Wow

Maybe

Didnt you guys have an episode about copper where you used a ball mill?

Most of the trouble you had with the rock comes from not fully stabilising it. For reference you can look at the videos of the channel "primitive skills". The guy managed to get to the iron age directly from stone (I know, bamboo is a giant cheat...)

Could we get links to the blacksmiths? I wasn't able to get it from the screen easily. That said, great video, and am loving the series.

Cooperation and trade are the motors of history. The idea that competition and war drive progress is so outdated IMO.

@@feministadentata4041 there isnt just one thing that drives progress, both war and competition and cooperation and trade are just some of them.

@@n.g.s1mple29 Sure, of course, all kinds of factors contribute. Yet for a long time this sentiment of "war/conflict/competition over resources = motivation for human development" dominated the field of history. And only now are we slowly seeing a change in perspective, that maybe that wasn't the case. You also see it here on KZfaq: many of the biggest history KZfaqrs talk almost exclusively about war (Armchair Historian, Timeghost, Oversimplified etc. Not to say they aren't great creators btw, I even have a bit of a crush on Indy Neidel) Which is why I love HTME even more: it's history centered around technology and the improvement of human daily life. That's a different narrative and a really interesting one too. Crash Course's History series also is a good one, with a lot more than just wars.

I’m gonna be that guy relating things to Dr. Stone, but manpower was always a driving force of the series and finding methods to acquire said manpower. That’s why they created things like ramen, cola, and even a money system to help drive that desire and want to get people to contribute.

War is the reason for cooperation so your point just proves the thing you are trying to disprove even further lol

If he were to do this with a bronze anvil which is probably possible he would go through a ton of them to make the iron one.

Which is, in line with the spirit of the project. He's using the premade anvil to speed up the process since he's already cast bronze anvils. The whole process was iterative in history with small-ish improvements leading up to larger ones. With the stake and horn anvil, you can already kind of see how the big anvil came together. You widen out the stake anvil to get a larger surface area to work on bigger pieces, attach the horn which you shape into different angles and boom: you have the big anvil.

The same with so many technologies. Replace "anvil" with "computer" if you want. ;-)

Y e s

Step one: get 3d printer Step two: print 3d printer Step three: repeat

I reckon Donny Dust could

Dobby and Bill are critical members of the team.

basalt or granite would definitely be better, and a boulder in dirt would absorb impacts I'd guess. But I'm guessing the logistics of giant boulders would probably be a bit much for HTME, a simple anvil setup like this is probably a lot more practical though. I thought the same though when I saw them smash those poor stones on those logs.

Came here to say this as soon as I realized it was sandstone. I'd like to see them try using basalt. (Note: eye protection is super important when hitting basalt or other igneous rocks, the chips fly off at high speed which is completely different from how that sandstone behaved).

that makes a lot of sense

They would also take hammers and hit the stones in certain ways so they could flatten them also Basalt and Granite are very hard stones unlike the soft stones they were using normally a smithing hammer for the copper-bronze age was actually a stone of one of those hard materials that they found was somewhat rounded :p

@@AdriannaDaFox98 polished stonsledges and anvils of basalt is still common in many parts of africa, even though they have modern anvils. they use them for drawing and spreading out

sped up it just goes rapid mechanical keyboard noises...

Amogus

Brow you need to grow a mustache.

Finally a man of culture

I love how everyone one has just accepted your everywhere and doesn't question it anymore

What's wrong with igneous?

@@crubs83 it "kind of" depends on how felsic or mafic the eruption was. On the felsic side of the scale, the rock forms with too much gasses and silics trapped inside (very rough and will crumble). As you move towards more mafic, there's less gas pockets however, the silica content is still around 50% (makes it brittle). The best igneous rock would be ultramafic, but that is exceedingly rare and the last eruption that could be categorized as such was 2B years ago when the mantle was far hotter than it is now. I hope that helps. Have a great day. 👍🌋

Igneous is bliss.

that was bugging me as well

Yeah sure, I totally know what that is

Keep at it! You'll get so used to the little burns that you won't even notice them any more

