and mitigate them long before it becomes an issue.
I've been swimming in all sorts automotive and manufacturing fluids and fumes and forces for years and it hasn't caught up to me yet. I know a shitload of people that have done it for decades without a scratch, and a lot of them didn't even try to be safe about it.
This is precisely why the hazards are so insidious: you're chugging along fine for years, and boom: you have a weird cancer.
I'm mindful of my finishing materials and proper ventilation and downright religious about hearing protection because the damage is cumulative. I know a bunch of guys I have to half shout at to have a conversation with. I'd rather not be one in 15 years.
I'll gladly reach for my ear protection even if using a hacksaw is making too much noise. I think my cordless drill, impact driver, and table drill are the only powered tools I use without ear protection (mostly).
Anecdotes also lead to me knowing multiple people who've smoked cigarettes for decades without even a scratch (or burn), but that doesn't take away from the fact that we know statistically it's likely to cause serious health problems.
I don't know much about the subject you're talking about, and am definitely not trying to argue that it has the same risk as smoking 20 a day - just making the point that research rather than anecdotes is the best way to judge these things.
What exactly you think are hazards in 3D printing? And low-voltage electronics? I am honestly curious to know... because I don't treat any of that as hazardous at all.
Woodworking can be hazardous when using power tools... but you can always go with hand tools only and that should be mostly risk free excluding possibility of minor cuts and bruises - but you can get these even when preparing food.
I do a lot of stuff around the house myself (renovation, making/adapting stuff, preparing my own wood for house heating, small electrical repairs, etc) and the only thing I am afraid of is the chainsaw. That thing can do significant damage even slightest mistake when being used, anything else is manageable given the usual precautions (protective gear, doublecheck that electric switches, wires, etc are not hot when working on them, etc...).
Yeah, I think the best way to phrase it is not "risk free" but "easily mitigatable risks with basic safety precautions and PPE". You just have to be disciplined about the precautions, and then even teenagers can do it safely.
> What exactly you think are hazards in 3D printing? And low-voltage electronics?
Fire (have your dry powder/kitchen fire blanket handy). Minor burns (hot-end, molten plastic, soldering iron, solder itself, hot components or PCBs). Not really more dangerous than cooking - I'd consider leaving a 3D printer unattended but if you leave a deep fat fryer unattended that can go very badly wrong.
Snipping off through-hole leads produces annoying metal fragments; if you're not already wearing glasses, wear eye protection.
"What exactly you think are hazards in 3D printing? And low-voltage electronics?"
Fire and fumes. Even low voltage can start fire or create some toxic fumes if it melts the wrong stuff and when you have a cold and smell little, you might inhale enough to poison yourself, before you notice.
And I am rather afraid of electricity, than the chainsaw. Because when the chainsaw is running, it is obvious it is dangerous. But a broken electronic component with an open circuit can be hard to spot.
> ...the only thing I am afraid of is the chainsaw. That thing can do significant damage even slightest mistake when being used...
After you carefully read the instructions, wear 9-layer wraparound chaps, cut-retardant shirt, forestry helmet, and chainsaw gloves, and you pay attention like as if you are on a gun range, you will have reasonably mitigated the risks. Most accidents happen when people grow complacent and don't take what they are doing seriously; even with all the PPE you can still screw up in a serious way if you aren't careful, deliberate and paying attention. I encourage anyone who is scared of chainsaws to read the literature. Even occasional users can make it a safe activity with some diligence.
> What exactly you think are hazards in 3D printing? And low-voltage electronics? I am honestly curious to know... because I don't treat any of that as hazardous at all.
This is exactly what they are saying though. I wouldn't have expected the cookie dough forge to be particularly dangerous but apparently it is because of nanofines/ultrafines - i don't even know what they are
I can relate. My example was welding. It's something that always was fascinating and I wanted to pick up for hobby work but was held back by fear. I hired a guy who's been around welding for decades and who was formally trained on welding to teach me. I told him how important it was for me to learn how to weld safely. He taught me at a pace that was very comfortable. Now I can safely weld as a hobbyist. I don't do it all the time, but I'm very glad that I conquered my fear and picked up a new hobby.
I would say that it's good to have some fear and respect for the tools and machinery that can do you great harm. Fortunately, there's a lot of good (and bad) videos on youtube. When I need to learn to use a new tool that is dangerous I always watch multiple videos and also search for web sites that discuss how to use that tool safely.
