thanks frank!

thats the beauty of art. a few nights ago I whas going through some charcoal schetses from the early nighteenth centuary. old ones, some made by family or portretting family. its hard to find out now. they were realy good and I whas thinking the same qeustion.

one of the joys in making art is that whe can striphe for imortality. art like a message in a bottle or time capsule.
a statment of youre personality and skill.

the only qeustion whe should ask ourselfs is what we do with the time that is given to us.

may the forge be with you, ambition

damn, forgot to log in again -_-

above is mine, ambition

thanks rich
english is a foreign language to me. I'm still trying to write descent posts but they don't teach that kind of words in school. most of my metal craft related words I learned by reading online&books. still a tough job to figure it all out. as for `whitesmithing`, I´m prety sure I read it some where used in the wrong contex(as aka silversmithing).

damn, forgot to log in again -_-

above is mine, ambition

English is becoming a foreign language to many Americans, judging by much of what I read these days. (grin) For a non-English speaking person, your command of the language is quite excellent. Technical jargon and slang are always the mos tdifficult ones to learn ans they are frequently contextual and highly variable. I think you're doing great.

Hello Rich,
I'm just visiting ArtMetal trying to find out more about whitesmithing. I'm actually helping out my kid for his school report about 'whitesmith', so far from what I gathered in various dictionaries I haven't fully grasp the meaning and difference of whitesmithing from other smiths. I'm looking for the fundamentals of whitesmithing, the accurate description, basic tools, what kind of service this work offers, products and materials used, visual samples, and so on. Perhaps I'm cutting corners by asking instead of digging more on books however you sound very knowledgeable about this subject, so I thought why not ask you. Your experience is as valuable as other books.
I truly appreciate if you could help us out, let me know where to look for better understanding of this occupation.

Thanks,
Merliza
(bmerliza@yahoo.com)

Merliza,

In the past, particularly in Europe, whitesmithing was a profession/trade all of its own. The whitesmith was the person who took the products forged by the blacksmith and "finished" them. That is, the whitesmith removed any firescale, filed and/or scraped the item until it was a finished piece, ready for use.

As-forged ironwork has a somewhat rough surface, the result of scaling due to the heat of the forging and often some pitting or other surface irregularities caused by scale on the surface being hammered into it. There are also irregularities in the forging itself; errant hammer blows, minor surface flaws and all those characteristics that make a piece look "hand-forged." It is the job of the whitesmith to remove all those and make the piece look as smooth, clean and polished as possible. In previous times, there was no desire at all for a piece to look "hand-made", as everything was hand made and everyione knew that. The desire was for items to look as perfect as possible. Remember, many of the items being made were for use as eating and cooking implements, tools and furniture, and needed to be smooth, clean and functional.

There has come to be a current concept that a whitesmith is one who smiths white metals such as sliver, pewter, tin, etc., but this is erroneous and a misuse of the term. Sadly, it will probably come to be considered "correct" thorough common usage, however inappropriate that may be.

For more information on whitesmithing, look into the "Mechanik Exercises" by Moxon and "De Re Metallica" by Agricola. Both are historical works covering metalsmithing and ironwork of centuries ago and should be available at your local library or through Inter-Library Loan.