#threeriversforge

While cleaning up the damage from Hurricane Helene, I decided to invest in a pair of "log tongs" to help move bits of wood around a little easier. I saw a ton of reviews online, but when I went shopping for a good set... I found that all the big name brands were incredibly expensive.

I'm poor as dirt, so the idea of spending near on a hundred dollars for something like this just wasn't in the cards. I acknowledge their quality, sure, but when you don't have the money.... you don't have the money.

Anyhow, this got me to thinking about the state of affairs in the Western Nations. I'm a lifelong student of the history of the Traditional Trades, something I think all blacksmiths should take up, and it's pretty easy to see how things have developed over time to get us here today.

See, these log tongs are simple contraptions that I should be able to make. I'm a blacksmith and this is just some bent iron with holes strategically placed. This is a product I should be able to add to my catalogue of amazing ironwork... but that's been made impossible by a thousand little things piled up over the years.

Folks talk about the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, but never think about the million straws that came before and how all that weight made it impossible for the camel to be healthy and productive. Folks didn't tend the garden.

When I decided I needed some log tongs, I searched every hardware store in town, and nobody carried them. I priced what it would cost to make my own, too.

The conclusion was simple - I should be able to make this product and offer it to the stores in town, to the loggers and landscapers and homeowners, but it was impossible to compete with the prices you find online from "foreign" suppliers. My bare-bones price would easily be double what you can get these chicom tongs for on ebay, and we all know folks aren't going to pay better-than-double just because it's made by me!

How did that happen? Well, we drove up the cost of doing business here in the West. Everyone thought they were "sticking it to the man!" with what they supported and voted for, never realizing that they were really sticking it to the little guy. The West used to be chock full of small shops producing all sorts of things, but they got ran out of town on a rail with ever-increasing taxes, regulations, policies, and other costs.

Today, I can't even buy the metal and fuel for what I can pay to get a set of these tongs shipped halfway around the world, right to my door. How's that possible? How did we blind ourselves to this reality? $30 is a fair price in my estimation, but to make them here in the States would cost me at least that much just for the materials and consumables.

I love hurricane lanterns as much as I do a good story, and if some forged iron gets thrown in the mix.... well, all the better!

When I ran across this unique bit of work, I wanted to make sure to collect the story so it wasn't lost to time. Far too often, we find contraptions like this on the table at a flea market or estate sale and scratch our heads trying to figure out what the item was meant to do, imagining all sorts of amazing possibilities. Sadly, most times the truth remains a mystery because the story wasn't kept.

The glory of a workshop cannot be easily put in words.  A testament to man’s ingenuity, the drive to build and create, workshops like this are a vital part of the culture.  Often unappreciated, sadly, but so very important to who we are!

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An avenue in Spain.  

As a blacksmith, my eye’s drawn to the ironwork, but every part of this vignette simply boggles the mind.  You have to wonder if the craftsmen knew they were doing something amazing, that would be appreciated even centuries later.

It’s work like this that motivates and inspires.  

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They rest in peace forever the men who built this Town 

But their names not on a memorial wall to honor their renown 

And not one mention of them when we honor the dead 

We glorify monarchs and presidents but nothing of them said. 

They built the homes and factories and sweated for their every pay 

But with the long forgotten dead forever they must lay 

And they made this Town a better place to live in for us all 

Yet their enormous contribution we never do recall. 

To the men who built this Town tonight my toasting glass I'll raise 

And though others of them don't wish to hear I feel obliged to sing their praise

Their ought to be a dead workers day to them a debt we owe 

Though of their contribution to society far too few wish to know. 

The heroic men who built this Town at rest forever more 

They built the factories and the homes old Joe who lived next door 

Was one of the men who built this town he died a year ago 

A grand old bloke and one that I felt privileged to know. 

Francis Duggan

A gent in the UK is working hard to keep some of the old ways alive and when he posted this nice collage, I thought it was a perfect illustration of why tradition, heritage, and culture are so very important.

I know a lot of people think that doing things “the old way” is a trivial thing, a cutesy pastime or something that entertains people at the local fairs.  But how many actually stop to think about the bigger picture?  How many of us have taken a minute to think outside the box and really consider what happens when you do, or don’t, keep to the Traditions?

Hedgerows and Tended Woodlots have been a part of our history for more years than we can imagine, but we weren't doing such things just because it struck our fancy. No, we did it because the woods and hedges served our needs just as we served their needs. It was a symbiotic relationship until it was rent asunder only a short while ago.

Of course, by that time, most people had completely forgotten all that the hedgerows did for them, they’d long since taken it all for granted.  The fancy good coming from the giant factories seemed simply too good to pass up.  Too cheap.  Too “affordable”, they said.  

Sadly, it's not that life is all the poorer for having fewer coopers and bodgers around, but because of the opportunities lost. Lessons of life learned by our youngest as they build skills and confidence in themselves. Pride in their people, in their accomplishments and abilities, developed over long hours spent listening to the old men grumble and groan while working under a small roof.

That's what's lost when the Traditions are abandoned.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, let this collage from a gent in the UK speak to you. We can speak of the benefits of revitalizing the hedgerow or thinning the woodlot. We can wax poetic about the benefits of a "lower carbon footprint" that you get by using a wooden rake rather than a mass-produced plastic and steel contraption.

However, the true value is there in that boy's eyes. It's the pride in himself and his family, in the memories he'll make and the tales he'll hear. It's the skill and the patience which, now learned, he can carry with him for the rest of his life.