Velghast t1_j5ymbdc wrote
Reply to comment by TheRealJuksayer in Longest ‘dako’ iron sword at 2.6m, along with a unique shield-shaped mirror, found in 4th-century Japanese burial mound — Finds indicate that the technology of the Kofun period (300-710 AD) was more advanced than previously thought by marketrent
Blacksmiths today make Bank. It's such a niche profession.
Laowaii87 t1_j5ys7pr wrote
SOME blacksmiths make good money, but it is hell to get your business off the ground. Very few people need their services, so not only is your trade niche, so are your customers.
If you can get the word out, and you have a portfolio of good looking stuff, then yes, you can get paid absurd money for the right project. Every successful blacksmith has 99 dudes making nails and clothes hangers, toilet paper holders and similar ”neat to have” items they have to sell by the hundreds to stay in business.
Peter Jonsson sells his works for tens of thousands of dollars each, and some instagram smiths get tons as well, but these smiths are very much the exception.
baumpop t1_j5znkw0 wrote
You just described the trade of blacksmithing for thousands of years. Almost all the work is small piece work to pay the bills while you take commissions or contracts for larger pieces. Every blacksmith was a ferrier before, now it's a standalone profession.
Laowaii87 t1_j62gdpc wrote
No, for thousands of years, blacksmiths were critical lynch pins for every settlement in the world.
This is literally the opposite of their position in our society post the industrial revolution.
baumpop t1_j62ms09 wrote
they were the lynch pins because they made literal lynch pins and other very vital but common place things. now obvious they are 1/1000 of the quality of they used to be but hinges for example while stamped on machines havent really changed much in a thousand years.
nails. for example were so crucial they used to burn down buildings just to recover the nails. once these nails were at their final end of life they were used to make doors and nailed over and into themselves through the door. Hence the term - dead as a doornail.
Laowaii87 t1_j640z32 wrote
Yes, i know, this is literally the point i am making.
Modern blacksmiths do not make crucial items, they make, again, "neat to have" items. Nobody needs stuff made by hand by a blacksmith, because if you need the item, then it will be made cheaper by industrial methods.
So, i am not describing blackmithing for thousands of years. I am describing the place blacksmithing has in our modern, current society, which is a very niche trade, with very few customers. The only way for nearly all blacksmiths is either making bespoke items for rich people, assuming the smith has managed to make a name for themselves, or by making trinkets to sell at markets.
So a very small percentage of them are making a living, and an even smaller portion is "making bank".
And no, they did not "use to" burn down buildings with the express purpose of getting the nails. Buildings burning would always carry the risk of spreading the fire, which carries with it both material costs, and possibly cost of lives. Possibly in situations where houses had burned down, they would sift through the ashes for the nails, or if the entire building was enough of a wreck to leave the nails as the only part worth salvaging.
Aside from a few "i've heard stories of" i can find no sources to back the claim that houses were burned for this purpose, and having made nails by hand myself, i can tell you that it's not time consuming nor difficult. It is one of the first items i was taught to make while studying blacksmithing, and by the end of a week i was able to reliably make two or three nails in one "heat". This means that an absolute beginner can make 2-3 nails every minute, and a skilled nail maker could make twice that.
Good wood was also valuable, and if the house was in good enough shape that the nails were still of use, so would the wood have been.
As for dead as a doornail, it's not called dead because old nails were used for them, it's because when you make a staple out of it, the nail can't move. You deaden it. It's because the door would be a "soft" entry point into a building, and would have to be made sturdy in order to not break.
Finally, no, items made now are not worse than ones made by hand. The hinges you buy buy at Ikea or whichever hardware store you find it is likely much more reliable and economically made than most made a thousand years ago.
Laowaii87 t1_j64g46o wrote
Exactly "i've even heard stories of" that's not a source, that is hearsay
baumpop t1_j64sbi6 wrote
So is what you're telling me.
Bust me off your source for 13th century coloquialisms.
Laowaii87 t1_j656yl3 wrote
I have to prove you wrong? No bud, that’s not how it works. You claim one thing, and refer to a baseless claim from a video for a source, and then i have to back up not believing you?
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