Choking the Hammer, and other dumb comments...

Yesterday we made the impromptu decision to do a blacksmithing Demo at Picton swap meet today... We rocked up at 6:00am and were instant hits when we started melting the frost with the forge.

On the whole we had a great day. Sold about $30 worth of stuff which was the only disappointment.

I came home with all off my Pulleys I had for sale if anyone like pulleys (Big ones)

All Blackmiths have experienced the "dumb comment" from the crowd.... The know alls and super experienced people who make it clear they have never forged steel as soon as they open their mouths.

That's life and definitely part of the fun of live demos.

We forged a hawk from a railroad spike and lots of trinkets, but for most of the day I was back to basics forging nails and giving them to the crowd of kids..

Anyhow I have forged a nail cut it off and am just starting to head it up... using a 900g Ball Pein, choked up for heavy accurate blows to get the desired texture...

Anyhow this bloke goes off in the crowd, carrying on about how I am choking the hammer, If I was his apprentice, he would sack me Bla Bla Bla

This guy clearly had no idea about forging metal... not saying I am an expert at anything.. I am not, but I am not hammering in a nail, I am making a nail and the two techniques are totally different... Normally I am pretty quick with a quip back, but this guy had me speechless.

Not the only guy that had me lost for words though... the second was the old fella and his mates I got talking to.. I toldd them I am a knife maker and blade smith....

I showed them my Antique Barrel knife, I said " this knife is around 100 years old" The old guys eyes went wide, and he looked amazed and astounded. "Wow" he says " And you made it!"

I was not sure if he was serious... His mates gave him such a ribbbing I reckon he was. Everyone has a blond moment from time to time and this made me chuckle...

Anyhow what comments to you get at the forge from the general public....

Corin, it is not just the metal trades that attract the know all's. Wood turning or any other demonstrations attract know all's that detract from the day and astound everyone with their hide. If we were not in such a litigeous state, I'd like to invite the loud mouth know all to show me the correct way of gilding the lily.

I am more than happy to learn from someone that can teach me a different way to do a job, but cannot stand egg sperts that jaw jaw at me and won't prove their point.

The demo's highlights are the kids and parents watching and asking why. Handing out little freebies to interested parties is funs as well. Spinning tops are a favourite for me, the kids love them, especially if brightly coloured.

Yes! don't choke the hammer :stirthepot:

People just don't realise that the smithy and other metal trades for that matter have a multitude of hammers and techniques for the use thereof depending upon the task at hand.
If you value your life, don't mess with a smithy's hammers!

Choking the hammer? What a load of hogwash.

Doesn't matter whether you're talking a smithy or woodwork, a skilled hammer user should be able to use the tool for more than just bludgeoning the hell outta something.

Mind you if you asked the bloke to drive home a 4" nail in 2 or 3 blows and then asked him to use the same hammer to finesse in a 15mm brad, my bet is that he'd fail BOTH tasks miserably. And blame the tool with some excuse like "I use a tack hammer at home." :rolleyes:

Probably some try hard weekend warrior pretend carpenter who watched a few you tube instructions "How to drive a nail"
Find me a carpenter that uses a hammer this days. No such thing ... hammer? what is that? :U

Well, I dunno about hammers but I've choked the chicken a few times...

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Holding the hammer closer to the head is frown upon by carpenters yet it is a symptom of more than just inexperience and certainly does not warrant firing your apprentice over it.
A hammer too heavy for your arm or your present muscle development is more likely the cause and rather than swinging a 24 oz you may start with a 18 oz and you will be swinging like a pro.
As far as extrapolating this to blacksmithing, that is pure ignorance. i have riveted miles of flat bar with cold solid rivets and used a heavy ball pein hammer with short strokes holding it by the "neck". There is no other way to do this and anyone telling you otherwise does not know cheese from chalk.

Hi Corin,

Can you please contact me at [email protected] regarding being a part of the Picton Show on the 11th and 12th Oct.
Thanks
Shannon
(Picton Swap Organiser)

Oh for goodness sakes......if you guys can't handle comments from the crowd properly you should give up demonstrating.

Any properly skilled instructor, trainer or salesman would recognise such comments as an oportunity to explain.

The surest sign of a skilled salesman is how they handle objections and change them from deal breakers into deal makers, by informing the potential buyer of the "complete facts".

Any properly trained, trainer or instructor will recognise comments as mentioned above as learning oportunities.....the fact that the person commented, shows that they where paying attention and had some level of knoweledge on which to build.

I would have handled it something like this.


I hear the gentleman on the left saying that I am choking the hammer......

Yes I am and very intentionally.....Indeed in most trades and in general hammer use, we need the full length of the hammer handle to do the job required and choking the hammer is most unhelpfull......but in the smithy, we use every hammer for a variety of uses, not just swinging or driving blows.....

We shorten up our grip on the hammer to achieve different functions and different controll of the hammer.....we may not even be using the hammer as a hammer at all........we deliberatly choke the hammer to make it behave in ways that would be unhelpfull in other applications.

I'd then demonstrate different blows from the same hammer.

The oportunity is then there to do a whole hammer demonstration.
Discuss the optimum lengths of hammer handles
Show shop baught hammers that have differing length handles
weights, head shapes and the like.

Cheer up chaps..these people are not ignorant, they are interested enough to comment.....their knoweledge may not be complete, but they are far from ignorant.

cheers

I think SM is on the right track here.

Each week I demo basic woodworking to a bunch of retirees (mostly in their 80's) in an RSL high care facility. I bring along various pre-cut out and rough sanded pieces that we assemble and finish into simple wooden puzzles or kitchen items that are sold at their annual fete. The backgrounds of the residents range from no wood working experience at all to those that worked in cabinet making and carpentry for the rest of their post military service working lives. Most of the blokes are wheelchair bound, only 2 of the fellas have 2 working hands, and several can only watch. In contrast to the wide range of activities available to women, it's the only "men only" activity in the centre.

When I first started there were a number comments from the blokes that hinted that I didn't know what I was doing. It was not nasty or smart but I was mildly annoying especially as we have a limited set of tools and facilities. Anyway I turned the situation around and invited the blokes to suggest ways of doing things especially given that we don't have every gizmo and tool available. Involving the members of the group changed the atmosphere quite a bit and now there is quite a friendly feeling in the group.

OK it's not really the same as a public situation where smart-ars-ism seems to be rife these days but it may give you an idea where to take this.

I liked Roy Underhill's post some time ago in Pop Wood about one day at Colonial Williamsburg where Roy was cranking the Great Lathe in the wood shop. Some old codger came up and instructed Roy to 'put your ass into it', then the old codger ducked under the boundary rope and proceeded to show Roy how it was done and had the whole thing running faster than anyone had seen. Turns out the old codger had been an airman, shot down over Germany in WW2 and assigned to a farmer as free labour (beats rotting in a camp) and he had been put to work cranking the farmers wood lathe for some time until he was liberated.