Forty hooks finished, and now I get to start working on a dish.
Everyone likes to think blacksmithing is full of glorious builds like we can see in a lot of the pictures I’ve posted here. But, no, mostly you do repetitive production work to keep the lights on.
Even in olden times, very few smiths were able to step away from production work to do the grand things we consider relics today. For that, they needed a wealthy patron who didn’t mind spending crazy money to “one up” the neighbors. The Italian Renaissance was driven by this. And, amazingly, this creativity then bled over into average society because it fostered new techniques and technologies. If you’ve ever used a cast iron skillet, you can thank the wealthy patrons of the English blacksmiths back in the day. It was their drive for more complicated ironwork that led to the streamlining of cast iron manufacture, making it economical enough for the masses. Weird how things are connected like that when it doesn’t seem like they should be!