"the state of california is known to the state of california to cause cancer" - placard on jetway on way into california from origins unknown.
You can't know every risk. You can be paralyzed by fear and never grow. Life is a calculated risk. Do dirty things in a seperate space from your living. Wear PPE. As others have said the risks for hobbies and work are different. Hell we may all be having mesothelioma from the atmosphere in 30 years.
And sitting at indoor hobbies will also kill you from heart disease etc.
Of you use dedicated equipment, instead of doing all the BS people try on youtube, you are fine. Get someone to show and explain the machinery to you, and you are good to go.
This is incorrect. The magnetic flux will induce an electromotive force that will cause a current to flow in any conducting material and cause heating if this material is not superconducting.
As an example, induction heating is a commonly used method in zone melting for Si-purification [0].
The effect is more pronounced in ferromagnetic materials because a larger flux is induced.
A myth. Copper and aluminium won't heat on a consumer-grade kitchen induction stove, which only have a set of coils designed for ferrous metals, but restaurant kitchen professional IH stoves can use the different frequencies that heat non-ferrous metals, and a forge or melting furnace can indeed melt any metal, ferrous or not.
Why don't residential induction stoves have that capacity? Given the popularity of aluminum and copper cookware I'd think it would be pushed out. It's one thing people always bring up with induction ranges.
The electronics to drive the right frequency for efficiently heating ferrous metals (about 25KHz) are affordable. The electronics to drive the much higher (at least double?) frequencies for non-ferrous metals safely are not so affordable. It would add more to the cost than a new set of cookware. Cast iron is the king of cookware and works great on IH, anyway!
You can put a few mm thick piece of steel on top of the hob and then set your copper pan on that, as a workaround.
You can even do induction hardening. Used for complex parts, of if you want hardening with a very well defined penetration depth.
The place I used to go had a gas furnace to heat the metal. A pitty I didn't find time to go there for ages now... Only downside of gas furnace, closed on on end, is the limited length of the stuff you can put in. I have an idea I want to try to forge longer things, but again, it is months now I didn't have time to get back to it...
Yeah, but it is not mine! Also, there is a open gas forge sitting right next to it. So, the place decided if some work and investment is done, it will be on the open forge. Which I can only support!
But yeah, I just realized the last time I was there was last year before christmas... Good thing anout this is: the day I retire I will definitely not be bored at all!
The idea is to heat metal until it can be shaped more easily, traditionally by hand tools. That does not require a fire. In Roman mythology, the blacksmith Hephaestus used a volcano as his forge.
Traditionally it required a fire, yes, but that doesn't make it essential. I use silverware which is not made of silverware.
As I understand it, blacksmithing is typically not done outside, where it can be too bright to use the color of the metal to judge the temperature, and the fire in the forge requires some sort of forced air (eg, a foot-powered bellows forcing air through a tuyere into a constrained fire). This means the forge is not an open fire.
My point was that heating metal over open fire and using tools to keep the fire going is what gives it that medieval allure and makes it to be a bad ass hobby.
I believe that having a side hobby like wood working makes you a better developer.
A key aspect of physical hobbies is that there is no backspace key.
If you've been working on a piece of wood for an hour, and you muck up and make a cut where it shouldn't be, or split the wood due to hand holding it on the router table instead of clamping to a jig, you're going to experience an unparalleled level of frustration.
After a while, by osmosis, you will develop a "measure twice and cut once" style of working that is more efficient (for wood working anyway).
I believe that attitude trickles into and benefits your coding. Of course you do have a backspace key, so it's not efficient to be measuring everything twice, but somehow that extra level of care pays off on the keyboard as well.
It somewhat flies directly opposite to one of my main attractions to coding and computing in general - there IS a backspace key, metaphorically and literally.
And yet, I dunno. I think I'm feeling what you're saying.
One of the main downsides of coding and particularly working software development is that it is expected to be endlessly plastic. There are always other decisions you could have made. There's always a little voice saying you could go back and make it better. The anxiety of choice. Maybe you could rewrite it in a different language? Or with a different framework? Could we have it in cornflower blue?
With things like woodworking: to cut is to choose. You can't go back, so you've also cut away a huge part of the decision tree looming behind you.
