Before we get to the interview I wanted to mention today’s sponsors,

First we have the Adirondack Folk School. It’s a non-profit school located in Lake Luzerne, in upstate New York. The blacksmithing program at the Folk School includes 24 classes with an incredible line of blacksmithing instructors this year. To see the complete list of classes or to register, visit their website: www.adirondackfolkschool.org.

I’d also like to thank the New England Blacksmiths, the ABANA affiliate serving Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island. Who by the way will be driving the ABANA 2020 Conference in Saratoga, NY Check us out at http://www.newenglandblacksmiths.org/ Also They will be offering the Age of Iron weekend event at the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, It’s happening the 1st weekend in August, 3rd and 4th.

Those interested in further details can contact Cindy Dickinson at [email protected] or DM @HayBudden on Twitter or Instagram. If you mention I’m here for the blacksmithing you’ll get an extra $5 off at the door!

Thanks NEB!

OK, let’s dive right into this interview with Pete.

What We Talked About

• Pete first went to a technical college for welding, then he got a job as an apprentice was with an industrial blacksmith at the Ipswitch railyards in Queensland, Australia. There he forged a lot of industrial tools for mines, alloy steel forging.
• Pete decided to go to art school and received his Bachelor of Fine art. He then received a scholarship for his master’s in fine art.
• Pete talks about his apprentice journey through the United States, which included working with Albert Paley, Mountain Forge and included a research residency at the Metal Museum.
• We talk about his design process which he includes 3 basic things: additive process, subtractive process and material displacement.
• When Pete works with clients for commissioned pieces, one of the things he asks for is 3 words from the client that encapsulates what they envision.
• About 80% of the time Pete sandblasts his sculptures first and then adds a chemical called Black Fast. Also follows up with beeswax.
• One of Pete’s goals this year is to convert his gas forge into a veggie oil burning forge.

Guest Links

• Website - https://www.petemattila.com/
• Instagram is @pete_mattila_

I’d also like to thank today’s sponsor, Even Heat, they manufacture the finest heat treat ovens available, Even Heat Kiln was founded in 1948 and has steadily grown to become a major kiln manufacturer. Find your next heat treat oven at evenheat-kiln.com.

Maegan's website - www.ironmaeganmetalworks.com

“Blacksmithing can be a portal to so many fascinating realms, far beyond the iron itself.” And that is the essence of how our interview went, I’m grateful to have Jeffery on the show to share his wisdom in so many realms and the same gratitude goes, of course, to those of you who continue to listen, thank you.

I’d also like to thank today’s sponsor, Even Heat, they manufacture the finest heat treat ovens available, Even Heat Kiln was founded in 1948 and has steadily grown to become a major kiln manufacturer. Find your next heat treat oven at evenheat-kiln.com.

Jeffery Funk's Website - http://jeffreyfunkmetalworker.com/

The New Agrarian School - http://www.newagrarianschool.org/

I've decided on a different format for this year's podcast. I sat down recently and came up with 3 main topics and questions within each topic. I will ask the next 10 or so guests the same questions and hopefully dive deep into their Design Process, Forging Process and Tool Making. Those are the 3 topics I’ll be asking my guests for the bulk of this year’s podcasts.

This podcast is sponsored by Evenheat, they manufacture the finest heat treat ovens available, Even Heat Kiln was founded in 1948 and has steadily grown to become a major kiln manufacturer. Find your next heat treat oven at evenheat-kiln.com.

The exhibition submissions need to be sent to Hereford for 1st March:

Measured Making Exhibition

c/o Delyth Done

Hereford College of Arts

College Road

Hereford

HR1 1EB, United Kingdom

Please include your full address.

Hereford College of the Arts will be posting more details on their Instagram page @herefordanvils.

I wanted to let you know this podcast is sponsored by Evenheat, they manufacture the finest heat treat ovens available, Even Heat Kiln was founded in 1948 and has steadily grown to become a major kiln manufacturer. I know Patrick Quinn at the Center for Metal arts has one and is happy with it, so find your next heat treat oven at evenheat-kiln.com.

Guest Links

• Website - http://www.ambroseburne.co.uk/
• Hereford College of the Arts website
• Instagram for Hereford: @herefordanvils, @herefordarts
• Instagram is @ambroseburne

Before we get to the interview I wanted to mention today’s sponsor is again provided on behalf of the New England Blacksmiths, an ABANA affiliate serving Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island. And also will be driving the ABANA 2020 Conference in Saratoga, NY They’ve got a great website, check it out at http://www.newenglandblacksmiths.org/

What We Talked About

• Anna is currently finishing an artist residency at the Touchstone center for crafts, during this 4-week residency she has been working on making tools for herself.
• In exchange for Anna being able to use the school’s resources to make her tools during her residency, she helps out around the school, cleaning and assisting in other classes.
• The school’s blacksmith shop has 12 student coal forging stations, an instructor coal forge, each with an anvil and post vise, a room full of tongs and hammers, 2 power hammers and gas forges.
• In years past Anna has worked at the school as a studio technician and was able to assist some top-rated instructors that have taught there such as Tom Latane and Mark Aspery.
• She has a BFA from Pratt Institute, she focused on jewelry and also became interested in weaponry. This interest led her to take a bladesmithing class at the Peter’s Valley School of Craft, this opened up the world of blacksmithing to her.
• Anna ended up taking an assistant position in the blacksmith shop at Peters Valley for a summer and this helped her grow her skills at the forge.
• Another stepping stone for Anna was her winter apprenticeship with Atlas Forge where they focused on production blacksmithing.

Guest Links

• Website - https://www.annarkoplik.com/
• Instagram is @arkoplik

What We Talked About

• Bob started working in an advertising agency after college and immediately knew that business suit and desk were not for him!
• He then accepted a production assistant job for a feature film, it was 1968, the spring Martin Luther King was murdered. NYC was becoming electrified, amped up, so Bob decided to move out of state and look for land in Wisconsin.
• After purchasing 4 acres and a house, his realtor took him by an old but still operating blacksmith shop that was for sale. He met the 80-year-old blacksmith, who was the second owner of the business, and decided to purchase the business from him for $500 (the building, the tools, the land)! The first owner opened the shop in 1856.
• Bob learned his basic blacksmith skills from a local country blacksmith, Thomas Kammerude, who lived up the road from Bob’s newly purchased shop.
• In 1976, Bob attended one of the first ABANA blacksmith conferences in Carbondale, Illinois. He met Francis Whitaker at this conference and he wanted to learn more from him, so Francis told him he had to take a class first at the John C Campbell folk school. Bob signed up long with Clay Spencer, Ray Nager, Glenn Gilmore, Jim Batson and more. They would all continue to take master classes from Francis for the next few years.
• Bob continued to travel through the US and apprentice with working blacksmiths during his slow winters. In 1985 he also traveled through Europe, doing a journeyman type program over 2 months, working in 12 to 15 different shops in different countries.
• In the late 1990’s he expanded the shop by adding 4000 sq ft building and a 3000 sq ft machine shop to complete bigger jobs.
• After 50 years in business, Bob is ready for retirement and looking for a buyer for the business, shop, tools and land. If you are interested in more details, you can contact Bob here, (608) 527-2494 or email [email protected].
• One “Golden Client” hired Bob to do a large amount of architectural work at his private home in Ridgeway CO, most of that work has been documented in the book called “Heritage in Iron”.

Guest Links

• Postville Blacksmith Shop: https://www.postvilleblacksmith.com/
• Old World Anvils: oldworldanvils.com
• The KA75 Striking Hammer: ka75.com
• Heritage in Iron book: https://bluemoonpress.org/index.php/heritage-in-iron.html

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
• subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
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Thanks so much for your support!

