Will you call yourself a fool someday?

We often see the future as being defined by where we are today. In reality, the possibilities are much greater than that. Early in my journey as a blacksmith I had opportunities that were way above my skill level or resources. Being a new smith, I was reluctant to attend workshops or demonstrations out of my comfort zone. As a result, I missed out on so many chances to learn from some great blacksmiths.

One such opportunity was a demonstration by Russ Swider on forging a die which was then used to forge a solid door knob in a single heat. I was a new smith without much money unable to afford a power hammer, and I assumed that I would stay that way. What point was there in watching someone working with one? Thinking back, I suspect there was another reason I avoided meeting up with other smiths at demonstrations and conferences, and that was fear of exposing my shortcomings to the people, the exalted blacksmiths, that I would surely encounter.

Now, as you of course expected me to tell you, and in contradiction of my earlier assumption, I own a power hammer which, while not as powerful as the one Swider was using, might still be able to accomplish the task with a few more heats and some extra effort invested in setup. And there came a day when I realized that by setting aside my reservations - putting myself out there, going to the events. joining blacksmithing organizations, volunteering my time to help organize and run the events, serving on organization boards - I grew as a smith in ways I hadn’t anticipated. A friendship developed with the smith who had hosted Swider’s door knob workshop. This generous man invited me to spend a week with him in his shop, using his huge power hammer and, as luck would have it, the very door knob die that Swider had used.

At another conference I had the chance to watch Nahum Hersom, a master of repoussé. I didn’t even know what repoussé was and was sure I would never need it, so I passed on the demonstration. Now, it is true that I don’t do any repoussé work, which is basically a raised-relief means of ornamentation on iron. Nevertheless, I do now realize that I missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn some small part of what a true master had to teach. I’ve learned a bit about repoussé from others, but will never know what I might have learned from Nahum. It might have been game-changing.

So here is what I now tell bashful new smiths: You don’t know that you will never use whatever skill is being demonstrated, but even if time proves that you won’t, there is still always something valuable to gain from watching these demonstrations. It could be design ideas, a way of thinking about design, tooling, the order of process, the way someone uses a tool. Of course there is the chance to hang out with your fellow smiths and develop relationships that might take you in directions you can’t foresee. Opportunities to learn blacksmith abound and you can’t take advantage of every opportunity, but don’t miss out, don’t deprive yourself, just because you assume it isn’t relevant to you. The you that you are now is not the you that you will be in the future. Don’t let that future you have the chance to say “what a fool I was”.