Blacksmith Convention Panel On 'The Future Of The Craft' Immediately Becomes Argument About The Past

A panel discussion titled "The Future of Blacksmithing: Innovation and Tradition" at the annual National Blacksmiths Conference was derailed within eight minutes when a panelist's mention of CNC technology prompted an audience member to stand and deliver a twelve-minute speech about fifteenth-century Japanese sword-making techniques. The panel, featuring four smiths representing different corners of the modern trade, was intended to discuss emerging technologies, new markets, and the future of the craft. "I said the words 'computer-aided design,'" recalled panelist #2, industrial smith Marcus Wrought. "And a gentleman in the third row stood up and said, 'The Japanese were doing pattern-welded steel 600 years ago without computers,' as if that was a rebuttal." The ensuing discussion abandoned its planned agenda entirely. Topics that were not addressed included 3D-printed tooling, modern metallurgy advances, and social media marketing for smiths. Topics that were extensively addressed included whether medieval European smiths or Japanese swordsmiths produced superior welds (inconclusive), whether coal was better in the fourteenth century (unknowable), and whether modern anvils have "soul" (divided). The moderator, who had prepared twelve discussion questions, managed to ask two. The remaining ten were supplanted by audience contributions that the moderator described as "passionate, informed, and completely off-topic." The panel concluded forty minutes over schedule with no consensus on the future of blacksmithing but strong consensus that the past was excellent.