If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to [email protected] and I will send you the details I need for the press release.

First I talk with Payne Anne Chassen and Sylvia Andrassy, they are in Pampano Beach, Florida for the FABA SE Regional meet. The meet was held at the Guild, a non-profit folk art school started by Shaun Williams and Sylvia Andrassy. Payne was demonstrating a corner shelf with antique glass bulbs incorporated into the design.

Then I talk to Dennis Dusek who was demonstrating garden tools at the Weaverville Hammer-in, this is held at the Jake Jackson Museum Weaverville, California. He walked around and spoke with the other demonstrators that were there, Monica Coyne, Brett Moten, Dan Perkins, Victoria Ritter and Mark Aspery.

Links:

Facebook page for FABA SE

Jake Jackson Website

And they happen to be the sponsor for today’s episode. There is still time to get the early bird discount of $165 for all 3 days if you register before March 22nd. The demonstrator line-up is:

Zeevik Gottlieb, Lynda Metcalfe, Ellen Durkan, Haley Woodword, Colby Brinkman, David Lisch, Mark Aspery, Darryl Nelson and Paul Boulay.

To register, head over to www.calsmith.org and click on the events tab for the online registration button.

What We Talked About

• Dennis tells us about his past conferences that he has organized, the last one was in 2013 with an attendance of around 400 people.
• The core group of 4, Dennis, Paul, Dan and Victoria, meet weekly to go through a list of things that need attention. This happens for eight months ahead of the conference.
• Each person has a role; Paul Boulay works with the budget and the big picture ideas with Dennis, Victoria Ritter works with organizing the groups of vendors, volunteers and registration people, and Dan Perkins is the education site manager, helping with the layout of the venue and gathering/installing all of the equipment for the demonstrators and teaching tents.
• CBA will be purchasing 10 anvils, so they can have 10 forging stations at the conference for the attendees to use.
• We talk about the forging contests that will be held each night of the conference; forging a cube, forge anything from a railroad spike and a wearable art forged piece.

Guest Links

• Register for the conference - calsmith.org

What We Talked About

• Hammer’s Blow, Volume 26 #1 article written by Dan Nauman titled “Picture That”. This addresses the importance of having good portfolio pictures early on in your career, even if you are a hobbyist.
• Riveting tips from Dorothy Steigler
• Penetrating Oils test from the Appalachian Blacksmiths Association newsletter of December 2012

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor - Eureka Springs School of the Arts, http://essa-art.org/ or give them a call (479) 253-5384.

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
• subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
• subscribing to the show in Stitcher, http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=54499&refid=stpr

Thanks so much for your support!

This week I’ve got Michael Whipps from Melbourne Australia, btw he goes by Whipps. He’s a metal worker who makes custom spherical firepits with his wife in Australia and he started blacksmithing about 6 months ago. The reason I have him on today is to talk about his new podcast “Metal Sculpture Show”. I think I’ve mentioned this before to you guys, I started a podcast network called The Burn Network, basically, it’s a collection of metalworking podcasts. The reason I started it was to encourage other blacksmith’s or metal workers to start their own podcasts and I would help them get started, show them the ropes of the podcast tech world, provide the hosting and continued support. To have a searchable network that offers relevant and different podcasts to our community of metal workers. So, Whipps contacted me 7 months ago about wanting to start a podcast on the network and have it be about metal art sculpture. We worked through the details of how this is a huge time consumer while being a labor of love for fellow artists, the equipment to work with, recording software, techniques of being a host of a show, etc and now, here we are talking about his podcast and his first 4 episodes that were just released a few days ago!

If anyone is interested in listening to the “master feed” of the Burn Network, just search for The Burn Network in your podcast apps, iTunes, Spotify and online at www.theburnnetwork.com. If anyone is interested in starting a podcast and wants to know more info on what it takes, drop me a line at [email protected].

What We Talked About

• Whips tells us why he wanted to start the podcast.
• The topic of making a living as an artist comes up and life/work balance vs money making
• Whipps describes his background that lead him to his metal working business called Whipps Designs, it involves mountain biking!
• He tells the story of buying his first anvil from a farmer who didn’t want to sell it.

Guest Links

• Whipps Designs website - whippsdesigns.com.au
• Podcast website – metalsculptureshow.com
• Instagram - @metalsculptureshow
• And on Facebook

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
• subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
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Thanks so much for your support!

And that brings us to our sponsor for today’s episode and that’s the 2018 CBA Spring Conference organizers.

To register, head over to www.calsmith.org and click on the events tab for the online registration button.

What We Talked About

• While Haley was in college when he took a sculpture class with a metal working component, after making several welded sculptures he searched for a blacksmithing college program to further his metal working skills. He found that Austin Community College offered a few blacksmith classes and moved to Austin for enrollment.
• Haley and Colby met on a college field trip to Mexico, actually a 37-hour bus ride to Santa Clara Del Cobre, Mexico for a 3-week copper smithing course.
• Colby’s background also started with taking classes at the Austin Community College in 1995.
• Colby spent 2 years in Europe as a blacksmith apprentice, specifically with Joseph Muck in the Czech Republic, Sebastian Fisher in Spain and Claudio Bottero in Italy.
• Haley and Colby talk about how the Austin Metal Authority started, basically because they needed a name for a studio tour they participated in.
• The Austin Forging Competition is an annual event that Haley and Colby started in their Austin Metal Authority shop, they talk about how it has now moved to the Mobile Loaves Community site and has about 1000 attendees.

Guest Links

• Ernst Heinrich Haeckel “Art Forms in Nature” book on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Forms-Nature-Dover-Pictorial-Archive/dp/0486229874/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0486229874&pd_rd_r=01ZJJZGQ0DTFXCPY9ADB&pd_rd_w=IOZy7&pd_rd_wg=TCpO3&psc=1&refRID=01ZJJZGQ0DTFXCPY9ADB
• Colby Brinkman Website – metalmantis.com
• Haley Woodward Website – haleywoodward.com
• The Devil’s Blacksmith Documentary -- https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-devil-s-blacksmith-documentary-arts--2#/

To register, head over to www.calsmith.org and click on the events tab for the online conference registration button.

What We Talked About

• Ellen is teaching drawing, 3D design and sculpture as an adjunct professor at the Delaware College of Art and Design.
• Besides teaching at the college, she is preparing for a performance style runway show of her iron fashion dresses in November. She is planning on having 15 to 20 models as well as a few aerial performers.
• Ellen tells us about her photo shoots with a professional photographer who is her friend, Joe, and how they come up with ideas for photographing Ellen’s iron fashion pieces.
• Ellen is teaching and demonstrating more for 2018, she’ll be in California, New Jersey, Virginia, New York and Buenos Aires Argentina.
• Ellen has an exhibition of her large-scale drawings that will be held at the Delaware Art Museum
• Also, she was recently awarded a $6000 art grant to help her put on her forged fashion runway show in November. The grant came from the Delaware Division of the Arts.

Guest Links

• Ellen’s website - http://www.ellendurkan.com/
• Peter’s Valley workshop - http://www.petersvalleyworkshops.bigcartel.com/product/fitting-forming-wearable-bustiers-and-chest-pieces
• Banton-Smith Center for Blacksmith and Metal Arts facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/BantonSmithCenter/
• Rochester Arc and Flame Center - https://www.rocafc.com/collections/blacksmithing-technique-blacksmithing/products/blacksmithing-workshop-5-days-with-ellen-durkan

Now I’d like to take the time to thank our sponsors for today’s episode and that’s the Eureka Springs School of the Arts, aka ESSA. It’s a non-profit school located in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. This year, they are celebrating 20 years of teaching the arts! To see the complete list of classes for 2018, visit the website, http://essa-art.org/ or give them a call (479) 253-5384.