@@nickverbree im happy to say about six months in now, I only notice when those big pieces of scale land on top of a hand or between the finger. Its insane how quickly the body becomes accustomed to the burns

Sounds like you're living a dream, it's always refreshing to see someone pursue a hobby they love rather than stick to the job that's slowly eating them from within :). I'd love to become a writer and publish books one day, and I gotta say, I found this channel due to my research on ancient/medieval technology to incorporate into my story. I want it to be as accurate as possible, and I do believe that understanding where tools, buildings etc. come from allows for a much better immersion, even as a writer, than just "he're the sword, nobody knows where it came from, deal with it". Like I was watching this one and asking myself "ok but where's the anvil?". I'm used to the idea of these big chunks of metal like the one they're working with. But when they said that an anvil was basically something to put under the metal you're working with, something clicked. Inserting a stake anvil and the little hook one into a log takes much less material and working time to create, and both are money. So if it works, it works. That's an important lesson to learn from past ages. A thing I noticed just this weekend, haven't been to a Roman-Celtic museum with an exhibition in crafts like smithing, woodwork, leatherwork, making yarn and fabrics, and much more. The tools on the exhibition don't seem particularly beatiful, and I don't mean like "this thing's old" kinda not beautiful but like "they didn't bother to spend a couple additional hours to make it perfectly even" kinda not beautiful. Also I've been watching several historical sewing channels for probably over 1.5 years now, and if there's one thing I learned, "piecing is period" - you'd run out of fabric, or have to put two fabric pieces together to get one pattern piece all the time, especially since apparently fabrics were historically narrower than today. Another interesting thing that contemporary garment proves is that, even as late as early 20th century higher class garment would often have unfinished edges if they could get away with it because they weren't visible and wouldn't frey. Again, time's money.

@@Kasiarzynka this is the longest reply I have ever received but I am digging all this info on medieval clothing

@@Severalangrybees Lol the same happened to me when I worked at a steel fabrication shop. Sparks just stopped affecting me. I managed to set myself on fire multiple times without noticing as well lol

Exactly my thoughts. I had to stop watching as soon as that anvil started walking around. No excuse for something like that, and certainly not something you put on film for all to see.

I was reading this right when the walking started. I used to work on a sketchy anvil stand but thats just ridiculous. Plus that sucka is easily heavy enough to take a foot should it fall

@@threeriversforge1997 It's not the usual set up for forging in that shop, nor is it my or Joe's personal anvil. Stuff is moved around to accommodate filming, and we don't much have the right to permanently modify a shop that we don't own (said shop being Joe's workplace, not either of our home shops). You have no idea how much both of us would rather it be lagged to the concrete.

@@TheElfsmith Could've been at least mentioned on film though..

@@VincentGroenewold I'm pretty sure we've brought up this wonky anvil before, iirc.

Idk those avils are singing pretty well.

Not to mention anvils are more common than we think. Most common example is the anvil on a stapler(the metal plate used to bend the staple close.)

Well said Ahmed you killed it😆

History channel voice: “Now: ‘The History of the Anvil’ on Modern Marvels!” *music*

The problem is that the first rock was sandstone, and the second rock wasn't much better with its wonky shape balancing on a small log. They could have stabilized it by having it sit directly on the ground with the flattish surface down (or over some tough material so it doesn't scrape the flooring), and used knapping techniques to flatten the work surface as needed (or just use a flatter stone; anvilstones were chosen and kept in use for many generations of work, after all) to improve the effect, but it can in fact be used to make an anvil just fine. Also as was mentioned, iron blooms are basically anvils in the making, just needing to be hammered down to remove the sponginess from the iron, and provide a dense, flattish surface. Larger anvils like the one they used to make the anvil pair definitely take more work, though.

If there's anything I've learned watching Andy since The Reset, it's that so much of the progression of human history is basically using whatever was laying around to build shitty tools to help you make better tools to make better tools to make better tools... and so on. Like, half of this series has basically been "We need to make this, but first we need to make a rudimentary form of it to make the pieces that will make the actual thing."

