Dying art

[Mike V. Florida]

We speak here often about the demise of the Model A hobby as the younger folk only want the "newer" cars.

I saw this in a book I was looking at;

"People in general are not aware of the fact that, in
our time of manufacture, blacksmithing is almost a lost
art, for nearly everything formerly made by the smith is
now turned out by machinery."

That was in 1907.

A simple search of the internet will provide a host of smiths and schools to learn the trade. Not quite the lost art that 110 years would lead you to believe.

I'm thinking the same for our hobby it will be a "dying art" for many more years.

 

[Synchro909]

Predictions are notoriously unreliable. At the turn of the 19th to 20th century, a journalist asked the head of the US Patents Office what wondrous things might be invented during the coming century. His reply was that he thought everything that could be invented has been and he expected the office would be a quiet place in the future.

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Predictions are notoriously unreliable. At the turn of the 19th to 20th century, a journalist asked the head of the US Patents Office what wondrous things might be invented during the coming century. His reply was that he thought everything that could be invented has been and he expected the office would be a quiet place in the future.

Yes, they ARE very unreliable. Since my father was a charter member of the Houston Model-A club which just celebrated their 50th Anniversary, I have heard this very thing throughout the years. In the 60's, it was by 1980 all of the owners will be getting old and no one will want them. The same thing was touted in the '70s, '80s, and each subsequent decade.

Ironically the interest has always been there, AND the Model-A values have always risen from decade to decade. So following that trend, anyone want to guess where we will be in 2026??

 

[mshmodela]

Seems to me, there are many thousands of cars in original (non-rod) co condition. Only a fool would take something like that and devalue by letting it sit and rust or strip for rod parts... I think that the cars my likely have fewer owners and the likely hood of folks have more than one will grow... Cars will do just fine after we're gone

 

[mhsprecher]

Yogi Berra — 'It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.'

 

[mshmodela]

True but people don't toss away gold.

 

[Tim Ayers]

My 10 year old son is very interested in black smithing. He asked to go to a school or camp to learn it.

I'm on the hunt for a good anvil so he can pound some metal. We made a hatchet already. That was a fun project. "Reality" shows like Forged in Fire are helping to rekindle interest in this art.

 

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

With Vintage Cars, there's ALWAYS something to discover, I saw a video of a 1906 Adams-Farwell, with a 5 Cyl ROTARY engine in the rear. The crankshaft was stationary & the cylinders REVOLVED !!
Bill Amazed

 

[jwilliams81]

I'm 35 and just bought my first Model A. I think the "younger guys" are out there... I just had to wait until I had a home with a garage

 

[Y-Blockhead]

So following that trend, anyone want to guess where we will be in 2026??

Pushing up daisies?

 

[coupe1942]

We were at a car show and Sorghum Festival in Wewoka, Ok. a week or two back and stopped into an antique mercantile store. The place was full of artist goods and loaded with some art made out of horse shoes. It also had tons of equipment and supplies for farriers. The lady owner told me that her son was the artist and that he also was a dedicated black smith. We chatted about this very topic and i had also spoken to some farriers located in the Abilene, Tx. area in the past. Her comments about such were pretty much on target with their's.

My son had at one time worked as a rodeo clown and had also learned a bit about that trade. He found out pretty quickly that the life of a Rodeo Clown is not necessarily as full of fun as one may think. The $100 bucks per night may pay for beer, cigarettes and sandwiches, but it hardly mates up to paying for bandaids and hospital bills when you end the performance after each event. The lady told me that being a blacksmith was indeed a high demand job as far as customers in need, but that schools or training facilities were simply not around in that area. It is an agriculture area for sure though. She didn't have much hope of most youth actually following through and making it a career choice though and neither had the fellows back in Abilene.

We did see her son out at the festival that day and he had set up; a display area there to show off how blacksmithing had been done at the start of the previous century. It was heavy duty work and a lot of it. He didn't shoe any horses while we were there, but he did a lot of art work in making swords, axes and horse shoe art things.