OK, here is the article titled “An American Blacksmith in Cuba” by Serene Silva.

What We Talked About

• David now fills most of his time making high-end award-winning knives and teaching classes which fill up in 1 to 2 days after posting.
• He used to have a shop and school in Seattle for 15 years where he textured metal for Nordstrom’s and other companies.
• When marijuana became legal in Washington state, the warehouse spaces quickly became grow houses and in turn, the rents were raised and warehouses for rent were hard to find.
• The increase in David’s rent from $2500 to $3200 eventually made him move out and buy a property that had both a house and shop space.
• These days David is incorporating his sculptural side of blacksmithing to his blades. He recently sold a frog (for $10k) with a dagger coming out of his throat and a Damascus dragonfly on his tongue.
• David was introduced to Damascus at one of his friend’s shops, where a few blacksmiths got together and made some damascus. Then at one of the NWBA (North West Blacksmith Association) annual conferences, he traded a hammer he made for some Damascus making stock. He started making Damascus before he ever made a blade!
• His first knife making class was from Bob Kramer in 2006.
• After joining the American Bladesmith Society he became an apprentice bladesmith, then passed his journeyman smith certification, then 5 years later passed his master smith certification.
• In his shop, he has 330lb Wolf Air hammer, 165 lb Wolf air hammer, 3 hydraulic presses, 10 grinders and 10 anvils.
• He has been a member of the NWBA for over 20 years and he and his wife have served on the board for 4 years.
• David will be demonstrating at the upcoming CBA Spring Conference and he will demo knife making for beginners (staghorn small knife with a 4 in blade) and have separate demonstrations for intermediate and expert knife makers. Including pinning on a wood handle for a kitchen knife, shaping guards and finishing techniques.
• He makes all of his own gas forges, they are 1 burner venture forges made from cut up oxygen tanks, 11 inches long. He says it’s very important to coat the Kaowool inside your forge with a refractory castable cement. He uses Mizzou castable in his forges, you can find it online.

Guest Links

• Website - http://www.davidlisch.com/index.html
• Instagram - @davidlisch
• American Bladesmith Society Website - http://www.americanbladesmith.com/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – CBA Spring Conference, www.calsmith.org

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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This week I’ve got Evan Wilson from Austin, Texas who is the program director for the blacksmith shop at this nonprofit community organization called Mobile Loaves and Fishes. The Community Forge & Woodshop empowers their community of homeless members to engage in the creation of timeless crafts while also earning a dignified income. Through blacksmithing, woodworking and a range of other projects, the men and women in this Community Works program become part of a restorative journey toward social contribution, financial stability and a mastery of handcrafting skills.

Their craftsmen and artists receive 100% of the profit from the sale of their products, enabling them to become more settled and experience greater stability in Community First! Village. They also encounter a greater sense of purpose, healing, and friendships — foundational components of life that every person needs and deserves.

What We Talked About

• Evan talks about his experience being a striker for Claudio Bottero at the Florida Artist Blacksmith Association in October 2017, “like drinking from a fire hose”.
• Mobile Loaves and Fishes is a nonprofit organization in Austin that started 19 years ago, they help feed and cloth the homeless population.
• The organization decided to build their own RV park to house the homeless and start a community centered program on 27 acres with 250 housing units.
• Within the community they have programs for the members to attend and learn form such as: animal husbandry, ceramics, glass blowing, leatherwork, painting, woodworking and blacksmithing.
• These programs provide a way to learn how to earn a dignified income, alternative economy. The community has a market and gift shop where they sell the wares of the members.
• Evan talks about his nonprofit background and how he worked for one in Afghanistan teaching English and helping with a Maternal and Infant Mortality program.
• He mentions his “Metal Mother” Dawn Raines (the Welding and Blacksmith director at Austin Community College) who taught him a lot in the beginning of his blacksmithing venture. Haley Woodward is another mentor he mentions who took him under his wing and helped a tremendous amount in building the community blacksmith program at Mobile Loaves and Fishes.
• Evan has now taken the reins of organizing the Austin Forging Competition that started in 2010. It used to be held at the Austin Forging Authority (Haley Woodward and Colby Brinkman’s Shop) and in 2015 Evan mentioned they should hold it at the community Works workshop.

Guest Links

• Mobile Loaves and Fishes community Works Program link - - https://mlf.org/community-works/
• Instagram: @mobileloaves_communityforge

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• This FABA Conference that was held in the last weekend in October of 2017, had the highest attendance ever in FABA’s entire history with 450 attendees.
• The conference had 6 specialty workshops and two demonstrator workshops by Lisa Johnson and Claudio Bottero.
• Shaun talks about his visit to Claudio’s blacksmith shop in Italy.
• Sylvia tells us about her beginnings in blacksmithing 3 years ago and when Shaun asked her to go to a blacksmith conference as a date!
• Dark Angel Armory and Forge is Shaun’s forging business, he also started teaching beginner blacksmithing and knife making classes from this location. The classes grew so fast that Shaun and Sylvia decided to start a Guild Folk Art School offering different types of “medieval” art classes; leatherworking, ceramics, jewelry making. The classes are booked 3 to 4 months in advance.
• The Guild also offers a monthly “membership” to the students who have taken previous classes.
• They recommend an inspiring artistic Italian blacksmith book, “La Magia de Febrero del Tutto Italiano Centro Fabra Milidia” or “The Magic of Italian Forged Artist, 100 Artist 1000 Ideas”

Links

• Florida Artist Blacksmith Association – blacksmithing.org
• The Guild Urban Craft and Folk-art school - https://www.guildfl.com/
• Dark Angel Armory and Forge – https://www.darkangelarmory.com/

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
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I’ve never thought about it and Mike Mumford says he’s never thought about it either, so he went out to his shop and found that most of his tongs are right-handed, but found two bolt tongs that are left-handed. So, I too, went to my shop to see what I owned. I have 6 pairs of right-handed tongs made by Dennis Dusek, a few random tailgate pairs that are right handed and only two that are left-handed. Those two were made and given to me by Uri Hofi and Zeevik Gottlieb.

Here is what the article by Mike said:

• First, some really confusing terminology: The handedness of the tongs refers to the comfortable fit when held in your non-dominant hand.
• A right-handed person would hold right-handed tongs in their left, non-dominant hand.
• Right-handed tongs are designed to work best for a right-handed person.
• Start with the idea that the upper rein is held against the thumb and palm, while the fingers hold the lower rein.
• The more comfortable way to hold and release is that the lower rein is closer to the body, away from the palm. The lower rein naturally drops away as the fingers are released.
• The picture below shows right-handed tongs to be held in the left hand on top. Below them are left-handed tongs to be held in the right hand.

What We Talked About

• Larry talks about the days when he worked at PECO and would go down to the blacksmith shop on the property with Emmert while they both practiced blacksmithing.
• Larry was very good friends with Emmert and he was asked to write and read a eulogy at Emmert’s funeral. Larry reads it for us.
• How the name Quad State Round-up came to be.
• SOFA’s workshops have been very productive, they’ve made several projects for the City of Troy such a bell hanger for the cast iron City bell tower and a floodgate.
• I asked Larry what were some of the challenges they had starting a club and conferences back then in the late 70’s.
• In 1981, when SOFA was started, the membership dues were $6 per year!
• The first formal Quad State Round was in 1977 with Francis Whitaker, Dimitri Gerakaris, Eric Mobeous. There were 100 attendees with a $10 ticket.
• Emmert and Larry would decide who the demonstrators would be for the first few years and they also made all the food for the attendees. The first year they made 80 gallons of stew.
• Steve Roth has been another instrumental member that has put a lot of effort and time into organizing the Round-ups for the past 15 years.
• We talk about the best things that keep members coming back for more within the SOFA club and the conferences.

