The Roman author, Pliny, described iron as the "most useful and most fatal instrument in the hand of man."
I did some research and found the human use of iron has a bit longer history than I first thought. Sometime before written records began, people had knowledge of physical metallurgy. The ancient Chinese and Egyptians found gold and silver in their pure state as grains and nuggets and molded the metal into ornaments. The American Indians found large amounts of pure copper in the area of Lake Superior and molded the metals into weapons and implements. There is also evidence that metal was used by men in the ancient civilizations of China, India, Chaldea, Babylon, and by the time the Assyrian civilization came along smelting iron was a highly developed art. The ancient Assyrians even knew how to change iron into steel.
If you watch closely, you will see the growth of man's intelligence exhibited in children's activities. As toddlers, you might say, they live in the stone age, using rocks and wood as rudimentary tools and weapons, then as they become older, they are allowed the use of slightly more sophisticated tools, and start learning there are bigger and better things. Then comes the iron age where they have gained enough intelligence and allowed to use the real deal. The iron age comes to individuals at different ages, some learn young, some shouldn't be trusted at 21. I am pretty sure that some of our children will never be allowed to operate anything with an engine!
All that to say the Law boys are allowed, to varying degrees, to advance to the iron age. It is amazing to see how much metal work knowledge they have picked up over the years just by watching and helping their dad in the blacksmith shop.
With just a few minor instructions to begin, they were off and running . . . err . . . hammering. Some could see what they wanted in their head, and they started to create it. Suddenly they would get to a spot where the metal wasn't doing what they wanted. They would ask Daddy and he would instruct them how to move the metal in the direction they wanted. Now they really learned and applied the correct technique because it was it was in their best interest to further the application of their own ideas.
It seems the first thing little boys want to make, of course, are implements of destruction.
Their individual creativity really showed in the projects they undertook. CW made a very nice tomahawk head.
JW1's choice was knives.
PW chose swords with fancy twisted guards, and then of course what little boy doesn't dream of a bayonet to go on his BB gun.
After they got all of that out of their system they transferred to more useful items.
First, daddy decided with so many apprentices that some more tools were necessary.
CW was instructed and helped make more sets of fire tongs during the time we were making the nails for the barn door hinges. Once more tongs were available, he made a lot of the nails for our doors as well as added to the tool selection for his brothers to utilize.
Thoughts then turned to more practical ideas as they watched daddy making coat hooks and then tried their hand at making hooks as well. JW2 at seven years old decided to build a hook for his room and a chisel.
JW1 also made a hook for his room and a chisel.
PW decided to make his swords multi-purpose and put a spoon on them, his older brother helped him making a little bigger spoon.
CW wanted a knife for cutting all of the hay bale strings he has to cut morning and night in the winter. This little pocket-knife made from the tang of a horse rasp has a gut hook end on it and works pretty slick.
Daddy wished he could have had the camera one day while watching MJW age six and TW age four working together at the mini anvil on a project of their own. It was remarkable to watch TW carefully grasp the hot steel with the fire tongs while MJ struck and shaped the metal with his hammer and punch. It was a rare moment when the two brothers exhibited perfect teamwork because they both had an interest in their project.
Needless to say, it is very rewarding for us as parents to watch our children learn through their creativity.
Allen Eaton:
The time will come when every kind of work will be judged by two measurements: one by the product itself, as is now done, and the other by the effect of the work on the producer.
Jack Andrews author of Edge of the Anvil:
"At a time when there is so much emphasis placed on "progress", growth and expansion on a nationwide scale, it is almost heresy to say, "Small is Beautiful". But the two elements can coexist. It is precisely because of the fast pace of all of our lives, the huge industries, vast production and overwhelming bureaucracy, that a reexamination of our values is essential. We see this all around us in the resurgence of interest in crafts of all kinds, in such small things as vegetable gardens and in a return to the "simpler" life. I feel that the village blacksmith's smaller scale of work is the kind of thing with which we should temper today's living. We need not ignore the advances of science and technology, but we must recognize that in the haste to acquire and consume, we ourselves will be consumed."