Surely it's not quite such a big difference, especially as you included "could rewrite it in a different language?" - isn't throwing away the bit of wood you made the cut in to start on a new bit of wood pretty much identical to throwing away the code you wrote in language 1 to start again in language 2? In both cases the you make the decision to consider the work done initially as now waste, in both cases you might have learned from the experience to improve the next version enough that it was worth trashing the first? In both cases it could be a very minor thing (it was the first cut you made in a small, cheap bit of wood / you'd only built the first bit of a basic POC for a small and simple bit of software) or a massive decision (you've nearly finished building your boat or program, and decide a mistake means you need to completely start from scratch).
I suppose the biggest difference is that thanks to the backspace key most mind-changing in development doesn't have to be as major as rewriting in a new language, you so always have the option to undo the last cut rather than throw it away to start again. So maybe my argument is less against there being a significant difference and more against "rewriting in a new language" being a relevant example.
It's true for the code. But not always for the system that the code becomes, or for the consequences caused by outputs of the system.
Examples: Not all database migrations in production are easily undoable without impacting service. Or if the output is used to make say financial decisions, money lost on that might not be recoverable.
So at least a conscious relationship to these potentials is very advantageous when making changes. And also when designing a system, try to minimize the amount of actions that are not undoable without negative side effects. An also to build systems where one can roll forward to effectively undo a change (even if one does not / cannot technically go back).
I feel like Woodworking is mostly about removing material, while blacksmithing is a little less so? Disclaimer all my woodworking experience is from shop class in elementary and all blacksmithing is from YouTube.
> A key aspect of physical hobbies is that there is no backspace key.
Getting a hobby lathe has taught me this VERY well. Something about running a machine that removes a lot of metal very quickly but where your end goal is to be precise to 0.05mm makes you really double check your next move. Bumping a hand wheel is enough to ruin hours or possibly days of work.
I had the same urge i.e. do something physical but something that was still technical in nature and you could use it as hobby income.
I bought a laundromat 5 years ago. Learned to fix mechanical issues, troubleshoot electrical issues. Learned to use tools to pull bearings out, using heat torches to remove worn out sleeves from a shaft, understanding how water valves, solenoids works. Learnt a lot.
While it is not as crazy as building something new, it is the closest I could get to with my software engineer career. My friends thought I was nuts.
Although it sounds like my idea of hell personally (well not quite, but very much not something I can imagine enjoying at all), I love that you don't feel the same way and that it actually was a good choice for hobby / side gig.
Can I ask how it's been as a money maker? I'm curious whether it's a bit of extra change here and there as a nice side-benefit to all the learning it's given you, or if it actually pulls in decent profits? (And to contextualise the answer, in which country?)
Worked in warehouses for trucking as a kid. Sometimes I miss it... other times I remember that the warehouses were never climate controlled, the vans never had functional AC either, and my teenage sleep habits combined with that early commute were not a safe combination. There's a fun side, but imo its more of the "glad I got through it" than a "i want more of it." Maybe that's just me.
It's also a lot more bearable if you know it's not forever.
I worked in a restaurant as a kid/teen. It was a lot of fun, in a way, even though it was dirty and hard. Nasty dead-end jobs were kinda fun back then because we were kids and we had the luxury of being on the way "up" in life, or at least we assumed we were. We had college and/or careers ahead and weren't going to be busboys and dishwashers and grill cooks forever.
I felt like I'd be a dishwasher forever, that'd be tough. Not that there is anything wrong with washing dishes. I don't think that it is more or less dignified than being a fancy software engineer. But the money is crap and it's tough to have much of a life on dishwasher money.
I think the so-called "skilled trades" could be a different story. Plumbing or HVAC or whatever. Hard-ass work for sure. Always wonder how I would have fared.
The reality is that the happy medium is.. the happy medium. In an ideal world your job involves some amount of physical movement as well as rest time, going all in on either isn't ideal.
That said, the desk job is probably the better bargain of the two since you can always do your moving around outside of work hours, however you can't rest more to make up for overworking yourself physically.
As someone who has been doing robotics professionally for fifteen years.... robots are also mostly code. There is a certain tangibility to it, but unless you're just deploying an off-the-shelf stack like Ardupilot, you're going to end up spending 95% of your project time on it writing code and tweaking configuration files.
If you want a tactile hobby, actually build something— make some shelves for your basement or garage, put up a bike shed, make a deck, redo your kitchen floor, weld together a teardrop camper, dig up a tree stump, whatever.
