Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1874 — Learn to Forge Your Own Tools. [ARTICLE]

Learn to Forge Your Own Tools.

Many mechanics have an idea that after they have mastered the more legitimate duties of the workshop they have learned all that is necessary, and can undertake anything in their line of business. Machinists particularly are prone to this error—a common one, by the way—and think that a knowledge of fitting and turning, once acquired, makes up for all other deficiencies.. In reality, the self-styled finished mechanic is, paradoxically, the unfinished one; for he who acknowledges his shortcomings, and tries to correct them by obtaining all the information he can, will acquire a more thorough knowledge of his profession. Comparatively few machinists are competent to dress their own tools, or, indeed, handle the blacksmith’s hammer on any work. How many times such knowledge would have been invaluable we leave individuals to decide from their own experience. A simple weld, which they were unable to make, a faculty for dressing chisels without putting "their own eyes in danger by striking the anvil 1 instead of the tool, would assuredly have stood persons, ignorant of such details, in good service in time of need. Apprentices who go to the tool-dresser to’ have the edges of their chisels or other instruments renewed wifi db well to observe the process and inform themselves of it, instead-of throwing coal at the helpers, or otherwise conducting themselves in an unruly manner. Observation and’ experience are twins, and no’ youth, or, indeed, any adult, can hope toattaineminence or proficiency without paying some attention tb the matters herein alluded to. —Newark Manufacturer.