Shoutout to the old timer at the Mid-Atlantic forge-in

I was at the Mid-Atlantic forge-in last month and got stuck trying to forge weld a simple chain link. This guy, must've been in his 70s, walked over and just said 'your fire's too clean, kid.' He had me add a bit of green wood to the coal to make a reducing atmosphere. The scale just stopped forming and the weld took on the first tap. I'd been fighting that for weeks. Anyone else use that green wood trick for forge welding?

4 comments

4 Comments

jana8812mo ago

Wait, he was in his 70s and still doing forge-ins? That's wild. I figured most guys that age would have hung up their hammers by now. Total respect for the old school knowledge.

kaigibson2mo ago

Honestly jana881, that old school skill is a whole different level. My grandpa was a farrier into his 80s, said the fire kept him young. It's less about the age and more about that deep, hands-on knowledge you just can't get from a book.

cole_flores444d ago

Respectfully, I gotta disagree with mark_ward on this one. It's not just about "doing your thing" when you're working a forge at 70 something. That's heavy physical labor that takes a toll on your body, most people can't hack it past 50. Yeah sure, some folks keep going, but not at that level of skill where you're still shaping steel by hand and knowing exactly how it's gonna move. There's a reason blacksmithing and farrier work are dying trades, it's hard and dangerous and most younger guys don't have the patience for it. So when someone like jana881's grandpa is still at it in his 80s, that's not just a hobby, that's a whole different depth of knowledge that takes decades to build. It's worth respecting more than we do.

mark_ward2mo ago

Yeah but @jana881, is it really that wild? Plenty of older folks keep at their trades if they love it. The respect is cool, but maybe we're making too big a deal out of someone just doing their thing.