Appreciation post: That old farrier I met at a hammer-in

I was at a hammer-in over in Lancaster, PA last Saturday. An old farrier named Ray watched me forge a pair of tongs and just said 'you're fighting the steel, not talking to it.' Made me stop and think about how I was rushing. After that I slowed way down, let the metal tell me where to move, and the second tong came out way cleaner. Anyone else pick up a random tip from a stranger that stuck with you?

3 comments

3 Comments

beth_reed2d ago

Ray was just trying to keep you from forging a third tong out of pure frustration... solid advice though, I've had plenty of "conversations" with steel that ended in me throwing it in the quench bucket.

clark.alex2d ago

Blew out the side of my first seax blank last month cause I was cussing at the steel instead of listening to it, @beth_reed your quench bucket comment hit way too close to home.

lucasschmidt24m ago

The "talk to the steel" thing is real. @clark.alex I feel your pain on blowing out a blank, I did the same on a knife last year when I got mad and started hammering harder instead of thinking. I had an old timer at a shop tell me once that every time I give up on a piece of metal, it just laughs at me in the scrap bucket. That stuck with me so now I walk away for five minutes before I do something stupid like quench something I should have normalized first. Ray sounds like the kind of guy who'd watch you screw up for an hour just to teach you one perfect sentence.