Hi all,
Just to give you a laugh, I’ve written down some “trade jokes
and superstitions” that were around in the workshops I was
employed in during the last years:
Its regarded as extremely unlucky to forge your own wedding
bands, you have always to pay (some way or other) for them,
material as well as work. Maybe its some relic of the ancient
belief in the gods’ envy - or just a means to protect goldsmiths
from “friends” who want a “favour”.
Regarding saw blades: They used to be much better when “old
Walter” still used to file them by hand. Second version: “Old
Walter” had a kind of “cottage industry” with couple of old men
in railway stations who filed them for him.
Goldsmiths are endlessly reborn - always as goldsmiths.
Refiners here send zinc coffins - for refining dead goldsmiths,
for their heirs, not for the employers! (There has recently
been some discussion on radiated stones - “all stones are
treated” - here in Germany following a badly investigated TV
report which caused a lot of fear and hesitation among customers
- so they now don’t send zinc coffins any more, but Castor
containers.)
Never a 1.0 mm wire goes into a hole drilled with a 1.0 mm drill
(just another derivation from Murphy’s Law).
Of course you know how a “real goldsmith” quenches a wire? Hold
it with tweezers at the upper end and run thumb and forefinger
along it gripping tightly (DON’T DO THAT - it’s only a joke).
Have a good start!
Markus Ellermeier
Am Wachthuegel
Lindenstr. 5
D-56865 Walhausen
Germany