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A visit with a Nicaraguan Blacksmith
March 25, 2012
4:30 am
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James vonMosch
White Salmon, WA
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My wife and I just got back from a visit to our Peace Corps site near Esteli, and we stopped to visit this little shop by the side of the highway. The smith and his son were rebuilding a digging bar. The son can't walk and did all his work sitting down. The fuel is pine bark, and the forge and blower are all hand made. There are many blacksmith shops in Nicaragua, and I have not seen any doing "Art". The majority produce horseshoes from rebar (horses are still a common mode of transport there), and a few do tools and repairs.

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March 25, 2012
2:55 pm
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Larry L
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Thats quite an anvil and swage block... And the forge is quite nice too..... Kind of makes me feel bad doing trivial work with power and propane when there is real work to be done and its being done like this..(the hard way squared)

Whatever you are, be a good one.
Abraham Lincoln

March 25, 2012
9:59 pm
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James vonMosch
White Salmon, WA
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Yeah. It makes me think back to when I was getting started. Thinking of all the "things" I "needed" to begin to make useful stuff, when all you really need is a hammer and some form of heat. I only saw one "real" anvil down there, all the others were improvised from engine parts, bus axles, chunks of rock crusher jaws, and the corner of a dozer blade. They even had "cone mandrels" made from ends of large axles.

March 27, 2012
4:10 am
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Lynn Gledhill
Junction City, Oregon
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Wow!!! Primitive equipment, but they're gettin' 'er done!!! We are so blessed to have the tools that we have!! I wonder if I could make a living as a farrier down there????

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