Or if it can be physical without needing to be back-breaking, do partner dancing or an endurance sport like distance swimming or road cycling.
Yeah, I definitely have tangible and physical hobbies! I think what I might really be missing is a sense of meaning in my work.
In "physical" work there's an inherent satisfaction. You look at the pile of leaves you raked. You see the plate of food you prepared. You see the wall you built. Etc.
Code can be equally satisfying, but I think generally I need to be more in touch with the actual users to feel that satisfaction. In my last few roles I've been way too distant from users. Luckily in my next role I think I'm going to be able to remedy that.
Quite a lot of it is either coding in a different CAD app, or "closework" which tends to have you hunched up and peering at small things. And it's not very physical.
Anyone who is even slightly interested should check out ABANA for a blacksmithing group in your state [1]. Blacksmiths are, in general, very friendly and willing to share. Several times a year they have weekend meet-up at campgrounds and such that are also a great time. They usually offer classes, too.
The hobby can be very technical, or very artistic, depending on what you find interesting and focus on.
And in Santa Fe, NM, and in Minneapolis, MN, and in many other cities and towns all over the country. If you want to get into it, find a chunk of iron for an anvil (railroad section, the anvil on a vice, even a sledgehammer held fast), a pair of pliers or anything to hold the hot metal, a hammer, and some nails; get a wood fire extra hot by blowing into it through a metal tube (curtain rod with the seam taped), can even build a fire on the end of a log and coax it to burn down into a bowl of coals, heat the nail until it's at least cherry red, and start banging away to get a feel for shaping the temperature-dependent "clay".
I gave away most of my blacksmithing equipment, but until I die I'll keep the wonderful feeling of shaping metal.
Honestly the biggest restriction most people probably have is lack of space. I'm not even allowed a grill at most apartments, let alone a fire hot enough to work steel. I've been waiting 15+ years to start at this point, so a few more until I can buy/rent a house won't kill me.
There may be a forge in your area that you can rent time at. Here's a place on the edge of Boston that offers both classes and an "open smithy" for working on your own stuff: http://www.prospecthillforge.com/ (if nothing else, click for the nostalgic Web 1.0 design)
Went to this place a few months ago taking one of the intro classes, the guy that ran the class is super nice and has a very fun teaching style. You man the forges in pairs so it's a good idea to take the class with a friend.
There's a ton of metalwork techniques that don't require heat at all. Some can even be done with only a few hand tools. I started with Chainmail when I was 14. If you're not coiling the wire to make the rings yourself, you can make a ton of things with only two pairs of pliers.
I highly recommend one of those pairs be parallel pliers.
> I’ll keep the wonderful feeling of shaping metal.
Could you expand on that please? I connect with those words on some level but would love to hear more about what’s special about it.
One of my grandfathers was a blacksmith unfortunately he died before I got old enough to ask about the philosophy of it
Is this blacksmithing, or metal art? On his gallery page, I see that he's making metal sculptures. In the article, it talks about him making decorative art, and turning gun barrels into shovels (which seems like a form of artistic statement, albeit one that produces a functional object). Not trying to be a gatekeeper here, but I think of blacksmiths as making small household objects like horsehoes and nails, but what I have seen this guy doing as being more about sculpture. Relevant because of the headline.
> The industrial revolution rendered a lot of traditional blacksmith work — making hammers, nails, axes, shovels and more — obsolete. But blacksmiths like Mr. Kaviar, 69, have found success creating so-called “functional art.” Mr. Kaviar, for instance, is regionally known for making handrails forged with leaves and birds that have a rough-hewed, borderline macabre design evocative of the work of sculptors like Louise Bourgeois.
You explicitly mention "horsehoes and nails", but I don't think that's a reasonable thing to expect: Especially for nails, I don't think many people would spend money on something that isn't really going to be visible. (I don't know enough about the farrier trade to say the same for horseshoes.) By contrast, a handrail is something that can be very visible.
Well yeah, that's why blacksmithing would die out. Nobody needs handmade horseshoes and nails. The premise of the article is that it's coming back, so I'm wondering if people are buying horseshoes and nails now, or whether the article is just redefining the term blacksmithing so that it can call a metal artist a blacksmith.
Historically, blacksmiths of one sort or another were involved in making almost every tool prior to the industrial revolution.
