A guy at the Montana forge meet said my tongs were 'too pretty to use'

Honestly, it was last fall at the big hammer-in near Bozeman. I was showing off a pair of scrolling tongs I'd spent maybe 15 hours on, with a fancy twist and a mirror polish. This older smith, looked like he'd been at it 50 years, picked them up, turned them over, and just said 'Son, these are too pretty to use. Real tools get beat up.' He handed me his own tongs, which were all black and had the reins welded back on twice. It stuck with me. Do you think a tool can be too nice, or is that just part of respecting the craft?

3 comments

3 Comments

noah91728d ago

But what did you do with the tongs after that... did you ever use them, or are they just sitting on a shelf now? That old smith's tools had a story in every weld, which is its own kind of beauty. I guess the real question is whether you make tools to use or to look at.

piper_wells6528d ago

Honestly they're just hanging on the rack with the others. Not everything needs a deep meaning, sometimes a tool is just a tool. They work fine for holding hot steel, which is all I really ask of them.

gavinperez17d ago

Wait, so you're saying a tool can't be both useful and have a story? @piper_wells65 says they're just for holding steel, but what about the history in your hands every time you pick them up? Those old welds and dings are like a map of everything they've built. If we only care about what a thing does right now, we lose the connection to how it got here. Doesn't that make the work feel a little empty?