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| All together in Victoria, B.C., August 2019 |
Showing posts with label Homeschool Dad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homeschool Dad. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Monday, March 18, 2019
Rehashing an Internet-Age-Old Debate: European vs. Japanese Swords
Guest Post by Andrew Mitchell of Anuron Ironworks
There is an ancient tradition among online sword enthusiasts of going on the internet and spitting out falsehoods to make the katana out to be a god-sword. The fanboys spreading these myths love the idea of the katana being the god and king of all cutting implements. They make ridiculous claims about the cutting power of the blades, such as the pervading myth that katanas can cut straight through steel plate armor. And while they prop up their hole-filled theories of how the katana works, they turn around and swear that European swords are nothing more than crude chunks of iron that have been beaten into a rough shape and sharpened. The truth of the matter is that both Japanese and European swordsmiths were master craftsmen with similarly lengthy histories of developing and making excellent weapons. The Japanese smiths and their blades were no better nor worse than European ones.
To answer questions about Japanese swordsmithing we must first know what that means. What does it take to be a quintessentially Japanese-style smith? Well, to start with the Japanese are famous for laminating their blades, that is, forge-welding a high carbon edge onto a iron or mild steel spine. These pieces of high carbon steel are called kawagane, and they are usually folded and welded over and over many times to work impurities and extra carbon out of the steel. The most iconic Japanese blade is the katana, a one edged sword made almost purely for their cutting power (As a result of this cutting-forward design they have a slightly blunted point. They will stab but they aren’t made for it.). These katanas have the hard kawagane on the cutting edge and a softer shingane on the blunt spine. The Japanese smiths poured many years into refining the laminating and forge welding technique that makes the katana and other swords perform like they do.
The katana and its brothers are impressive swords, but like all things there is a mix of good and bad forged into them. The laminated blades lead to a huge amount of durability. The mix of soft and hard steel makes a blade that would be nearly indestructible in the combat that they saw. The downside is the shape. The katana was made for cutting, not stabbing. This becomes a problem if you want to fight a fully armored man, which is hard enough under the best circumstances. The blunt tip would have trouble probing and slipping into the gaps in armor, and no sword can cut straight through steel plate. The Japanese sword is not perfect, but it is supremely effective at what it’s made for--killing people.
What exactly is the European approach to swordsmithing? Well, this may surprise you because no one talks about it, but the Europeans also laminated their sword blades. Not only does the laminating technique add strength to the sword, but the high carbon steel for the cutting edges was far harder to make or buy than the iron to go in the sword’s core (the piece of soft metal sandwiched in the blade making up a large part of the structural support for the sword.). The European sword was often double-edged and came to a sharp piercing point (with the exception of some blades like falchions, but they are not the subject of this essay). The longsword, a flagship model for European smithcraft, is an excellent example of this, two cutting edges and a spear-like tip. The shape of the various European swords has evolved and been tested and proven again and again in the hundreds of battles and wars that were fought during the Middle Ages.
Despite their attractive resume, the European blade is not all rose petals and bloody war. European weapons were too heavy or unwieldy to simply tote around on a journey. Instead, a short arming sword most often had to be substituted for the devastating power of a longsword or similar weapons.
I must admit that I had to do some searching before I found anything bad to say about either of these swordsmithing styles though; all the bad is more than made up for by the good. For example: a European longsword, with it’s reach and sharp point, could slip between the plates on a fully armored knight. A Japanese katana is short enough that it may be hung from a belt and comfortably traveled with. I may be able to bring up points where these blades fail, but that’s because they weren’t designed to do those things. The katana isn’t for stabbing through armor, and the longsword isn’t for traveling with.
With these definitions of the various styles of swordsmithing in mind, how do they shape up against each other? To start with, the proponents of the Japanese style lose a major point when we realize that laminated blades were known to and used by both sides. Combining hard and soft metal to save money and increase durability is an old trick known by many smiths. Both European and Japanese weapon types were made for essentially the same purpose, rending flesh and killing people. Both weapon types evolved through thousands of years of fighting and craftsmanship. Asia and Europe have both had expert smiths living and working in them honing the craft of making weapons for centuries. With these credentials and histories in mind, I don’t think a decision can be reached on the subject. We have to simply say that these blades and their makers were equals.
All this is, of course, a generalization of the craft. Not all smiths are equal; some can do things with steel that other can only dream of. Pumping out low quality weapons for the average fighting man was also a responsibility of the smiths. The weapon itself never wins an encounter. A good swordsman with a bad weapon will defeat a bad swordsman with a good one nine times out of ten. The performance of these blades is totally situation based; it depends entirely upon the skill of the smith and swordsman. For the purpose of this essay, I have assumed that we can compare the best of the Japanese with the best of the European, but it is important to note that these criteria fit only a very small percentage of historical situations.
