May 22, 2017
Vince Nakovics is currently living in Shkoder, Albania, he and
his wife moved there in 2012. You will hear what the
blacksmith scene is like there in the interview. Prior to
moving to Albania, he lived in Virginia Beach VA, which is where he
began to blacksmith and eventually became the Tidewater
Blacksmith’s Guild’s newsletter editor for 6 years. With his
renewed interest in writing he ended up publishing 65 monthly
newsletters (during his time as editor), conducted over 100
interviews of blacksmiths and has written and published 5 books
about blacksmiths, 2 of them are suspenseful fiction books.
In the interview you’ll hear that I was awaiting the arrival of one
of his books, the Blacksmith Murders, I have since read the book
and it’s a suspenseful, fast easy read, I recommend reading it,
there’s not a lot of books out there that are about fictional
characters that are blacksmiths! It’s a fun book.
Before I get to the interview I wanted to tell you who the guest
will be for the next Blacksmith’s Pub podcast, that’s Eve
McClanahan, I’m excited to hear this one, I know she studied dance
at New York University and is a blacksmith as well, tune in this
Friday, May 26th for Jesse Savage and Rick Barter’s 9th
episode with Eve.
What We Talked About
- Vince was in the Navy for 24 years before retiring in Virginia
Beach. The retirement didn’t last long, in 1999 he was hired on
with the National Park Service and he stayed there for 15
years.
- The National Park Service hired him to do research and
restoration projects on 1781 canon carriages. This is where he was
introduced to blacksmithing, he was looking for a blacksmith to
make the straight nails that are part of the wheels of the
carriages. The prices Vince was getting from local
blacksmiths for the work turned out to be too high for the
restoration budget, so the Park Service decided it was less
expensive to set Vince up with a blacksmith shop so he could make
them on location.
- He ended up getting a lot of help from Peter Ross who happened
to be the master blacksmith at the historical site Colonial
Williamsburg.
- Vince became very involved with his local blacksmith guild, the
Tidewater Blacksmith’s Guild and eventually became the newsletter
editor.
- Due to the local guild moving its main gathering site farther
away from Vince and a few other blacksmiths, Vince and a friend
decided to start up another blacksmith guild called the Artist
Blacksmiths Guild of Tidewater. Another major reason for doing this
was to teach blacksmiths how to work with other blacksmiths on art
projects.
- Vince and his wife moved to Albania in 2012 and the blacksmith
scene is “dismal at best”. He ended up bringing his propane gas
forge and had to find an anvil there.
- When Vince became the editor for the Tidewater Blacksmith’s
Guild he started to include interviews with blacksmiths around the
world as articles. This led him to publish two books of all the
interviews called “American Blacksmiths” and “Horses Need Not
Apply”.
- His latest book, “Rozafa’s Secrets” is in its final editing
phase. Here is the blurb about the story “American blacksmith John
Reid is invited to be a guest demonstrator and speaker at
the First Annual Rozafa Castle Ancient Skills Fair in Shkoder,
Albania. While in route an Inspector Buchari of Interpol Albania
requests his assistance in combating his country’s international
criminals.
John’s strong sense of justice will not allow him to turn his back.
He agrees and confirms criminal involvement with the event. Unknown
to John, Rozafa Castle has secrets of its own. Secrets capable of
toppling corrupt members of the Albanian Parliament from their
pedestals of power. When he is discovered by his host Victor
Glasser and unable to escape his only hope lies with his Albanian
friend and Victor’s kept woman.”
Guest Links
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