African blacksmith

Hey fellers, just got done watching a special on the Travel Channel about African tribesmen, and one segment showed a member forging some kind of rings for ornamentation. He was using a piece of what I thought was a tree branch for a hammer and a rock for an anvil (real neo-tribal). The rings even had small curls forged into the ends!! Just thought I'd post this in case any of y'all on the West coast hadn't seen it yet...Bud

I saw that, Bud. I've seen some forged African blades that I still can't figure out how they did whatthey did. Some of the most artistic forged blades in the world come out of the most primitive of forging setups.

I have a scientific book on metallurgy in Burundi and it is amazing to see how these people make their own steel and forge it into shape. Owning a hammer over there makes you a very rich man, they just use stones to hit the hot steel. The book shows how to forge a spearhead without forging tongs: first they forge a small point to your piece of steel and stick this in a piece of wood (a temporary handle), then they flatten the shaft and forge it into a tube, put the stick in this tube and forge the blade. Amazing... Makes you realize how much one has to learn.

Tim, all of that african forging stuff is really easy to do. You just have to sing the songs written in the same burundi book the whole time you are working on something. It will be impossible for Dana to figure it out how they do it, because he doesn't have the book, so he doesn't know the song texts. Dana, we'll show it to you when you are over here in Europe. Prepare your noise protection!!!!



Achim

What? No German drinking, I mean forging songs. Hoping to come to Europe before the end of March.

I saw the same travel channel show and i think those rings were horse shoes, i really like shows like that!!!!..