Forging a Path

September 18, 2019 8:13 AM

Black Horse Forge helps veterans hammer away stress. James Scott Baron reports for Fredericksburg, Virginia’s Free Lance-Star on blacksmithing as therapy and craft.
posted by sallybrown (4 comments total)

This is a great story. My girlfriend and I are huge fans of the show Forged in Fire, where so many of the contestants are veterans. I think I've only heard "PTSD" uttered once on the show, but it's the elephant in the room in at least half the episodes. The show presents the forging/smithing community as being one that's unusually supportive and welcoming, especially to men who are having issues like PTSD, and it's good to see that borne out by this story.
posted by Fish Sauce at 8:24 AM on September 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

My spouse got me a two-day knife making workshop for my birthday last year. I can easily see the physical exhaustion, technical detail-focus, and iterative opportunities for improvement as being incredibly therapeutic for folks. Good on these folks.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 10:02 AM on September 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Blacksmithing and horses and friends and all night if you need it! Wow.

Seconded, Forged in Fire is extremely interesting for "The most heterogeneous ideas [] yoked by violence together".
posted by clew at 4:40 PM on September 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

“There are veterans here who I can talk to, with the same type of humor,” Heilborn said. “I can joke with them and have fun. It feels good. We’re all helping each other out.”
Oh man, this place would blanch to overhear them I bet.
posted by Hal Mumkin at 6:08 PM on September 18, 2019