Chris Railey
Well-Known Member
I was contacted a few weeks ago by a friend of my wife's who wanted to know if I would give her 14 year old son a few pointers on blacksmithing. Turns out he built himself a forge and found a railroad track anvil and has been hammering everyday for many months. I cannot deny a kid wanting to learn so of course I said yes but one of the parents would have to stay with him the whole time (just one of my rules for kids). He told me he works a lot with rail spikes and he has trouble holding them with his vise grip pliers. We decided to make a set of bolt jaw tongs for him to use because that would teach many basic skills he needed to learn and he would get a new tool to hold his spikes securely. I kind of had to reach way back because I know it has been eight years since I have made tongs. He came over and I decided to do one side of the tongs showing him each step then he would make the other side doing what I said. As I walked through drawing the jaws out and doing the set downs for the boss he followed right along careful not to hit my anvil with an errant blow. He was very respectful and grateful to learn. Very unlike others of his age I have worked with who only want to make knives right out of the box and then get mad because they do not have the requisite skills I tried to teach them by making simpler projects. Needless to say I was impressed with this kid. When I am working in my forge I always leave my hammer on top of the anvil when I return my steel to the forge, its just what I do. Not only did he remove my hammer from the anvil EVERY TIME but when he was finished and returned his steel to the forge he PUT MY HAMMER back on top of the anvil. All of this without a word. We finished the jaws and I told him to take the tongs back to his forge and draw the reigns out until he was happy with them and we would finish them the following week. He took them home and drawed then out by hand, no whining to use my press or about how hard it was, he was just happy to learn. Needless to say he has partially restored my hope for the future...I will let him come back in a couple of weeks to learn S-hooks and steak turners. His Dad is a welder (a good one) and at 14 he has already started learning to weld. He can run an angle grinder as well as I can too. He reminded me how much I enjoy making tools again. I think I will make me some scrolling pliers next weekend...
