Slashdot Mirror

Dave Gingery Build A Metalworking Shop From Scrap Index

The most relevant book being the charcoal foundry book.

With that said, I've built a foundry based on these books, and built a small mill as per the milling machine book, and I have some recommendations: build the foundry and do a bit of casting and see if you like it, and then switch to a Reil burner running off propane: it's cleaner, faster, and less hassle.

Likewise, Gingery's designs are okay, but there are *lots* of modified versions out there, with much deeper bed sections to stiffen up the lathe or mill beds, and there are advantages to using modern angular contact bearings over his plain bronze bearing designs. (There are good things about bronze bearings as well, so it's a tradeoff, but generally on smaller machines, higher RPM's are more useful than the stability under very heavy loads that plain bearings give you.)

"...where are the blacksmiths' guilds today?"

http://www.abana.org/

Just a couple of comments:

There are about 5,000 blacksmiths who have joined ABANA (the Artist-Blacksmith Association of North America, http://www.abana.org/). I'm guessing that there are about twice as many blacksmiths in the USA. As an aside, blacksmithing is a whole lot of fun -- if you're looking for something to do that's more physical than coding blacksmithing makes a great hobby!

As far as your statement that "a man can only possess that which he can successfully defend" I don't think that society will degrade so far as to become some sort of Snake Pliskin/Mad Max apocalypse. People have made it through horrible wars and the Great Depression without turning to looting and raping. I'm not saying that you shouldn't own a gun or anything, just that the society I think you're implying in "only possessing what you can successfully defend" doesn't seem too likely to me. We've had laws and a stable government for a long time... I think we'll have police, too.

Also, I don't think we'd get to a feudal society level any time soon. We've had our government since before the industrial revolution. Things might change quite a bit, but I think we'd still have the same type of representative democracy.

We might be at the start of "peak oil". Then again, we might not. But I do think it will be a big issue before I die, and I think it's worth doing something about now. My plan is to buy ten or twenty acres somewhere I can live off of. The ideal spot would be far enough away from a big city so I could grow some food and maybe raise some goats or chickens to supplement my diet, but close enough to a city that I could take advantage of the opportunities there. (In general, During the Depression, the people that did best were those in the cities, because they could take advantage of different programs, etc... The rural areas mostly got screwed). The tough part is finding some land I can actually afford...

Any ways, I think there will be some big disruptions in the way we live, but I don't think we're going to hit apocalypse levels. There is lots of coal left for power. We might not be driving as much as we are now (or we might just switch to go-cart sized cars that get 80 miles to the gallon. It seems to have worked for Europe).

You actually are not that far off. There are plenty of blacksmith shops all around. As another poster mentioned, places such as metal fabrication shops can have a small smithy. Check out ABANA, they are a non-profit dedicated to help teach the craft of blacksmithing. Education is one of their main goals!

A Google for such things as 'blacksmith' is also a good idea. ABANA is a site that I help manage. They have a great membership, with affiliates all around the world, probably one close by. The best way to learn smithing is to go out and watch (and help, if you can) another smith. ABANA is dedicated to helping teach the craft of blacksmithing. Free educational materials are even available!

Wow, I never thought that I'd have the opportunity to pimp this particular site I manage on Slashdot, but check out http://www.abana.org

ABANA (The Artist-Blacksmiths Association of North America) is a international community for artist-blacksmiths (as opposed to farriers). They have some awesome magazines that come out quarterly, one of which is dedicated to teaching the trade. The website also has some discussion forums, and some knowledgeable people hang around.

I've hit the iron a few times myself, but I don't have the passion required. It is awfully fun though!