I didn't want to post this....

[rwsmith]

..in the 'Random Picture' thread because it's not 'random'. Here are some pictures of Philip Simmons, blacksmith extraordinaire. He was not so much a blacksmith as an artist, and he also taught people to carry on his work. Mr. Simmons passed on in 2012 at the age of 97(!). I was privileged to watch him put on a demonstration for Piccolo Spoleto. He was also a heck of a nice fellow. There is a school named for him in Mt. Pleasant. Blacksmithing is something that always interested me, maybe one day I'll put it on my active hobbies list. Right now it's carpentry and audio recording.

 

[Heinz]

I saw a lot of Mr Simmons work in Charleston in the last century. He was an artist and a skilled craftsman. Thanks for posting

 

[robvious]

definitely NOT random... thanks for posting

 

[rwsmith]

Yes indeed and your are welcome....

Finding that box of about 500 slides turned out to be a treasure chest. LOT'S of memories. MOSTLY good ones.

 

[Harrison]

How times have changed. I went to a small town/rural HS. In my junior year I took a semester of blacksmithing. Shop courses were big in our school you could take up to two semesters of woodworking and two semesters of metalworking, and we had two excellent shop teachers. At the time I thought those shop courses were were more interesting and useful for me than advanced chemistry, geometry, Latin or French. Those shop courses did not teach me to be a skilled carpenter or metalworker. But they did teach me some useful skills and to be handy with my hands. They actually helped me in later life, and I could fix many things around the house and I was a pretty fair mechanic, until cars became mostly computer driven.

In fact my first job when I went to collage after high school was doing light mechanic work at a gas station. That was back in the dark ages when many gas stations had a two stall mechanic section and could actually do a full tune up, change tires, do a brake job etc.

 

[bigmtnman]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7OYBRPqzMA[/ame]

 

[soFlaNative]

I was always a fan of ornamental wrought iron as it was used extensively for half a century in south Florida.
Thanks for sharing that story.

 

[rwsmith]

That sounds GREAT!

How times have changed. I went to a small town/rural HS. In my junior year I took a semester of blacksmithing. Shop courses were big in our school you could take up to two semesters of woodworking and two semesters of metalworking, and we had two excellent shop teachers. At the time I thought those shop courses were were more interesting and useful for me than advanced chemistry, geometry, Latin or French. Those shop courses did not teach me to be a skilled carpenter or metalworker. But they did teach me some useful skills and to be handy with my hands. They actually helped me in later life, and I could fix many things around the house and I was a pretty fair mechanic, until cars became mostly computer driven.

In fact my first job when I went to collage after high school was doing light mechanic work at a gas station. That was back in the dark ages when many gas stations had a two stall mechanic section and could actually do a full tune up, change tires, do a brake job etc.

I've always been interested in machining, metalwork and blacksmithing, but I've never taken courses in any of them. (Oh, I just remembered that as an adult I took a small engine repair course) Now at 69 years old I wish I had. I didn't set the world on fire in (High School but taking chemistry and other science stuff and college physics along with a lot of other courses helped me to became a mechanical designer in a paper/chemical research lab. I used to work on my cars but I gave that up when they made them NOT to be worked on. I love learning ANYTHING, though!

I'm proud of myself right now because today I used a router/table for the first time to make some miter groove 'T'-rails for my table saw sled. The glue is drying and tomorrow I'll
get some wood screws for it. I'm so happy I could just POP!

PS: My SIL is a farrier and I might get her to show me some basic blacksmithing.