Again I entered my smithy to work and forge something from the noble material of time past.
When you are an Anvill, hold you still; when you are a hammer, strike your fill.
Other musicians are basically personalities who want to make a name for themselves. All I do is sing old songs in the best way I can. What else is there to know? If you were a blacksmith, what would people need to know about you other than whether you can make a good horseshoe?
The smith and his penny both are black.
Hammer the iron that lies on your anvil instead of daydreaming about working silver.
Heat is required to forge anything. Every great accomplishment is the story of a flaming heart.
The horse is the only animal into which one can bang nails.
Why should a blacksmith put his hands in the fire if he has tongs?
I have friends who are blacksmiths in the north of Scotland, so I took a few master classes with, them. I loved learning a new skill. I will never look at a piece of wrought iron the same way now. I can now make semi-decent knife blades and candlesticks myself.
The country blacksmith who employs no journeyman is never conscious of any conflict between the capital invested in his anvil, hammer and bellows, and the labor he performs with them, because in fact, there is none.
I built two forges when I was in my teens. I was just really, really into metalworking and making stuff.
In what a forge and what a heat were shaped the anchors of thy hope! Fear not each sudden sound and shock; 'Tis of the wave and not the rock.
