Thread: Alec Steele on Youtube

His channel has nothing to do with razor making, but he does some very cool things. For some reason, he has me glued to the screen. I've watched a lot of his videos, he does some cool stuff. The quality of his videos are very good.

I think it's the accent and his hair that has me mesmerised. Anyway, thought I'd post this here for anyone interested in watching some cool forging videos. Check out some of his other videos. He usually forges the blank, and then follows up a few days later with actually making something from the billet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtBus_iU-PQ

The hair reminds me of a brush I own..

Pretty cool vid! I am impressed with the giant, hydraulic drop forge (or whatever it's correctly named).

Power hammer. Seems like he has some very nice toys. Bet if he didn't have that thing he wouldn't be putting out a video per day on Youtube.

I recommend watching the 3 part vids on him making Damascus spurs. They turn out amazing.

He has some really good vids out, and I have to admit I have serious power hammer envy (I believe it's a pneumatic one). He's also incredibly prolific, so if there's something you're curious about smithing, odds are he has touched on it.

He seriously makes me want to smash some hot steel! I love that everyday I have something cool to watch for 6 min.

Seems everything he tries turns out quite well.

Amen, awesome toys he has in his arsenal.
Great vid. Thanks fir posting it.

Yes, interesting stuff.

What I find most interesting, is there is a whole, new generation that has learned or better said, are pioneering a totally new marketing level.

There is a kid Jeremy Schmidt, who makes woodworking videos, about projects and making his own tools and gadgets. He looks like he’s 15, but what is interesting is, he’s a one-man band. He does all his own video camera work, with remote controlled cameras, and jigs he made, and does his own editing and promoting.

I am reading Malcom Gladwell’s book “Outliers”, the story of success. Gladwell, who is a bit of an Outlier himself, he believes that there is a lot more to success and the variables involved, than we think.

It is a study of exceptional people who operate at the fringe of what is “statistically possible”, find a niche and exploit it with smart, hard work. He introduces or re-iterates the 10,000 hour “mastery” work rule.

That it takes 10,000 hours of work, to master a task. He looks at groups of people that were in the right place and exploited the opportunities, The Rockefeller’s, Carnegie, Vanderbilt and Astor of the Industrial Revolution, Einstein, Oppenheimer and Kelly Johnson, the Atomic Age. And Jobs, Gates and Joy, the computer age. These guys applied hard, smart work at a time that exploited a niche in society and the economy.

So, while “traditionally”, websites, blogs and videos, were a means promote a product. Now we have a new generation, who are exploiting a niche and not promoting a product, but the video is the product, and the skill set is the vehicle to promote the new product, the video.

These guys, like the outliers, before them, will probably make a fortune, by recognizing the niche and exploiting it, with hard, smart work. It is an interesting time, in that it did not exist, but a few years ago.

Don't bother to try and play hockey if you were born in December....

I'm now addicted to Alec's videos. I especially like the Mosaic Stars and the Chef Knife that he made from that billet.