With the family loaded up and all of the preparations done, it was time to head to the forge. I had all the tools and equipment I needed, I had the shelter to be able to house all of said tools and equipment, and now it was time to forge! I had watched hundreds of YouTube videos and all of the Forged in Fire episodes, so knocking out a knife on a Saturday should be a piece of cake, right?
What I had not counted on, was the simple, foundation component to blacksmithing being a hindrance to my weekend goals. Fire. I had a hell of a time firing up my coal forge, our first weekend attempt was pretty much just getting the fire burning hot enough. I tried everything that I had learned and some things that I thought would help, but nothing. Lighter fluid, wood shreds, coal, coke, paper, you tube fire starting videos galore, that fire took hours to get going. Feeling very frustrated and defeated, I went home and thought about selling that old coal forge and put that money toward a propane one. My wife reminded me of why I was doing this and told me that I should not give up on doing it the way I wanted to do it. So, it was back to the drawing board and YouTube to try and figure out what I was doing wrong. but with the help of my wife and a shirt drenched in sweat, (yet to even swing a hammer) we eventually had FIRE! I don't have a fancy forge with an electric blower (the thing that blows air into the fire to make it bigger) so my first time firing it up was a team effort.
Armed with fire-starting knowledge to combat last weekends failure, this weekend I set out to start creating something awesome. Far quicker than the prior weekend we got the fire going and I finally got to start hammering some steel. I started shaping an old file into a knife. My son said that it actually started to look like a blade and was excited about it. In my mind it kinda did resemble a blade, but still, nothing like the guys on Forged in Fire were making. I have no clue where my expectations were, but I laugh at what I thought I was going to accomplish my first time out. I had never done this before and I thought I was going to be a master bladesmith my first time out. I came to the conclusion real quick that this was going to be a lot harder than they make it look on TV.
Reflecting back last night, I felt accomplished on the little things that happened yesterday. I was able to get my forge fired up and going. I was able to take a file, heat it up and shape it into something that resembles a knife. And most importantly, as Jess reminded me of, I'm allowing my kids to see me move forward after set-backs, and failures, and still persevere to reaching goals. Sometimes we have to take the small victories and turn them into momentum for the big battles.
What I had not counted on, was the simple, foundation component to blacksmithing being a hindrance to my weekend goals. Fire. I had a hell of a time firing up my coal forge, our first weekend attempt was pretty much just getting the fire burning hot enough. I tried everything that I had learned and some things that I thought would help, but nothing. Lighter fluid, wood shreds, coal, coke, paper, you tube fire starting videos galore, that fire took hours to get going. Feeling very frustrated and defeated, I went home and thought about selling that old coal forge and put that money toward a propane one. My wife reminded me of why I was doing this and told me that I should not give up on doing it the way I wanted to do it. So, it was back to the drawing board and YouTube to try and figure out what I was doing wrong. but with the help of my wife and a shirt drenched in sweat, (yet to even swing a hammer) we eventually had FIRE! I don't have a fancy forge with an electric blower (the thing that blows air into the fire to make it bigger) so my first time firing it up was a team effort.
Reflecting back last night, I felt accomplished on the little things that happened yesterday. I was able to get my forge fired up and going. I was able to take a file, heat it up and shape it into something that resembles a knife. And most importantly, as Jess reminded me of, I'm allowing my kids to see me move forward after set-backs, and failures, and still persevere to reaching goals. Sometimes we have to take the small victories and turn them into momentum for the big battles.
You're so awesome! I'm so proud of you.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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