My totally unreserved guess is that there are not very many on a per capita basis, but there are probably about 10-50 working smith's per state. They do architectural work, historical pieces, education, sculpture, and all sorts of other stuff, if you include farriers (who deal with shoeing horses, but it's really a more technical trade that deals with horses gaits and health).
Etymologically I would say it fits. "Smith" means a metalworker, note the relation to smite, which one does a lot in blacksmithing, and "black" refers to the black oxide forge scale the results from repeated heating of the iron and steel (vs other metal workers, e.g. silversmith or goldsmith).
So give they are using more or less the same methods of a blacksmith of yore and the etymology works, they would seem to be a blacksmith to me.
You’ll probably be surprised to find out there is _still_ a market for hand-forged nails. It’s not a large market, but as I understand it they behave differently in wood, due to their square profile. I think some of it is chasing authenticity, but also functional differences, which usually aren’t worth the price premium.
I don't know about the article, but I remember being told by a blacksmith that blacksmiths' nails are much rougher than machine-made ones, so they have much more friction and can't be removed without destroying whatever they're stuck in.
I don't know precisely where the line between farrier and blacksmith lies, but I definitely know a farrier (who shoes horses, but does not make his own horseshoes).
Nails are a whole 'nother kettle of fish: authentic forged nails are in (limited) demand for reproduction work. Cut nails and die forged nails (Tremont and Rivierre, respectively) are much loved at a more affordable price where absolute authenticity is a lesser requirement.
Incidentally, the surname Naylor is an occupational surname for a nail maker.
The difference between "horseshoes and nails" and functional art is that nobody looks at horseshoes and nails and appreciates the craft that went into them, unless they are decorative, i.e., unless they are boutique hand-forged nails or horseshoes. That's why normal horseshoes and nails are punched out in a factory.
My take is that it's about the method rather than the outcome. If you're heating up metal and deforming it, you're blacksmithing. If you're cutting, welding, and grinding, then you're fabricating.
It is a gradient, especially as blacksmithing becomes more prized for aesthetics. But that applies to a lot of metalwork.
One common definition is that you're doing craftwork if the object is functional, artwork if it is functionally useless. I don't blacksmith, but I do machine things as a hobby. I consider most of what I do to be closer to the art end of the spectrum because I'm usually making it to explore the shapes, although there are frequently functional aspects.
Is an overcomplicated umbrella stand of copper and bronze art or something else? Personally I'm still not sure.
Blacksmiths are concerned with the shaping of iron and steel into any manner of functional or decorative objects. "Classically" these jobs were based on the type of material as opposed to what they were making – though there's plenty of subcategories therein, like bladesmith, gunsmith, armorer, etc etc.
This feels like a very odd form of gatekeeping; if it's art, is it not also blacksmithing?
Not to mention there's a whole bunch of functional-practical middle ground. The sword/knife people produce objects with usable blades but aesthetic qualities. Then there's literal gatekeeping: wrought-iron gates and fencing are both practical and aesthetic. Traditional in the UK although a lot got unnecessarily scavenged during the war.
That small video clip of the blacksmith trying to use a press to press what looked like a pointy tool into a workpiece sitting on an unsecured die, that he sprayed with WD40 I'm not sure why, and the press just kept moving then the press would, ofcourse, move it again, then he'd tap it back in place again over and over.
I'm still at the "making tongs from rebar" stage of my blacksmith career but I can probably explain somewhat:
The machine is probably a power hammer. The pointy tool is a punch, used for making holes in the workpiece and often followed by a drift, used to widen and shape the hole.
I understand some people use lubricants when drifting/punching hence the WD40. The v-shaped piece that is supposed to hold the workpiece is probably held there by a square shaft underneath that fits into a square hole on the work surface called a "hardy hole". It isn't unsecured ... but it doesn't seem to have a very fine fit so it moves a bit.
I know what he was trying to do - he was trying to move where he was making the hole so moving it was kind of pointless since the punch was just going to go into the same hole and move the base. And no, it wasn't in a hardy hole. It was just moving all over. If he didn't care where he was failing to make the hole it wouldn't have made sense to even try to move the die. You could see the punch going into the old hole even as he moved it over and just shift the whole thing.
The WD40 is just going to flash off as well, there probably would have been better lubricants even used motor oil. Just seemed like a sloppy bit of work for what was such a lauded blacksmith.