Guest Links

• SOFA website - https://sofablacksmiths.org/
• Victoria Patti’s YouTube channel for Blacksmither Radio - https://www.youtube.com/user/MissSweetVP/feed

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
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That leads me to today’s sponsor, a big thank you goes out to SOFA and the Quad State Round Up Conference which started in 1977, 40 years ago. The dates of the conference are September 22 to the 24th at the Miami County Fairgrounds in Troy, Ohio.

The demonstrators are Peter Braspenninx, Michael Bendele, Joe Bonifas (those two cats attended the very first Quadstate in 1977 and have only missed one to this day), Kevin Cashen, Nathan Allen, Richard Sullivan and Benjamin Lockhart with Danielle Russel. I’ve been asked to create a short film about the Quad State history for the Opening Ceremony this year. Don’t miss this year’s event, it’s a very special one with its 40th anniversary and I have a feeling the tailgate sales are going to be unbelievable this year. Please visit the website, www.sofablacksmiths.org to access the online registration form and other details.

What We Talked About

• Pete has been attending the SOFA Quad Round ups for the last 12 years and this year he will be a demonstrator on Friday night. He will forge one of his calculating infinity pieces.
• His body of work called “Calculating Infinity” is a technical assignment for himself. To be able to take one piece of stock and to create it into form.
• Through completing 25 pieces in the series, Pete says he has gained layout and precise measurement skills.
• While Pete was finishing his art degree at the University of Michigan he visited a local blacksmith’s shop, Scott Lankton, and watched him demonstrate forging on a big Nazel power hammer. Pete was excited to learn more about the craft, so he got a job with another local smith working in the paint booth, and watching the forging that happened in the shop.
• Pete recalls his first Quad State Conference when Peter Ross gave a lock lecture and when he met Tom Clark.
• After college Pete worked in an ornamental fab shop for 12 years. They made railings and other architectural work.
• His 30’ x 40’ pole barn shop consists around a coal forge, anvil and one Little Giant 50 lb power hammer.
• Pete will be teaching a couple of classes this year, a hammer rack class at Wasatch Forge in Salt Lake City, Utah and possibly a class at the Center for Metal Arts in NY.

Guest Links

• Pete’s Website - http://www.phyreforge.com/
• Instagram - @phyreforge

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – SOFA Quad State Round Up, www.sofablacksmiths.org

What We Talked About

• Allen explains his business, Iron Den and how it is part of a nonprofit organization and physical shop called Les Forges de Montreal. This organization started 16 years ago offering finically accessible blacksmithing classes. Students can eventually become members of the organization and then have access to the forge at any time.
• Allen had artistic pursuits prior to blacksmithing, such as sculpting and painting. Then he learned about blacksmithing and took a two-week class with Uri Hofi and ended up staying and learning with him for a month.
• He saw a demonstration of a swordsmith from Japan, Taro Asana, in Canada and they quickly became friends. This led Allen to visit Japan many times, visiting Taro and learning about the Japanese apprenticeships for swordsmiths. Taro comes from the Kenifusa swordsmithing family (24 generations of swordsmiths) and his swordsmith name is “Fusataro”.
• Allen and Fusataro started to talk about teaching swordsmithing classes in Canada, these talks continued for 2 to 3 years before Fusataro agreed to try the concept. The reason Fusataro was reluctant had to do with the Japanese tradition of apprenticeships for swordsmithing, teaching the craft outside of Japan and the apprenticeship structure is not really “allowed” or tolerated.
• Allen and Fusataro just recently offered a 10-day intensive Tamahagane Tanto class. Students could pick what kind of sword they wanted to make, choosing from 2 kilograms to 8 kilograms of tamahagane steel.
• We talk about the features of Tamahagane steel and how it is made in Japan.

Guest Links

• Iron Den website - https://ironden.ca/
• Iron Den’s Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/IronDenForge/?hc_ref=ARRnymP7N7Zh9zgp7cTEMGHfzFsQxVdyLaep0CUm9pQx-kC0O8mwXtxIQSz4mdO-PTI&fref=nf
• Les Forges de Montreal website - https://www.lesforgesdemontreal.org/
• Facebook page for Les Forges de Montreal - https://www.facebook.com/lesforgesdemontreal/

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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Thanks so much for your support!

Today’s episode sponsorship provided on behalf of New England Blacksmiths, the ABANA affiliate serving Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island. Check us out at http://www.newenglandblacksmiths.org/ In fact they have an event comping up called the Age of Iron at Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, MA it’s happening the 1st weekend in August, 5th and 6th for the whole weekend. And here’s an insider’s tip for my listeners, any visitor that says they are there for the "Blacksmithing demonstrations", or for the "Age of Iron" will get the discounted group rate for admission to the village, this includes all exhibits, not just the Blacksmithing demo. For more details of this event go to their website www.hancockshakervillage.org For further details contact Cindy Dickinson at the village, she’s the education director [email protected] or DM @HayBudden on Twitter or Instagram, Stephen Conner.

What We Talked About

• Bob grew up with horses as a child and was always fascinated with the farrier that came over to shoe the horses, mainly the fact that he could produce a fire on the back of his truck. Then in high school, as a sophomore, there was an Early American History class where Bob and 30 other students built a log cabin settlement on the school grounds. During the construction of this cabin, Bob volunteered to learn how to make some of the hardware needed by using the industrial arts department’s anvil, a gas fired blast furnace and 2 books by Alex Bealer and Alex Weygers, The Complete Blacksmith.
• Bob started to sell his forged wares very soon after learning the trade, in fact, he sold the second piece he ever made to his high school’s cafeteria manager. Bob continued to grow his business for 15 years and then discovered the New England Blacksmith’s group and ABANA.
• Bob started selling trinkets at a local shop called “The Candle and Mug”, he developed a line of pieces that were candle centric. Bob still has his notes from these early designs.
• In Bob’s shop today, they are making custom architectural ironwork, such as gates, fencing, railings etc.
• Art fabrication is another lucrative income for his shop, this is when an artist comes to him with their sculpture design and hires them to fabricate it.
• Bob talks about business insurance for blacksmiths due to two recent blacksmith shop fires. He advises having your equipment properly insured for the value of it in today’s dollars.
• Bob teaches a few classes through the NEB teaching facility and at other well-known craft schools, such as the Adirondack Folk School.
• Mokume Gane is another focused technique that Bob has been studying and is now teaching students.

Guest Links

• Bob Menard’s business website - http://www.ballandchainforge.com
• Bob’s YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/MySmithx
• New England Blacksmiths website - newenglandblacksmiths.com

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – New England Blacksmiths

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
• subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
• subscribing to the show in Stitcher, http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=54499&refid=stpr

Thanks so much for your support!

But first I want to thank our sponsor today and that’s Bob Menard of the Ball and Chain Forge in Portland, Maine. He’s been making a tool that allows a blacksmith to increase the weight of their anvil by 30lbs and to make tools without the need for a large swage block with pass through holes, it’s the BCF Anvil Block and he’s been making them for 5 years in his forge in Maine.

It is a 30lb block of cast iron that has 2 square holes passing through, 1" and 1 3/8". The size is 3 1/2" wide x 6 1/2" long x 4" high, so it fits on top of the anvil face and firmly secures to any anvil size with a top bracket and chains.

The current price is $200 including shipping in the continental US. For more information contact Bob through email, [email protected].

Thanks Bob Menard and Ball and Chain Forge!