@@The_Razielim That's close, but also not even close to accurate. Lemme explain: Tools weren't just upgraded wholesale with a tech unlock, sorta like how it's done in Minecraft or other similar crafting games, where you get a material, make a tool, get the next material, smelt it in an easy to make, all-purpose furnace, and repeat until you reach the end of the upgrading-materials tech tree; it's very much incremental change and teaching things from one generation to the next, with small iterative changes over each generation as they take what they inherited and improve upon it slightly. Sometimes there IS a tech breakthrough where something is discovered that fills a gap needed to upgrade current processes, like the discovery of coal coking did in making the much more common and easily available, low-quality bituminous coal, into a fuel that was on par or even better than that of charcoal or anthracite coal, since that also dealt away with needing massive volumes of lumber to convert into charcoal for smelting and forging purposes, which slowed down things in tree-sparse regions tremendously. However, things like this are still very incremental, with small discovery and experimentation towards solving that problem working towards a final result until they eventually succeeded in resolving it. That's what Andy means when he says that everything is built on centuries of innovation in the title sequence, really; unfortunately, he also has the habit of treating it more like Minecraft unlocks rather than incrementally improving his tools and skills, which is why doing things like he has been in the past few videos, about improving his tools and bettering his tool usage, has been so nice.

nah, just use a crafting table

given that after a while a rock would shatter I think there is a limit to the amount of effort it is practical to use in getting a perfect one. (Think about all the work to mason a perfectly flat rock and then have it be chipped by a hammerblow and there is no real way to fix it)

I dont know about other cultures but I read that they have found giant anvil stones in place in Scandinavia. Through archaeology it appears that the smiths that used these just built a shop around the stone.

@@davidbucklen-blacksmith5402 Well you are probably a hell of a lot more qualified than me so I will take your word for it my dude

@@lukesanderson7608 ive seen pictures of them where they are worn with grooves and are chipped off from years of use.

The bigger thing to me was not securing it at all. Like don't perch it on top of a log with no support. I'd think the best solution would be like a leather sandbag to rest it on. Then it won't travel as much, and it'll mean the impact is spread out instead of concentrated against the flat log surface. Simpler solution would probably be to put it on an earth mound or something?

I'm like damn it take forever for them to move the metal around.... guess we have been spoiled with the power hammer.

i feel like a good 50% of modern blacksmiths have some sort of press, power or treadle hammer

@@jacobt5720 It took forever because they hit like beginners and with no coordination. Real master smiths would have forged it way faster even by hand. But overall, they had fun forging this and that's the goal :)

@@opforgeron having their anvil actually anchored to the floor in some fashion would have helped quite a bit as well.

@@tanavast4140 you are absolutely right

Strawberry orange and sour all my fav lol northern lights current grow

He should actually remove the varnish and cut his fingernails, because it looks terrible.

I'm certainly envious! I can't keep mine looking good and I'm a desk jockey.

Is bro Gay?

Yeah just fix it in concrete

I did wonder whether the rock would be any better in a pit of sand or something which could absorb some of the impact without it rolling all over the place, but it's never going to compare to the iron anvils on surface finish (and ability to be hammered without breaking)

@@PKMartin I bet the sand would be good. Like a kinda thick sand to hold it still

Intertaining XD

Well, I did say I'd like to have a nice stake anvil set of my own, so y'know, if you're ever in Minnesota! Really though, I think it ended up alright for one evening's work. The lil guy's really a pleasure to work on, believe it or not.

Andy needs to fly to the Netherlands so you guys can make a proper anvil together! That would be a fun video to see

I have recommended your videos to them before. Such fine craftsmanship!

Yes! You need to colab

Gay elf*

Whois the elf and who is the pirate? Also who is gay? Did you sk adrian if they want to share their orientation before saying that?

@@eliotdaoust3765 nope. don't care either because its just a comment. now quiet down twitter warrior.

@@eliotdaoust3765 You don't need "permission" from anyone else to have, and express, your own opinions about reality. Please don't let anyone else dictate what you can and can't think and say. We don't need any more authoritarianism in the world.

dude i was halving a hard time telling if it was a dude or a girl, like honestly, looks like one who transitioned to the other tbh

I think that if they had turned that second rock anvil on its flat left side they would have had more success. instead of laying it on a round side and beating on another round side

I've always been enamoured with the idea of being a blacksmith, but I'm trans femme and so naturally that's off the table, but seeing Adri... now I have to seriously consider this cause that's goals right there 😅

@@ZedaZ80 Ngl, ive been binging these episodes the last few hours to find more Adri videos because im also trans femme and I felt a click with Adri and wanted to know more about her.