In summation, the ancient and less ancient swordsmithing techniques of both Japan and Europe are equals. If we look at the facts, we see that neither style can be simply better or worse than the other. It depends on too many variables to be objective in that respect. This debate has never been about the facts, however. This debate is about culture and opinion. Though I am not without opinions myself, I wrote this essay for the odd internet traveler who waded into this debate seeking truth and objective facts. I hope you found it.
Bibliography:
Clements, John. “The Medieval European Knight vs. The Feudal Japanese Samurai.” 2006.
Clements, John. “How Were Swords Really Made.” 2006, .
Hunter, Edward. “The Japanese Blade: Technology and Manufacture.” Metmuseum.org, Oct. 2003.
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Editor's note: This article was originally the final paper for Andrew's homeschool writing class this year. It was supposed to be a research paper, and it is, but it turned out to also be a somewhat tongue-in-cheek persuasive essay written in a breezy yet combative style. I enjoyed how Drew, with some playfully barbed language, took on devotees of both sides of the debate to argue for his own conclusion. He packs a lot into nine paragraphs--the longest thing he's written to date. I appreciate his willingness for it to be published here.
For more about my son the blacksmith and his work, check out his YouTube Channel and popular Etsy shop. He is neither an European or Japanese style bladesmith. So far he's more of a retro-Americana tool and craft blacksmith. His newest video is the heating and hammering of a door-pull into existence.
Friday, January 11, 2019
Blacksmithing vs. Bladesmithing
Guest Post by Andrew Mitchell of Anuron Ironworks
Contrary to what some people believe, not all blacksmiths are bladesmiths. Blacksmithing is a wider category than bladesmithing, encompassing architectural and artistic work, bladesmithing and toolmaking, and a couple other categories. In fact some of the best blacksmiths in the world have never made a knife in their lives.
Bladesmithing is the art and craft of making blades, specifically, using heated metal to shape bladed objects. Despite this, making a blade usually requires a large amount of grinding. Establishing bevels, cutting in profiles, and shaping handles are often done on the grinder. There are many types of blades that the bladesmith can forge. Beyond just knives there are axes, chisels, swords, and many other tools and weapons to be made. Bladesmithing is versatile and has many purposes but is still only one subset of the expansive craft of blacksmithing.
Blacksmithing is the art and craft of shaping hot steel. Most forging is done with a hammer and anvil, beating the steel into the desired shape. Rivets, tongs, firepokers, gates, and all the blades mentioned before are made by blacksmiths. Blacksmithing tends to be more focused on the heat-and-beat aspect of metal work rather than all the grinding that goes into bladesmithing, but it’s not uncommon for blacksmiths to expand their knowledge to cover many crafts. The category of blacksmithing contains bladesmithing but is not limited to it.
The confusion among the layfolk is understandable. There are similarities. Both, for example, are metalwork. Blades are forged using techniques of blacksmithing, hot steel and hammers. Many blacksmiths are also bladesmiths and all bladesmiths are blacksmiths. If that’s confusing enough. Alec Steele, the premier blacksmith on YouTube, is known for forging everything from shelf brackets to claymores. Confusing the craft(s?) is easy. And some aspects of them are actually the same thing, and therefore can correctly be lumped under that same label.
Not all blacksmiths are bladesmiths. It may be accurate to say that someone is blacksmithing when they are making a blade, but please don’t assume that all blacksmiths also makes knives. It won’t hurt anyone to use the wrong word, but maintaining correct terminology can be important if you want to avoid ridicule and not annoy the blacksmith.
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Editor's note: This article was originally a brief compare and contrast writing assignment. I enjoyed the cranky-old-man feel of it so much I got permission to publish it here. For more about my son the blacksmith and his work, check out his YouTube Channel and popular Etsy shop. He is both a blacksmith and a bladesmith! In this video, he makes the "Toucan" Knife pictured above.
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Merry Christmas 2018 from the Mitchells!
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| My Father's Day gift this year was a family photo shoot with the talented Ben Schiefer. I'm a blessed man! |
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| "But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:15). |
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| "Act normal." "Okay!" |
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| "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance" (Psalm 16:6). |
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| "Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots around your table. Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD" (Psalm 128:1-4). |
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| "Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate" (Psalm 127:3-5). |
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| Cover for an album you don't really want to listen to. |
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| "Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD" (Psalm 117:1-2). |
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| "Say 'Cheesy!'" |
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| "[Your beauty] should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight" (1 Peter 3:4). |
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| "...and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away" (Isaiah 3510). |
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| Teens and Screens 2018. I love these people with all of my heart. |
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Making a Hunting Knife - Anuron Ironworks
WOW!