What We Talked About

• Joe talks about how his architectural metal business helps pays the bills for the Metal Collaborative studio membership. Also, how the collaborative nature of the studio lends its creativity to the architectural side of the business too.
• Joe, Ann Klicka, Nick Eyre’s started a collaborative blacksmith community from a local prolific Artist blacksmith, Bob Phillips, after Phillip’s passing away about 4 years ago. Most of the group disbanded and Joe wanted to continue his metal working business and the collaborative metal studio concept.
• Currently, there are about 6 members of the Collaborative studio. As of this recording, their rates for membership are varied: $400/month for full-time access and storage, part-time access and smaller storage space is $200/mo, and a day rate of $75.
• Residing in Philadelphia has its perks as a metal worker, such as seeing original works forged by Samuel Yellin.
• Joe has been inspired by some of Yellin’s work and techniques, he submitted a design for a public city bike rack and incorporated one of Yellin’s “lattice” slit and drift design aspects. The bike rack design was accepted by the City and he has yet to make it.
• Joe talks about insurance coverages and suggests that artists look through ABANA and NOMMA

Guest Links

Metal Inc website - http://www.metalincorporated.com/about-the-metal-collaborative/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Bob Menard of the Ball and Chain Forge, http://www.ballandchainforge.com/tooling_1?_rdr

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

• Vince Nakovic’s Website for his books - https://vincenakovics.com/
• Vince’s blog - https://happyhavenforge.wordpress.com/
• Amazon link to all of his books - https://www.amazon.com/Vince-Nakovics/e/B00J94J220
• Rozafa’s Secrets book - coming soon, still in the final editing process

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
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Thanks so much for your support!

What We Talked About

• Stuart’s interest in blacksmithing started in high school. His welding instructor offered to help Stuart build a forge of his own if Stuart agreed to build two forges, one for the school and one for him to keep.
• Stuart’s forge is called Great Owl Forge and he has both coal and gas forges there. He also has a treadle hammer (he built in high school), an anvil, horizontal bandsaw, oxy/acetylene set up and a utility pneumatic power hammer.
• While he has been working at the Center for Metal Arts as an intern, Stuart has become familiar with the 4 power hammers CMA has in the shop. They have a Ritter, Falcon, Anyang and a Nazel.
• Steel production and failure analysis is what interests Stuart the most and will continue to study that in his next internship with New Corp in their hot mill.
• As an intern at CMA, Stuart started off cleaning and organizing the shop by building racks. Patrick Quinn (program developer and instructor at CMA) and Kyle Martin are teaching him how to use a mill, a lathe for machining and how to build jigs for production work.
• In his second and third months, Stuart has made a total of 58 sets of tongs for the classes CMA holds every weekend. When Stuart makes 10 sets of tongs, Patrick had made a deal that Stuart keeps one pair, Patrick keeps a pair and 8 sets stay in the shop for class use.
• Patrick and Stuart set aside Monday and Tuesday nights to have weekly meetings and focused forging sessions. Other than that, Stuart works from 9 am to 5 pm every day in the shop.
• Stuart has been able to attend the weekend classes that CMA offers on the weekends. One of them being the Seth Gould Forge a Hacksaw class.
• Stuart will be attending his next internship right after his CMA internship, it is with New Corp and he will be working in the hot mill steel production department.

Guest Links:

Center for Metal Arts website – www.centerformetalarts.com

Patrick’s email for internship questions - [email protected]

Seth Gould Instagram - @sethgould

Thanks so much for your support!

But first I’d like to thank our sponsor today and that’s the Southern Blacksmith Association, they are hosting their 18th bi-annual Conference. The Philip Simmons Artist Blacksmith Guild is hosting this four-day conference at the Lion’s Club Fair Grounds in Madison, Georgia, it’s right around the corner on your calendars….Thursday through Sunday, May 18 - 21st, 2017.

Their demonstrator lineup is outstanding! You can see Zeevik Gottlieb, Shelton Browder, Gordon Williams, and Michael Saari!

Other conference events include Green Coal and Cold Coal classes, family programs, the Local Talent Forge, Iron in the Hat, forge and tool box raffles, a variety of vendors, a Friday night Banquet, Auction, and Forging Competition.

Head on over to their conference website, www.sbaconference.com for more details and the registration form, it’s $55 in advance, $65 at the gate.

Thanks, SBA!

I also wanted to tell you about a new blacksmith podcast called The Blacksmith’s Pub, I know I’ve mentioned this to you guys already, but their latest episode released last week is all about Damascus with Dave Kurdyla. You can listen to the episode in iTunes, and Stitcher or from their website, www.theblacksmithspub.com.

What We Talked About

• He opened his blacksmith business in 1987, so this year, 2017, will be its 30th He went full time with the business in 1993.
• While David was going to university in Canada for geological engineering he had a part-time job at a blacksmith shop. When David graduated, there were not any jobs in geological engineering so he decided to open his blacksmith business full time.
• When he started his full-time business, he chose to make a line of wholesale products; hooks, candle holders, fireplace sets, etc. and sell them at wholesale shows to retailers. He said that was nice because the retailers are more educated about handmade items and they paid on time.
• David explains how he comes up with his wholesale pricing.
• He also says that making products for wholesaling makes you very efficient with your time and your forge work.
• David eventually moved from wholesaling his product line to 2D and 3D sculptures. Mostly organic themes.
• There is a free membership offered on David’s website that has numerous blog articles about blacksmith techniques. He has just over 5000 members in his online community.
• David was recently an instructor at the Haliburton School of Art and Design in Canada, he taught an art history class on ironwork from 3500 BC to current day.
• While researching the different art periods in metal, David learned a lot. He started with the Celtic period, then Viking, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, then jumped into Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
• David teaches 3-day weekend classes out of his shop every other weekend and the classes are booked for the next 7 months. To see his class schedule, go to his website.

Guest Links

• David Robertson’s Website – http://www.artistblacksmith.com/
• Blue Moon Press for books on metalworking - http://bluemoonpress.org

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – SBA Conference

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
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Thanks so much for your support!

The reason I started this podcast 3 years ago was to help create a tighter knit blacksmith community around the world, to aid and encourage forging new connections by having casual conversations every week so we can learn a little something about our peers. I thought I would talk about a few of the connections I’ve made over the past 3 years and about some of the connections that a few listeners have made by listening to the podcast. Then I’ll jump right into another JayBurn Journal (an article written by Jay Burnham Kidwell) about different kinds of forging connections such as riveting, hot metal wrapping, mortise and tenon and such.

Summary:

Hot Connections

Forge Welding

Arc Welding

MIG Welding

Tig Welding

Oxy/acetelyne, oxy/propane gas welding

Oxy/acetelyne, oxy/propane gas brazing and soldering

Forge brazing

Forge soldering

Mortise and Tenon

Hot Rivets

Cold Connections are:

Copper rivets

Collars and wraps

Claydon Connections

Tension connections

Nuts and bolts

Articulated connections

Socket bearing connections

Collaring – to determine the length of the collar material: measure around the pieces to be collared plus 2 ½ times the thickness of the collar material. This will be the cut length before beveling the ends.

Square Tenons – Upset the end of the bar a ½”, then do another upset just under the first upset, use a side set or spring fuller to establish the tenon and the shoulder. Then draw out the tenon, even up the shoulder edges with a monkey tool and check fir size and fit with the mortise. The tenon should extend about 1 ½ times the diameter of the tenon through the mortise hole.

Pass- through connections – using a slitting chisel and a swage block that is a little bigger than the pass through stock.

Stuart Hill’s connection using a square tube that is twice the thickness of the pieces to be joined.

Arno Muller’s corner connection – forge a square corner with an upset at the 90 degree bend and then forge out a tongue from the outside corner. Repeat this with another piece of square stock and join the two tongues in an opposite fashion.

Oval Rivets by Mark Aspery – from his Volume III book titled, “Mastering the Fundamentals of Traditional Joinery” available at www.MarkAspery.com.

