About 4 years ago I was asked to make nails for a boatbuilder. He wanted to meat at my smithy to talk what it was that he was looking to have me make. Turns out he had been studying Japanese traditional fishing boats and had gone there a lot to figure out how they were made, he somehow got cozy with the boatbuilders and gleaned enough info to build them himself. Part of all this learning was a smith that made all the nails needed. Doug went to that smithy and tried to get the old guy to talk about how he was making these nails. He was unable to get much from this smith and left with only a few pictures.
Fast forward to the tsunami that hit Japan a while back. Devastated the boatbuilders and the smithy making the nails.
That is where I come into play. I looked the pictures over and figured out what the old smith was doing and made a batch for Doug. He was and still is teaching a college course at Middlebury College about building these boats. He had the students come to the shop so I could walk them through the process of making and figuring out how to make the nails. I’ve been making these nails for Doug and this class for four years now.
Okay now that you know that I’ve made a boatload of nails…….. , I can get to the best part of all this. I was contacted by a Grad Student (one of the students that came to my smithy!) about the possibility of doing an interview. This interview was part of his for his final project in his Journalism class. Here it is. He edits really well, made my ramblings sound alright.
https://vimeo.com/253850243