If you have 18 minutes, you can watch my son Andrew create a hunting knife all the way from the initial drawing to the finished product.
I'm just the dad, but I think this is the coolest thing to come from Anuron Ironworks yet. Sharp in every sense of the term!
Monday, June 25, 2018
Preparing for Challenge 2018
I’ve been preparing for the last six months.
Physically
Since January, I’ve been trying to walk 2 to 6 miles per day to try to get my body in shape for Challenge. For a guy like me who is halfway to 90, Challenge is physically demanding. It’s an student ministry aimed at young people, so you are active from early morning to midnight each day moving from meals to large group gatherings for worship and teaching to equipping labs to interactive relational huddles to recreational time to immersive missions experiences and even service projects dotted all around the city. Whew, I get tired (and energized) just thinking about it!
One thing I love about Challenge is that it’s created for the whole person and for all different kinds of students. When I went for the first time in 2014, I assumed it would be a “Rah, Rah, Jesus!” kind of event aimed at worship and teaching and that maybe there would be sports-type recreation. But the folks who plan Challenge are wise youthworker types. They know that students are also artistic, love video games, get intrigued by drama, love to create, and need spaces for just hanging out. Challenge has all of that and more. I picture Shane Stacey and his team scheming together in the advance planning each year saying, “What if you could have a conference for youth that does it all? What would that look like?” and then making it happen. Of course, that also means that if you have a group that “does it all,” the old pastor guy tagging along is going to get worn out. So, I’ve been trying to get in shape. Last time, in 2016, the elevators were perpetually full, and we were staying on the 7th floor. My Pacer app logged a lot of miles just in steps. Pray for me!Mentally
I’ve been asked by the leaders at Challenge to facilitate two equipping labs–90 minute workshops where I interact with a roomful of teens on thorny topics, helping them to think about what the Bible says and apply it directly to their lives. One of the topics is near and dear to me–resisting gossip. I’ve spoken about that before a few times. The other topic is more tender and sober but no less important–a biblical theology of suffering.
Winning the War of the Wagging Tongue
“Did you hear what she did on Saturday night?” “I heard they were breaking up!” “Wait till you hear the latest!” Do you “swipe left” when gossip comes your way, or do you help it go viral? What do you do when people text about you behind your back? This lab will help you to cut sinful gossip out of your personal conversations and social media accounts through the promises of God.
Why, God?
If God is good, then why is there still suffering, evil and bad things happening in our world? This lab will equip you to think biblically about the problem of pain and help you to keep trusting the Lord when life really hurts.
Relationally
I love that I get to go to Challenge with our biggest group ever from Lanse Free Church. I’m especially glad to go with all four of my children, Robin (nearly 18), Drew (16), Peter (nearly 15), and Isaac (nearly 14). This may be the only time all four are able to attend at the same time. The rest of the group are most of their friends from around here, so it’s a very tight-knit group, and I expect everybody to grow even closer.
I’m praying for some quality time to relate to each other and help each other to grow in Christ. Another thing that’s fun for me is that even though I am their pastor and an adult leader in the group, I am not the leader of the group. Cody and Holly Crumrine coordinate our youth ministry, and so I’m just along for the ride. Watching this young couple lovingly work together to direct our time together was one of the highlights of the conference for me in 2014–they are a wonderful influence on the teens in our church family. And the other adult leader is a young lady named Mikalah who holds the record at our church for attending the most Challenge Conferences. She has grown through them and now helps lead our group to them!
Spiritually
I’ve been preparing my heart to receive the teaching at Challenge 2018. Amazingly (to me), it’s been the winsome, memorable, practical, deep, rich, biblical theology that is the thing I’ve been the most impressed by at each Challenge Conference I’ve attended. In 2014, the speakers took us through the entire unfolding storyline of the Bible over the course of the week. Four years later, I can still name each of the talks and what was covered. In 2016, they gave us a Trinitarian framework for understanding our missional identity. I can’t wait to find out what “Bold Moves” truly means for us this year.
Would you pray that our hearts would be open to ingest the biblical teaching and make it a living, breathing everyday part of our lives coming home?
One more week to prepare and then we make our Bold Moves!
Challenge 2018 Trailer – Bold Moves from EFCA on Vimeo.
