Subject: Re: Blower: handcrank vs electric

From: [email-masked] (Thomas Boudreau)
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1996 19:10:24 -0400

>When we teach our beginners' class, I strongly reccomend starting off with 
>a hand cranked blower if at all possible.  The student learns fire 
>tending much better if they need to be standing there cranking.  
>
>(Obviously, for the experienced smith, especially someone who is trying to 
>make some money, then an electric blower is the way to go.)
>
>Another positive for the hand cranked blower, is that it provides 
>another, indirect, opportunity for the beginner to get some additional 
>exercise
>
>Albin Drzewianowski
>
=========================================================>

    Good Point!!

 I agree with you on that one! People figure it's easy to heat_and_ hammer
but soon realize there is more to forging when you have a bellow to show how
to build a good fire.  Besides it keeps their minds working as well as their
body! First hours on the bellow will relax them and slow them down, while
they watch and listen on what's going on around them. It's too easy to flip
the switch and start doing something else.

-->Thomas B.
-->N.S. Can.
-->[email-masked]
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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From: "Szucs" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 08:25:09 -0500

> the switch and start doing something else.
	I cannot agree with this strongly enough.  We are surrounded with
	all this technology (not all of it high, either) that has been
	provided, ostensibly, to make our lives easier.  In many cases
	I find this to be a "good" thing however when taken too far even
	this can be deleterious.

	One of the biggest troubles introduced by excessive convenience
	it the phenomena of not thinking anymore, or perhaps better stated
	as not paying sufficient attention to what we are doing, as Thomas
	so astutely observed.  Folks get into this enormous rush to the end
	product, and in so doing miss the beauty and significance of the trip.

	Sometimes slow and easy are the best ways to take it, so taske it
	easy.

	-Andy V.

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From: Chris Kilpatrick <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 18:25:04 -0800

My question would be, why do we need this convenience?  What are we 
freeing these seconds up for?  Could it be to lose them to the b**B tube? 
or just because we think we should?  Scary! Invest your life in 
enjoying what you do, then you won't care how long it takes! The 
time life gives us is going to go away, don't grasp it!  The quality of 
the moment is most important; not how quickly, but how well.  What 
we will leave behind is quality; what others remember of us and how 
well we are remembered, that endures!

Ok, I'll climb off my soapbox now.