Hey, Have you heard....

When you have a hobby you suddenly become an expert to everyone you know on all things even remotely related to that hobby. It's a natural phenomenon. People interact with you, discover your hobby and, either out of genuine interest or mere politeness, they try to engage with you on that topic. Sometimes it's a bunch of questions on the origin of the hobby and how you came to be involved, or it's a story about a friend or relative who is also into that hobby. Sometimes they relate a time when they, themselves, dabbled in that hobby.

As a hobby blacksmith, there is a minimum of 5 common points of conversation that come up.

1. Ancestral blacksmithing, either mine, theirs or someone they know
2. Horseshoes
3. The Renaissance Faire
4. Civil War Re-enactment
5. Have I heard about the blacksmithing shows on The History Channel called "Forged in Fire" and "Milwaukee Blacksmith"?

These are all fine topics and talking about them is a pleasure. I appreciate, just like anyone else, someone taking an interest in me or the things I like to do.

When "Forged in Fire" came out, I heard a lot about it because it had the word "Forge" right in the title. I don’t subscribe to any cable or satellite service nor do I even have an antenna hooked up for broadcast television so I couldn’t watch the show on schedule. My TV viewing experience is limited primarily to my Bluray player for disks, Netflix or YouTube. It wasn’t until I discovered I could cast the programs on the TV via my smartphone using The History Channel App that I started watching these shows with some regularity. Most people know I carry a knife with me most of the time and have a small collection of them that I rotate through. People naturally thought a show about making knives and swords and axes and all kinds of other weapons would not only be a show I would love to watch but also, since it's a competition show, try to compete on.

They are partially correct.

I very much enjoy the show. It's style is identical to a competitive cooking show on The Food Network called "Chopped". Four smiths use their skills to complete a challenge in a set amount of time with one smith being eliminated after each round. The winner gets $10,000. It’s a wonderful show, the panel of judges are tough but fair and often act as cheerleaders for the people competing. There is a minimal amount of drama and the show mostly focuses on the craftsmanship of the smiths competing. You can see some truly wonderful work and if you're not too jaded, you might even get swept up in the action. I watch this show with my wonderful girlfriend Jessie and we both find ourselves gasping when something goes really wrong or oohing and ahhing when something goes really right. We look forward to watching whenever we can.

However, as much as I like watching this show, there is NO WAY I want anything to do with being on it. I don’t like working under that kind of pressure and I cannot stand having someone scrutinize and judge my work. When I’m working on stuff I like keeping my own pace and having the piece naturally come to fruition. I will happily remain a spectator.

Milwaukee Blacksmith is a whole other matter. That show appears to be closely modeled after “Orange County Choppers” where there is a family business and they have a crazy deadline or challenge to meet and or overcome and there are family arguments but in the end there is success. There is also an unnecessary recap after each commercial break taking away from overall content. The show has a much more scripted feel about it and some of the drama of the episode can induce a bit of eye-rolling.

That does not keep it from being a show I’m very fond of. Jessie and I have watched the episodes as they have become available and quite enjoy a good deal of the programming. The projects that come out of that shop are wonderful and seeing scenes from around Milwaukee and the surrounding area in a program like this is pretty cool. Earlier today we were at the Kenosha Harbor Market and afterwards stopped by the Dinosaur Museum to check out the T-Rex Statue they created in the most recent episode.

We have already planned on adventuring to see other projects on display. The show is also good for Milwaukee in that it promotes a city that has a long history in manufacturing. There are also some really beautiful shots of Milwaukee in the transition scenes. Providing the show doesn’t turn into the drama-filled screamfest that O.C.C. turned into, I expect we will be watching regularly. I may even look into taking their Blacksmithing 101 class offered on their website. Learning is an ongoing adventure.