One might wonder why that so often is the first question people ask ? It seems as that fact is more interesting than what I actually do. Does one have more faith in a person that has an education, than somebody who learned the hard way, by trial and error. I prefer to let my works speak for itself.
Either way, it certainly demands a background story, a story about when and why I started Blacksmithing.
As I sit down to write this story, I realize that my fascination for blacksmithing began earlier than I first thought.
It is very likely that the exciting life of the Vikings that I in the age of thirteen discovered, led me to this. When I look back on my life, I see that the way I lived and what I became, always led me to the same
goal.
When I as a kid hammered on eight inch nails, and made small knives out of them, or when I made my first Thorshammer from a massive bar of brass in my fathers workshop, maybe my parents noticed my passion for these things, because when I turned fourteen they gave me the book: The great Viking.
The book contained large colour pictures of Viking life, houses, tallships, swords, and lots of theories of how and why. I say it is theories though it is not the way the book presents it.
I prefer having a more philosophic, free and romantic vision of ancient times, after all no one can confirm it. People today seems to believe that they know everything, but forgets that our history is constantly re-written each time a new discovery is made, and mankind takes another step…..forward ?
I thought every pile of stones in the forest was hiding Viking treasures, and spent therefore several weekends trying to find something. I actually found something, under mysterious circumstances, an object of iron. It was however thrown away in the belief that it was a piece of junk. I still cannot understand the circumstances regarding how I found this object, it is still an enigma , without answer ( that’s another story, I’ll tell you later).
I become sentimental when thinking of my past, and I don’t want to have whatever happened back then, undone, I did find something else in those piles of stones, Me !
When I after a few years of juvenile happenings, mostly playing in a heavy metal band, decided to borrow the key to the ancient farmstead museum in Ludvika, and the unused forge there , I tried blacksmithing just for fun. I was hooked , and in that forge I learned a lot of elementary skills of blacksmithing, as years went by.
When I thought about having my own workshop, I came to remember that there actually was one, where I spent the summers of my childhood, by my parents summer house , at a place called ….Cape Fox…just outside of Ludvika, was a mansion used as a camp for German big-city kids, and a forge belonged to it. The manager of the mansion liked the idea, and gave me permission to use it. At the time I did not remember what a friend told me, that we already have been there several years ago , and tried out blacksmithing. It was like a dream, and a little bit like coming home.
When I the following nine years on evenings and weekends worked in the forge, I learned through hard work and by making mistakes what I know today. When the mansion got a new manager, I had to find me another place, and once again the nice people of the farmstead museum association allowed me to use their forge. The circle was complete, I was back where I once started the path of becoming a blacksmith.
This is where I am today, as a fulltime Blacksmith, with inspiration and faith of what the future holds, blacksmithing is my life, and just like this site, I get by because you appreciate what I do.
Olof Geijer January 2003
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