Millennials are not known for wanting positions of hard work and that is a skill that can certainly be taxing and full of bending over and doing a lot of hard work. The financial reward is often not a good as one may think when it comes to paying bills and making a living from it, as well. Me, I am not sure how many kids would actually end up taking his place as a farrier or that of others in the trade. I sort of doubt it reflects much as to the auto hobby though. One never knows though and most of us probably won't be about long enough to see how it all plays out as this century ends and another begins. I do know we stood there for quite a while and watch in amazement as to how he worked and how professional his work was, but I just don't recall any kids standing about watching with their eyes wide open to imagination and envy.

I'd venture to bet that most cars these days will never get to age until they are the age of our Model A's. The electronics will not be as easy to replace or work on as the parts to our vintage cars generally are. They won't just rust away in barns or in salvage yards, but decompose at an alarmingly fast rate, instead. Does that necessarily mean our own hobby as to Model A's or even muscle cars and pickups (which seem even more popular in this part of the country than the Model A's) will slack off or continue to grow in interest of the youth? I have no real clue, myself.

 

[denis4x4]

There are still plenty of blacksmiths out there that can create a shoe from flat stock. Last shoer that I used was a women that had won several competitions and was promoting black smithing contests in Colorado and Utah. Check out the prices to shoe a horse and you might question why you paid for an art history major for your kid!

 

[100IH]

I share the concern of all the above posts but one thing that is scary to me is that schools have taken away industrial arts classes from jr. high and high school. That is so important because the first item on the agenda is exposure to hand tool use and the related safety of their use. Next is the exposure to identifying materials ( wood, metals) and industrial processes ( foundry, machine production, finishing). That missing foundation leaves kids thinking that all things are made by robotic machines controlled by computers and programmed by engineers. No hands required. Now, engineers sometimes have to take basic industrial shop classes before they can program the computers to run the machines to make the things that are taken for granted. Skills of all shapes and sizes are getting farther and farther away from the kid down the street. You don't make a skate board you buy one.

 

[ursus]

I just read where over half of the machinists at Boeing in Seattle are in their 50's. The pension plan was changed in a way that provides no incentive to continue working and there is concern over who will replace them when they take their exit, as many now say they will.

 

[coupe1942]

I read a similar article just recently about Bowing and the problems with staying on. Seems the guy in the article used as an example had maybe 37 years with the plant. My brother-in-law did the same at Chrysler after putting in maybe 34 years or so. OJT is not likely to cut it as to filling the gap for workers to replace the older ones. Be interesting to see what other companies and industries are facing the same and what they will do.

 

[jthomas6]

You don't make a skate board you buy one.

That brings back memories, when my brother and I (as kids in 1956) took apart a pair of skates into halves. Using two boards in a 'T' shape, with the front board center swivel - used 3 halves to make a 'trike' to ride down the hills.

 

[Synchro909]

Occupational Health and Safety inspectors have no clue on industrial processes or requirements and so see danger everywhere and shut the whole thing down or place such ludicrous restrictions on the plant that it is no longer competitive. No wonder they are/have closed.

 

[coupe1942]

That brings back memories, when my brother and I (as kids in 1956) took apart a pair of skates into halves. Using two boards in a 'T' shape, with the front board center swivel - used 3 halves to make a 'trike' to ride down the hills.

We did like this in the attached photo, but with the skate wheels as you mentioned. We steered with our feet or a rope back then.

 

[Mitch//pa]

I kind of faced a similar situation a few years ago.
I could retire at any time now after 34 years, and my future pension benefits are frozen at a level from several years ago, and there is no added pension benefit to stick around any longer.

However, the fact remains that I have a good job that I like, which pays well, and which has good benefits. Why would I want to walk out the door and give that up?

Some people think that they can leave and start drawing a pension, and also find another equivalent replacement job which either pays nearly as well, and/or maybe has a path to a second pension if you could work another 10 years or so.

I think that is a lot of wishful thinking in most cases. I expect to keep working another 10 years where I am at if my health holds out and if I don't get forced out earlier through age discrimination.

Vince your doing a fine job so stick with it.. All the mouldings on the truck are exceptional . If u need any letters of reccomendation I would be obliged

 

[32 chevy vett]

Its like unless you are into something you do not have a clue what is going on around you.I bought my first model T and thought I will have a hard time finding parts. Joined a club and all the T's came out of the woodwork. and Lang's was just a few miles up the road.