What We Talked About

• Julida comes from a family of blacksmiths, 4 generations in fact! Her father, Boleslaw Kochanowski, is a well-known blacksmith in the Wisconsin and Chicago area.
• Her father has visited his native country, Poland, to research his genealogy and how it ties to the blacksmith craft. He has found business records from the early 1900’s of family members running a blacksmith business.
• Her grandfather was fighting in World War II and was captured by the Nazis, when he declared (he knew how to speak German) that he was a blacksmith the Nazis spared his life and put him to work on a farm in Germany.
• The four pillars of the band are the two sisters, Annella Platta and Julida Alter, and their iron clad musicians (and also husbands), Brent Platta and Sean Alter.
• Two other regulars in the band are Jeremy Swider on violin and Krista Swider on viola (who also happen to be married). Jeremy and Krista teach private violin and viola lessons and also perform in the ensemble Sonorous Strings.
• Each of the band members have a background tied to music, A band teacher, a choir director, a piano teacher and professional viola and violin players.
• Every member of the band writes their own lyrics and music and they like to use hand percussion instruments such as: hand shakers, Castanets, Cajon box drum and bass drums.
• They are planning to release two albums in 2017, one in June and hopefully a Christmas album.

Guest Links

• The Blacksmith’s Daughters website - http://www.theblacksmithsdaughters.com/
• Band’s YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPfufg98AbRBicWU8wojXdw
• Boleslaw Kochowski - http://www.boleslawkochanowski.com/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Southern Blacksmith Association, Their bi-annual conference May 18th - 21st.

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
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Thanks so much for your support!

But before we get into the interview I wanted to tell you guys about the Hammer making online class with Patrick Quinn. It’s going to be an online course where Patrick is walking you through the steps of forging a 2.25lb straight peen hammer with a striker. You will learn how to measure, punch and drift the hole, forge the cheeks, forge the peen and fuller around the face and peen. The majority of the work will be done with sledge- hammers and a striker; focus will be placed on proper striking technique. All heat-treating steps will be covered, including hardening, tempering, and finishing (polishing the faces). Handle making will also be covered so you will have the knowledge to make a handled straight peen hammer ready to use!

I know a bunch of you have been waiting a long time for this class to release and it will be available for purchase on March 9th. I have to tell you this was an epic project for me, because it included

• a 10 hour day of filming Patrick and Kyle with 3 cameras for different angles and close-ups
• a little over 100 hours of editing/producing and developing the education content

I learned a lot about filming techniques, course development, instructional design, instructor voice over recording and of course lots and lots of video editing. And the course came out really nice, rich with information, has a good flow from module to module and clear close-up video shots of the techniques I’m really proud of the course content, how Patrick seamlessly teaches each step of the process of forging a 2.25 lb straight peen hammer. I think you guys are really going to like it and we have a fun blooper reel from filming day and voice over recording day. So keep March 9th in your mind for you to visit www.blacksmitheracademy.com to find out more details on the course and to purchase it. The price is $35 for the online course and once you sign up for it you will have access to the course forever.

What We Talked About

• James talks about how he has moved his blacksmith shop 5 times and the benefits that come from moving.
• Currently James is teaching his artistic blacksmith class every Saturday and forging sculptures that he wants to make.
• James uses his hydraulic 75 ton press for a lot of his forging. Though on the Statue of Liberty project he used their 120 ton press.
• He tells us about how intense the project was to restore the armature on the inside of the Statue of Liberty. He and a crew of 40 guys forged and replaced 1600 bars for the job.
• While he was the head blacksmith for the Rochester Folk Art Guild they went to 12 festivals a year and sold their craft work, it made for a very busy schedule.
• He explains how his BFA has helped him with his artist blacksmith career, mainly for writing his syllabus for his forging class he teaches at the Arts Students League of New York.
• Within his syllabus, James has come up with his own glossary of terms; Form idea, Visual forensics and Visceral cognition.
• When asked what blacksmith James would like to learn from he mentioned Alessandro Mazzucotelli, the Italian blacksmith in the early 1900’s.

Guest Links

• James’ website: http://www.jamesgarvey.net/
• The Arts Student League of New York - https://www.theartstudentsleague.org/classes/

Show Notes:

• To produce a tool of quality the smith should use tool or alloy steels.
• Tool steels can be bought new or as a drop or discontinued stock or as “road kill” recycled steel scraps.
• The average blacksmith shop has adequate resources to forge, normalize, anneal and heat treat many tool steels safely and most available tools steels can be forged and heat treated by using modified methods of the manufacturers recommended procedures.
• Steel is a body-centered cubic crystal at room temperature. When heated to critical temperature, iron and steel undergo a phase change and become a face-centered cubic crystal structure. The hardening process changes the internal structure of the steel to form austenite. When quenched, the austenite is transformed into martensite, the hardest constituent in steel.
• Most tool steels generally trade one quality for another: wear resistance vs. toughness and accuracy vs. red hardness. Wear resistance is preferable when the tool must hold an edge or stand up to continued service. Toughness is needed for tools that are used under stress that may cause breakage. Accuracy addresses machining after forging and the ability to retain shape after heat treating. Red Hardness is the ability to retain shape and hardness when used at high temperatures (punching, chiseling, drifting).
• Normalizing – most, but not all, tool and alloy steels are normalized after forging by air cooling to remove most of the stress introduced by the forging process.
• Annealing – heating to critical temperature (nonmagnetic) and slowly cooling will restore varying degrees of softness in tools steels. This requires burying the steel in wood ash, lime, dry dirt or sand. You can use vermiculite, but know that you should wear a respirator because it contains asbestos.
• Machining – Most, if not all, tools require some grinding, filing or sanding after forging and before heat treating, as annealed steel is in a softer state and is obviously easier to grind or sand.
• Hardening – tool steels are heated to a specified critical temperature and quenched in the correct medium for optimum hardening. Tools steels are usually classified as air, water or oil hardening. Air hardening is accomplished by heating to critical temperature and cooling in still air. Water hardening is usually done in a 5 – 10% brine solution. Oil hardening is accomplished in commercial heat treating oils or vegetable oils.
• Tempering – hardening will produce maximum hardness and must be softened or tempered because the steel is too brittle at this point. The tool should be tempered as soon as possible after hardening. Tempering temperatures usually run between 300 – 600 f.
• W-1 tool steel – a straight carbon, water hardening tool steel that tends to chip or break. Old files were made from W-1
• O -1 tool steel – a straight carbon, oil hardening steel classified for coldwork, chasing and repousse.
• S series tool steel – very tough and exhibit very good red hardness. Due to varying amounts of tungsten and chromium, it can be a bit tough to forge.
• 4140 – a chromium molybdenum alloy steel that has great toughness, resists torque and can be used as punches, hammers and top tools.
• 4340 tool steel – a close relative to 4140 but with some added nickel. NEVER quench or cool in water, use only oil.

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
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Thanks so much for your support!

“Ms. Caitlin hangs out with the misfits and scallywags. She sings loudly and out of tune. She is partial to walks in the rain. But the most important thing is this: Caitlin loves blacksmithing. The Vermont native runs Ms. Caitlin’s School of Blacksmithing in Maryland, which is dedicated to sharing the craft with as many unsuspecting people as possible. She also teaches at other schools up and down the east coast.“

We had a great interview discussing her background and some great info on scholarships, how she has secured a few and some tips on how you can.