The over & over is just the video looping.
The tapping is an attempt to position the workpiece under the "drift"
The pointy cone is a "drift" should be to enlarge a existing hole in a hot piece of metal by pushing the drift through it, in this case it looked to be on a hydraulic press (too slow a stroke for a powerhammer)
The spraying wd40 ... some just want to watch the world burn ...
more seriously, the soot,oil & paraffin will act as a lubricant and discourage the tool from getting stuck (or welded) in the piece, although I must confess I have never witnessed the particular technique demonstrated in this flamboyant demonstration.
In general, I see a lot less flying fire in the shop than seen on the tubes.
Edit to suggest why; Like a hammer, the tool he seems to be working on has a handle and just as you need a hole in a hammer head to stick the handle in this tool needs a hole for a handle and the clip could be an early step in that process.
It looks like he got a drift stuck while trying to punch an eye into a piece of iron. His way of trying to free it is both mystifying and mildly infuriating.
However this guy also turns functional items into useless decorative garden tools that no one will ever use, so it's not that surprising that he keeps trying to press a drift out with a sharp pointed tool that will never get a purchase on the work piece.
Torbjorn Ahman has an excellent youtube channel if you want to see what you can do with blacksmithing, woodworking, and gardening [1].
I long for something tangible to do after writing code all day and his channel has really inspired me.
Something I love about blacksmithing is that it feels similar to software engineering in that sometimes to make something you first have to smith tools to help you smith the thing you want to make. Like creating dev tooling or making helper functions to tackle a larger problem. Tickles the same engineering part of the brain but with the constraints of the physical world that really changes the dynamics and makes it fun!
Discs flying apart is most of the time from wrong usage, bending the disc while cutting or bending a disc by using a cutting disk for grinding and applying to much force. I did work as a mechanic for some years and have used angle grinder for hobbies 20+ years since, and have never seen a disc fly apart. (Still remember to always use safety goggles and hearing protection while using a grinder)
Even on the Northern Neck of Virginia, small and not very populated place that it is, blacksmithing is a thing.
In fact, Colonial Williamsburg Blacksmiths - Forging Links with the Past http://thehouseandhomemagazine.com/culture/colonial-williams... discusses Aislinn Lewis's path to becoming a smithy at Colonial Williamsburg. I learned about Aislinn when I worked at Rice's Hotel/Heathsville Tavern.
Louisville used to have (kinda still does) a "trolley hop" on Frankfort Ave, where different galleries are open late and have special art displays. Some people go for the booze, and wonder around, some go for the art, some for both. There was one we went in to called Kaviar Forge and Gallery. The art display spanned two floors, and I don't recall at all what was even on display. But on the way to the second floor, I was like "Holy crap! Check out this hand rail!". My friends were kinda making fun of me for getting excited about a hand rail, but it was obviously exceptionally well done. It was the work of the guy featured in this article, I had no idea he was so well known.
There are quite a few hobbyist/artist blacksmiths around, and occasionally do displays. This guys name always comes up as he inspired and thought most of them.
I'm a lifetime member of the Blacksmiths Guild of the Potomac. A past president is Brad Silberberg, who is a professional Architectural Blacksmith, and has some pieces on permanent display at the Smithsonian. He makes nails as his way of shutting g off his mind and just zoning out. He taught me how to make my first nail.
There is also the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America, and other ABANA chapters all over the country.
Adam Savage has done some nice videos recently that he's posted on YouTube for his Tested channel where he visits the Metropolitan Museum in NYC, specifically the guys who maintain all the metal weapons and armor.
Blacksmithing is alive and well all over this country, and the entire world.
Alive and well in my backyard also. I got into it after getting into welding. Working with metal is very enjoyable and fascinating. I was once in a jury selection and we had to list our hobbies in a murder trail. They (lawyers) found it interesting enough to comment on – why yes, I am a cellist that enjoys hammers and tongs.
Shout out for the Hartford Makerspace in CT and the New Jersey Blacksmithing Association in southern NJ, both of which have classes if you feel like picking up a hammer to hit some red hot metal. Can't recommend them enough if you happen to be nearby.
The nytimes is that far behind on this whole blacksmith 'revival'? Hell, there's been a blacksmith show on one of the 'bad reality show networks' (History, Discovery, etc) for like 10 years. So it wasn't a new thing in the 2000s.
