Blade Forger - Albert Craven (1979)
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- Albert Craven had retired to Bridlington after after 72 years in the industry as one of the last maker of hand-forged knife blade forger in the city. He laments the passing of his trade providing a vivid demonstration of his skill one last time.
One of the series of South Yorkshire County Council sponsored films commissioned from Sheffield Independent Film and the Sheffield City Polytechnic to document ‘little mester’ trades. This film was No.7 in the series entitled 'Trades & Crafts'.
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That was truly fabulous! Absolutely wonderful to see one of the original craftsman, see how he worked and what he produced. Great to hear his comments about piece work and making 2 over to the dozen for "breakages". I wonder who benefitted from the extra 2?? And his comments about how he started as child and was apprenticed to his grandfather til he was 21. The blades he made were only little tiny ones, and one thought "Oh he's only used to making pen knife blades, that's probably all he could do". Then at the end he just blew me away with the two massive bowie knives and a skinning knife which looked a bit awkward, until he unfolded it!!! So he really knew his onions. Great shame it's all gone. Crafts like this still survive in various countries like Japan, but here......"not so much". I would have loved to take up the reigns from him and be apprenticed to him, but I was only 8 at the time. And didn't know he existed. although I wasn't far away in Solihull at the time. Ah well.
What a wonderful film and an amazing craftsman. The pride he took in his work was so clear to see. I'm going through these Ken Hawley videos and loving each and every one.
I did a little bit of research into Albert.
Born 16th January 1895 (!) in Sheffield, a true Victorian. He married Elsie in 1922, they lived in Hillsborough, Sheffield and had one daughter. Elsie died in 1973. As Albert says, he 'retired' (at the age of 85!) to the seaside town of Bridlington and lived there for ten years. He died in 1989 at the age of 94.
One technical thing that amzed/impressed me. As far as I used them in my engineering days, 'lump' hammers were a standard 4lb, but the hammer Albert was energetically wielding looked bigger than that. Amazing strength and precision combined - just wonderful to see and hear his work.
I knew a skilled man from Sheffield In his 50's, back in the 80's, he came down to London, to teach us welding, he came down because they were shutting all the works down, and demolishing every thing, he told me that the skilled people who had learnt their skills from generations of knowledge and experience, were trying to get jobs, just to survive, doing anything, and were going to end up in their graves with all their knowledge, what a waste.and shame.
once " the workshop of the world "
now the UK is mainly a nation of consumers of foreign stuff, made not to last., and with built in Obsolescence.. not good.
thanks for the video,
I remember a true story about a" little mester " who even the skilled japanese wanted to meet over here, to learn from him, but either the council, or the government would not le it happen, due to the " little mester " not having paper qualifications or something irrelevant, if you know anything about it, please fill me in, thanks.for doing a great job.
your society was weak and it lack interest in its own culture.
@@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367 With respect how old are you? If you've lived any time at all on this planet you'll know that loss of any culture is incremental & often only appreciated after decades have passed, by which time, it's too late. Ken Hawley fortunately recorded this passing at a time when home/DIY filming was expensive & rare. To quote Joni Mitchell - Don't it always seem to go,
That you don't know what you've got, Till it's gone.
What an inspiration. My great grandfather was born 1899 and was a stone mason, a craft that is all but truly lost, and I did it for a summer and decided it was a craft I wouldn’t be keeping alive either.
Into my 20s I was drawn to the forge, and today I do my best to keep the cutler’s tradition alive. If, when I die, I am half as good at the craft as this man, I will be overjoyed.
Thank you for sharing.!
Fantastic, what skills we have lost over the years. True craftsmen
This was a man.
As an amateur knife / sword / axe maker I can confirm that this guy is incredibly good at his job - if I ever get to be 10% as good as him I'll be happy.
Astounding craftmanship. In his day he had to make 100's of blades all exactly the same. Try it sometime, making two item's the same ain't easy. Was surprised at the size of the hammer he used for the little blades. Another excellent video, thanks.
These UA-cam knifemakers who toss about taking weeks to make a single knife would shit their pants at the idea of doing two gross in a day -- and that's 14 to every dozen in that two gross!
Sorry to bring this back from the dead. Does a gross in this video mean 144? That's uncanny. Even with a 16 hour day is there really enough time to forge that many blades?
@steve-ey3rx A Gross is 12 dozen, so normally taken to be 12x12=144. In this specific case, he says his customer initially defined a 'dozen' as 14 (to cover breakages!), so his 2 gross at that time would have been 2x12x14=336 blades in a day . Astonishing, isn't it?
@@clemclemett5312 Astonishing? I'd say "incredible". :)
336 blades in 12 hours is what, two and a half minutes per blade? Did we see him make any blades in two and a half minutes?
@@steve-ey3rx We saw him draw and refine a tang in six or so blows, and form a complete blade profile from the red hot steel blank including forging the bevel in literally a minute flat... Do you really think for the purposes of filming he was working anywhere close to full production speed? He said in his prime, when he was at the peak of his capacity those were his output numbers - there is hard proof of these numbers because that is how he was paid, by the numbers produced and provided to the customers who certainly would not have paid for anything they were not receiving...
Computers and robots are killing humanity.
Как же он без гриндера и Rex 121 выживал
haha well in the past they used a water wheel and files and scrapers. the water wheel is grinding as wlel as a modern machine
hard man!
What year was this taken. Did i miss it
The film was made in 1979 and you didn’t miss it if you meant by that being on tv. It was made as part of a series only available on video
What a lovely talented man 👍
He makes it look easy , respect !
I first watched this video about a year ago and was fascinated by it - great, humble craftsman 🏅
In the last 5 minutes, he shows off some of his amazing work - I wonder how many missed that?
I would have loved to meet him and learn some new skills 🔥 🗡
I will visit the museum and take a tour of Sheffield soon...
Thanks for sharing,
Gus
Another very interesting video, thank you very much.
Glad you enjoyed it
Amazing work!!
Great to see.
I bought an 8 inch Bowie knife in a secondhand shop in Plymouth over 40 years ago, and sadly lost it ( stolen ) within 5 years. ...... I lived on a country estate, and it would chop down a branch without worrying about it.
Maybe Albert Craven forged the blade! ....... What a Gentleman - a True Englishman!
Does anyone know why he makes that final little "tail" when he's constructing the tang?
I would say that the small tail he forged in serves two purposes.
1. Something to hold on to when forging the tang to keep the tongs away from the hammer blows.
2. To hold the blade when heat treating the blade. The tongs act like heatsinks.
I saw him at Abbydale industrial museum in around 1976 and 1977 he said that the little tang was for the grinder to true up his wheel before grinding the blade. He used to give away blank blades, I watched the demonstrations several times on each visit and had a chat between demonstrations, he gave me his hammer to hold the handle of which fitted my hand perfectly, it was amazingly steerable. I still have the 2 blades made a year apart, you cannot see much difference between the little tails
Does anyone still forge blades like this? Most are laser/water cut from rolls of steel, CNC ground and tumble polished.
Leonid Arhangelsky Леонид Архангельский. Ученый, инженер, кузнец и металлург
in iran the pen knives that were inspired by english pocket knives are still forged this way, as are the larger folding knives probably inspired by knives from the spanish and portugese
What a shame their expertise has died with them.