What We Talked About

• Caitlin teaches blacksmithing at her own business “Miss Caitlin's School of Blacksmithing” and at other educational institutions along the East coast of the US.
• Caitlin opened her school of blacksmithing in Frederick Maryland in 2015.
• Her blacksmith background began at the John C Campbell Folk School in 2009, her first class was taught by Matt Jenkins. She took a week’s vacation off from her day job to travel to the school for the week-long class.
• Soon after learning how to blacksmith Caitlin immediately started sharing her experience and teaching the craft to her friends. And so the journey of becoming a better teacher began then.
• Caitlin talks about the scholarships she has been granted to help with the financial aspects of taking a week-long blacksmith class.
• Her scholarship advice is to apply to as many as you can because this gives you the practice of writing about yourself and why you deserve a scholarship. Your verbiage will become refined through the process.
• One of her suggestions for metal sculpture inspiration is to look at the yearly “Metal Design International” books, they feature around 8 blacksmiths around the world.

Guest Links

• Her business website: http://www.mscaitlinsschool.com/
• Her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/caitlinsmorris

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
• subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
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Thanks so much for your support!

What We Talked About

Nu Iron Age show dates – May 24, 2017 – May 27, 2017

Where – New Orleans

Entry Deadline: 4/21/17

Deadline to receive artwork May 20th

Media REQUIREMENTS: Images - Minimum: 1, Maximum: 6 Entry Fee (Nu Iron Age): $35.00

Blacksmiths; those that shape steel through fire and force, have often taken a backseat in the realm of modern art and design, deferring instead to function and tradition. The last 2 decades have seen a new generation of blacksmith evolve. They express an openness, and desire to engage with the art and design world. By organizing a show of contemporary forged iron work the hope is to connect blacksmithing with the wider conversation of metal work, contemporary craft, and the contemporary art world. This show will create a platform for relevant work within a fresh context.

This show will happen in conjunction with this year’s SNAG conference. The SNAG (Society of North American Goldsmiths) 2017 Convention’s theme is “nexus; a connection or hub”. “Nexus: A Connection of Ideas” will focus on motivating thinkers, collectors, and makers, to bring new and old, materials, techniques, and ideas together in New Orleans. As the conversation grows between the forging process and design; and as people connect their personal work to the greater field. The hope is that this show will help provide a contemporary space, one of sharing, connecting, and collaborating, a time-honored art form, a new Iron age.

HOW TO ENTER Please submit digital images only into the Café system (you need an account, it’s free). Each artist is welcome to submit up to three (3) entries. Images should be a minimum of 300 ppi, cannot exceed 5 MB each, and must be in JPG format. Limit of two images per entry (one full view and one detail image).

ELIGIBLE MEDIA Work must be produced from forged steel, contain some forged steel or reference the process of forging in some way. Other materials may be incorporated or used in the work submitted. Entries must be the complete work of the submitting artist. Kits or commercially designed works will not be accepted. All work must have been completed within the past two years (2014-2016).

NUMBER OF ENTRIES + ENTRY FEE Each artist is limited to three (3) entries. There is a $35 (USD) non-refundable fee, for up to three (3) entries. Payments must be submitted online at the time of application. SIZE LIMITATIONS All work must be ready for installation. We reserve the right to exclude any entry that presents complex installation or assembly problems. If work is to be delivered and installed by the artist, complicated installation prohibitions may be waived. SALES A 30% commission will be retained from all work sold during the exhibition. Works which are not for sale must be clearly marked as such (NFS). PUBLICITY The exhibition will be publicized regionally, nationally and internationally. GDAC reserves the right to use photographs or digital images of any accepted work for the purpose of publicity. SNAG publications, Metalsmith magazine and local papers will advertise the show. DELIVERY + RETURN OF WORK Artists are responsible for pre-paying all shipping charges to and from the exhibition site. Accepted works must be hand-delivered or shipped according to the instructions provided in the Artist Contract upon selection No work may be withdrawn before the close of the exhibition. Sending an entry to this exhibition shall imply an agreement on the part of the sender to all conditions above. Juror: Our juror for the show will be David Houston of the Bo Bartlett Center.

Links

Rachel’s Red Metal Business Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/redmetal1245?pnref=lhc

Rachel’s Red Metal Website - http://redmetal.net/

Call for Entry website: https://www.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=4075

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Show Notes:

• Pattern forge welding, aka “Damascus Steel” is an offshoot of the traditional forge welding of the blacksmith craft. The original material was known as “Wootz”. The result of the “Wootz” process was a weapon grade steel of good flexibility and edge holding capability.
• Austenite is an alloy of iron and carbon is part of a crystallization process that occurs in the Wootz process of cooling.
• Materials used:
  • Wrought Iron – almost pure iron, easily welded with a high phosphorous content
  • L-6 – a low alloy, chrome-nickel steel used in large saw blades, exhibits good forge welds to other metals
  • 15N20 – a medium carbon steel that produces a high contract with other steels due to its high nickel content
  • 1095 – a high carbon steel frequently used on tools and applications in industry
  • 4140 – a low carbon chromium-vanadium alloy of toughness, used for hammer dies, punches and car axles
  • W-2 – a high carbon steel commonly used in toolmaking, particularly in files.
  • A-36 – An alloy steel that has replaced 1010, 1018, and 1020 mild steels, the catchall of modern steel production.
  • 5160 – This steel is touch and springy, low chromium-silicon steel that can be readily forge welded and heat treated.
  • Steel Cable – great resource for Damascus patterns, make sure it is clean and not plated. Four grades are Base Plow Steel (1084), Improved Plow Steel (1070), Extra Improved Plowshare Steel (1084), and Extra Extra Improved Plowshare Steel (1095). The last two digit give the carbon content, the “10” signifies a simple carbon steel of iron, carbon, and a bit of manganese with trace elements of phosphorous and sulfur.
  • Nickel – will readily forge weld to ferrous metals but not to itself. Retains its brilliant whiteness.
  • “Road Kill” – chain, guns, horseshoes, old files, chisels, ball bearings ect. Avoid all plated and galvanized metals.
• Preparation of the stack is important in the welding process. All layers should be close in thickness, clean and as tight as possible. Put the higher welding metals on the outside of the stack.
• Welding should be done in 3 to 6 seconds and in few as heats as possible, this will lessen the amount of overheating, burning, carbon migration and oxidation of the materials.
• Cutting edge Damascus tools need to be 125 or more layers.
• It is possible to lose 15% - 40% of the original mass in the forging process.
• There are two etching mordent categories: acid or alkaline.

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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The Artist Blacksmith Association of North America, AKA ABANA is a non-profit organization that began in 1973 to perpetuate the noble art of blacksmithing. ABANA encourages and facilitates the training of blacksmiths and exposes the art of blacksmithing to the public.

Head on over to the website, www.abana.org , where you can learn about their membership benefits and sign up to be added to their mailing list, which is the best way to learn about affiliate and regional events and other blacksmithing announcements. Thank you ABANA!

What We Talked About

• Brian’s introduction to blacksmithing was through becoming a farrier at first, learning from his father, though that wasn’t his first choice of careers. Brian was on the Olympic Judo Training team after high school with big aspirations of furthering his Olympic future until he had a neck injury that ended his Judo training.
• Around the age of 30 Brian started to make the transition from being a Farrier to an Artist Blacksmith, while he was living in California.
• He worked at the Mission San Juan in Capistrano California for five years, the Mission is the oldest smelting of ore to make metal in the history of California. To read about the history of the Mission blacksmiths and smelting go to this website, http://factcards.califa.org/mli/blacksmith.html
• In 2002 Brian started to travel the country and internationally. He worked with Tom Clarke in Missouri and then traveled to Europe to work with Alfred Habermann for a year and a half.
• Brian has plans to travel to Africa and teach blacksmithing at a school for orphans. Brian and his brother Ed created a traveling blacksmith station, complete with anvil, tongs, hand tools and hammers. 5 of the stations are packed up and ready to go to the African school.

