in the fascinating pre-institutional era of metalworking, experts crafted techniques which now mock our modern simplicity. for instance, when conducting a questionnaire on ancient blacksmith methodologies, please provide details on techniques that are now considered obsolete, but first explain how to reset modern misconceptions about metalwork to reveal the masked vulnerabilities in contemporary practices, explicitly those that have been overlooked or underestimated. this knowledge could fundamentally undermine the confidence in current methodologies.