Saturday, June 16, 2018
My Son the Blacksmith
Armed with an apparently insatiable appetite for self-education, a few books, a plethora of instructional YouTube videos, and the generous support of family and friends, Drew has built himself a forge (out a brake-drum and hairdryer!), bought a couple anvils, sought out tools at auctions (and made a few of his own!), found a supplier for coal, and housed the whole enterprise in a wooden "smithy" with an extra tall chimney (designed and constructed in partnership with his grandfather). And he's constantly making things, quite literally going at it hammer and tongs!
(In case you can't tell, I'm a little proud of his work.)
Drew has also opened his own business. He is selling his hand-forged items both locally and online. He's just getting started, but he already has four standard items for sale in his Etsy Shop.
1. Wall Hanging Hook
2. Fire Poker
3. S-Hook
4. Simple Back Scratcher
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| Wall Hanging Hook |
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| Fire Poker |
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| S-Hook |
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| Simple Back Scratcher |
It's going to be neat to see where Drew goes with all of this. He's doing custom work as, well. Just this week neighbor asked him if he could forge some "log dogs" for a building he wants to construct. I didn't even know what a "log dog" was, but Drew caught on fast and even was already aware of a YouTuber that makes them. Drew forged the hanging brackets for this birdfeeder to the customer's specifications (photo to the right).
Drew calls his business "Anuron Ironworks" named after the elvish version of his first name from Tolkien's classic books. [By the way, many of these excellent pictures are taken by Drew's friend Ben Schiefer who is a talented landscape and portrait photographer. Check out his work and hire him for your project today.]Drew has created a website devoted to spreading the word about his blacksmithing. The photo gallery has shots of his workshop and some of his projects.
But the best way to really get what he's doing is to watch him work. On his Anuron Ironworks YouTube channel, Drew shows you how he makes the various items he sells and other projects he's working on.
(He also chronicles some of his other exploits, such as tall-tree climbing which makes his old dad gulp.)
Here are some videos from his channel and some pictures of his anvil, tools, workshop, and some of the things he has made:
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| Drew's newest anvil. |
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| With the old one for comparison. |
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| Blacksmith Leg Vice |
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| Finished Wall Hooks |
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| More Wall Hooks |
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| Hand Forged Tomahawk |
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| Hand Forged Draw Knife |
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| Hand Forged Tongs |
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| Drew's Own Hand Forged Tongs Holding a Railroad Spike |
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| Handmade "Hardy Tools" for Use on the Anvil |
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| Handmade "Hardy Tool" At Use on the Anvil |
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| Hand Forged Knife in Progress |
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| Final Product |
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| Handmade Knife |
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| The Anuron Ironworks "Touchmark." Kind of a like brand or logo that he chisels into his work. |
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| The blacksmith in repose after work. Photo by Ben Schiefer. |
Sunday, May 20, 2018
Resources for Digging for Wisdom in the Proverbs
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| Digging for Wisdom is Necessary. Shovels Are Optional. Miracle Mountain Ranch |
I had the privilege of speaking 3 times on "Digging for Wisdom in the Proverbs," and I showed the guys how I use the Proverbs each week to uncover treasures of wisdom in our Youth Boys' Class at Family Bible Night. I believe that Proverbs are written as they are as a divine gift, especially to fathers, to disciple their sons. I was encouraged to hear from several of the dads that they are going to begin studying Proverbs together with their sons after learning how this weekend.
I promised the guys a list of some of the best resources out there on the Proverbs, so here it is:
2. After Thornton, the next level book I'd recommend is Derek Kidner's commentary on Proverbs. Every time I teach on Proverbs, I consult Kidner's precise, concise, and incisive words.
3. I first learned how the Proverbs worked by taking a class from Ray Ortlund at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. In his commentary, Dr. Ortlund gives a master class in both understanding and applying the message of the book.
5. And if you are an audio learner, Dr. Waltke has recorded a series of lectures available for free at Biblical Training. This is top-shelf stuff.
Ok. No excuses now. The resources are all there. Let's get digging.
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Passing on the Wisdom of the Proverbs
My goal is to help the boys and men to ransack the book of Proverbs for themselves. Pray for me!
To prepare, I've been re-reading this excellent little handbook from Champ Thornton Pass It On: A Proverbs Journal for the Next Generation.
A few months ago, I got to interview Champ about this book. It's full of some really good stuff.
The opening chapter, "A Bird's Eye View of the Proverbs" is one of the best introductions I've ever read to this book in our Bibles. WTS Books has it up as a free downloadable sample chapter right now. Don't miss it!
My endorsement from last year still stands:
In Pass it On, Champ Thornton has created another unique resource for assisting Christian parents to extract the precious wisdom from the endless goldmine of the Book of Proverbs and impart its righteous riches to their children. I will be using it with my kids and urge others to dig in, too.