Hence the rocks, half-forged blooms & bronze anvils they mentioned in the video. Cast iron would also fair similar to bronze.

Who said this was the first anvils maybe they did the second anvils lol

After they forge the first anvil they probably used it to make other anvils

i was disappointed in this episode for that reason, the hammers too, like he didn't build those and are those even the tongs he forged???

Sandstone is a delight for rough stone carving, because it's SO easy to break with a hammer... but that's not exactly a perk here.

What came first, the anvil or the anvil?

Hence forth and forever it shall be known as, The Anvilfather, or respectfully, The Mother Anvil

This is actually why even in summer, forges were mostly enclosed spaces; they kept them fairly shaded from the natural light, so they could see the fire and the colour of the metal better. Even outdoor forges benefit from some form of enclosure, even if it's something as simple as an awning or other such roofing as can be arranged, like a corrugated metal roof (which doesn't have the same burn risk an awning would, especially a modern one).

@@KainYusanagi My "forge" is literally a hole in the ground and my lungs are my bellows. Sometimes I'll break out a piece of cardboard for a thicker piece of metal or a leaf blower if it looks like the weather is about to take a turn. I use this pit for campfires, cooking, making charcoal and a bunch of other stuff as well. I wouldn't want a roof over it.

@@dhawthorne1634 Doesn't have to be something hard and permanent, like coring holes and dumping concrete in, and then plowing pipes into it. A simple tarp set up over some poles like a tent to shade the area when forging would help, and it's easy to take down at other times, too.

@@KainYusanagi No can do. My septic lines run right under it and there is a 240V 30A cable buried somewhere through there, no conduit.

@@dhawthorne1634 That's why I said that you DON'T have to do something hard and permanent, lol. A simple tarp set up on some poles would work just fine to make enough shade that you can see the temperature of the metal much more easily.

My 140lber is, in fact, one of my least favorite things to haul around for demos and classes.

@@TheElfsmith hey, at least you don’t have to travel around with a “portable “ riveter , welder kit , and gunsmith tools

Adrian said later that it was a "rake". I don't know how it's a rake

I think it’s to move the hot coals around inside the forge

@@saltysalt397 This is correct. Coal rakes are used to arrange coal in the forge's firepot for proper insulation of your work, and to pull more coal into the pot from the table as time goes on and your coal burns down.

oh right the hook is for hanging it I assume.

I was a little let down by the cop out...

Yeah that would have been fun to watch, but they'd probably still be at it RN.

I'd guess the easiest solution back then would have been either casting a large bronze anvil (as size would help the fact the metal was weaker) or casting a large iron anvil (but maybe casting it would have been more difficult than the worth). A large bloom or wrought cube could work, but you'd need a bunch of people and a very large rock to work with.

@@1forge2rulethemall88 I don't think they weren't able to get temperatures high enough to cast iron at the time.

There is a tradition in Jewish teaching that the very last thing God made on the 6th day before he rested was a pair of tongs for metalworking. What this story illustrates is the fact that a lot of tools have been made for so long in human history at this point that the knowledge of how to make it without having one already has been completely lost to us. If you were to take the whole premise of how to make everything's reset as rebuilding from a destroyed Society. It wouldn't be that hard to use an old engine block or compacted car or some other large and heavy object as your initial Anvil. So it's not really cheating it just depends on how you look at it

They go by they/them pronouns mainly, though I'm not sure what type of terms they'd prefer (being called man or woman, or something more neutral)

@@lunasills8031 From personal experience, I'd say probably just "person" lol.

He was smithing in shorts to show what a real man he is.

@@crubs83 um i took red hot steel shrapnel to the leg from a not known void not fun so yep come talk when that happens to you

i hope

That boy gonna become a menace to society

Is that even legal?

YES PLEASE!