"OH, It's supposed to feel joyful!"

​

My student had just made the transition from hammering with effort to hammering with ease and his face was alight with wonder.  

Hammering with ease DOES feel joyful. 

Most folks come into my shop expecting to hammer with all their strength. And they do a great job showing me how strong they are. 

But the reality of it is that you don't need to be particularly strong to blacksmith. It can help, certainly, but it's not required. 

We are conditioned to believe that we must hold the hammer tightly, that we must hit with effort, that we must control the movement tightly. 

But hammering with tension in our body makes each blow less effective and makes us more prone to injury. Additionally, with tension in our body, we're less able to see the effects of each hammer blow and less able to notice the sensory feedback that helps us to make the next hammer blow better. (Don't even get me started talking about reaction time -- that's a post for another day!)

The challenging part is that transitioning to hammering with ease can be challenging for folks who have years of experience: switching technique often means that the hammer control will be a bit funny for a few hours. Many folks find this temporary loss of accuracy frustrating and they may find themselves defaulting to their old method.

​The good news is that the accuracy comes back pretty quickly and the payoff can be joyful.