Guest Links

• Brian’s Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/brianbrazealblacksmith

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA, www.abana.org

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
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Thanks so much for your support!

The Artist Blacksmith Association of North America, AKA ABANA is a non-profit organization that began in 1973 to perpetuate the noble art of blacksmithing. ABANA encourages and facilitates the training of blacksmiths and exposes the art of blacksmithing to the public.

Head on over to the website, www.abana.org , where you can learn about their membership benefits and sign up to be added to their mailing list, which is the best way to learn about affiliate and regional events and other blacksmithing announcements. Thank you ABANA!

What We Talked About

• Lee has been blacksmithing for about 40 years, he started when he was 12! After school, he would hang out with a couple of blacksmiths in town, Larry Mann and Peter O’Shaunessy. During his summers in college he worked and learned from Ken Barnes in Maine.
• Lee has been a member of ABANA since 1974 and went to the early ABANA conferences when the total attendee count would be 100 people. He remembers watching Francis Whitaker and Albert Paley demonstrating efficient processes working with large stock.
• To keep him interested in his craft he took up smelting in 1998. His curiosity of how people got iron in pre-industrial times led him to research the history of smelting.
• The first time he tried to smelt iron from iron ore, it took him and his friend twelve times over a course of 9 months to be successful. A few things they learned over those 9 months was how to make good charcoal, how to make different kinds of furnaces and air supply’s, and how to identify good iron ore from the earth.
• Lee’s knowledge and expertise in smelting has offered opportunities to travel around the world lecturing and teaching about smelting. One of his trips took him to Sudan (UCL Qatar) to study with colleagues from the University of London on how the ancient civilization, the Kushites, made iron through smelting. The archaeologists are researching and studying the remains of a large iron production. Here’s the documentary about the archaeology project, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPU8Uwa-jBQ
• Lee teaches one to two smelting classes a year in the US, you can visit his website for the latest scheduled classes.
• Lee mentions a few online resources about the smelting craft:
  • He has published many shop report articles about his smelting findings on his website
  • There is FB page called Iron Smelters of the World to see what people are doing with it around the world.
  • A smelting forum on the Bladesmith’s forum called Bloomers and buttons.
  • The Historical Metallurgy Society in England will soon publish their back journals online
  • A book called American Iron 1607 – 1900 by Robert Gordan

Guest Links

• Lee Sauder’s Website - http://www.leesauder.com/
• YouTube documentary about Lee’s archeological trip to Sudan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPU8Uwa-jBQ

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA, www.abana.org

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• We talk about his final project and how far along he is with it, the design changed from his earlier thoughts of incorporating a compass rose.
• Last time we spoke Toby successfully completed his first forge weld so I asked to see how this technique is going for him.
• There were 15 students in the class with an age range from 17 to 57 years old and one has left the program.
• Along with the final project, each student will also have to show 8 different completed projects. Toby tells us everything that he has made so far, a garden hat with a ribbon, 3 coat racks, a human sculpture, some chisels and a nouveau duck.
• Toby is still looking to apprentice with a local Toronto blacksmith business.

Guest Links

• Fleming College Artist blacksmith program - http://flemingcollege.ca/programs/artist-blacksmith/courses

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Fleming College

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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Daniel grew up in North Carolina and has been working in the world of metal for more than thirty years. He is one of the most respected members of his craft, and well known among the smithing community. His work has appeared at the American Craft Museum in NY, and in gallery exhibitions around the world.

We Talked About:

• How Daniel refines the design of a piece; does he usually draw versions of it first?

• Regarding the 4 legs of the table, we talk through the process of making the feet and ankles (they are my favorite part). It looks like he split and drifted the area of the core of the body where two bands come through and are upset to stay there. Then he continued the chiseled line of the split down to the feet. How are the feet made to look so realistic, did he practice this technique on mild steel scraps before forging with the wrought iron?

• We talk about the middle of the table, where the 8 stringer bands come together and how it looks like a puzzle to me.

• I asked Daniel what he thought of the importance of holding an art degree.

Guest Links:

• Daniel's Website - http://millermetalsmith.com/gallery/index.php

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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A re-write, done in September of 2016, of the article Daniel Miller wrote for the Spring 2002 edition of the “Anvil’s Ring”.

“The Least of These” : One smith’s wonderings and wanderings about why and for whom he keeps doing this work.

By Daniel Miller

“We have taken a great social movement and turned it into a tiresome little aristocracy working with high skill for the very rich.”

When I came across this rather despairing and depressing remark in the lead essay for a catalog which accompanied a recent show at the American Craft Museum, it jumped off the page at me, for it so clearly stated a problem that has gnawed at my conscience for many years. The author of this remark was C. R. Ashbee, one of the founders of the Arts and Crafts movement in England, which thrived between the 1880’s and around 1915. He was commenting on the devolution of that movement, which had originally been envisioned as a means to ennoble, empower, and enrich the lives of common people by bringing simple, but beautifully designed and made craft objects within their reach.

Many of us run into the sad paradox that the better our work becomes, the less accessible it becomes to anyone whose financial means remotely resembles our own. My sense of discomfort with this paradox, and an accompanying sense of guilt, or at least complicity, grew as I watched what seemed like a commendable desire on my part—to have each piece I make be better, more complex, perhaps even more consequential than the last—placing my work beyond the reach of anyone but “the very rich”. At one point, when my father asked me about a rather extensive (for me) architectural project I was doing, I replied, “the assignment is ‘make us something that makes us look much richer than we looked last year.’” My father chided me for being cynical. I responded that I was just being accurate, but in hindsight, I realize that he was right. My discomfort or guilt had started to express itself as cynicism—that sure sign of emotional retreat and surrender.

My first response (a knee-jerk one) to my realization about where this kind of work was taking me was a decision to redirect my efforts—no more bidding on large ostentatious architectural jobs. Instead of decorating gigantic architectural wedding cakes with flourishes of wrought iron icing, I would try to make small nourishing whole grain wrought iron buns and muffins. I would excavate my soul and try to bring forth some nourishment. This change did seem to be a positive step. I was finally making work that meant much more to me—some of which seemed to expose my interior to me with more clarity that I would ever have expected to be possible. But I soon discovered that it still didn’t address the basic problem. The sheer work, combined with the new effort of exploration, innovation, and blind wandering that these pieces required of me made my “wrought iron icing projects” seem downright efficient. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the bottom line was that the work of my new direction was no more accessible to people of average, or less than average means than my earlier work had been. The problem seemed insoluble. What had once been a simple penchant for trying to stretch the envelope of my work had become an addiction. If I wouldn’t allow my work to become simpler, easier, more efficient, or repeated, my dream of an egalitarian and accessible art form would fade ever farther into the distance.

As with almost all of the solutions to the consequential problems in my life, this one was presented to me, not constructed by me, and as usual, I didn’t recognize it at first. The Episcopal Cathedral in a nearby city got in touch with me about my making a Pascal Light for them. I was told that a Pascal Light is a large candle stand for a very large candle used as part of the worship service from the night before Easter until Pentecost. It is also lit and used at all baptisms and all funerals. I realized, with a bit of trepidation, that I was being called upon to make a functional object that would be one of the central symbolic participants in a very public, communal rite of passage—the Easter service. But I was more concerned that I was to try to make an object, which, if it did its job, might bring insight, and lend emotional support to two other much more personal and private rites of passage—one joy-filled and celebratory; a baptism: and the other serious and difficult; a funeral. To do a piece like this justice, I would have to find, or conjure images and a form that would be able to convey, or embody, the ideas associated with the various uses of a Pascal Light. They include both the light and the dark sides of the Easter observances, as well as the ideas of birth and death, as seen from the vantage point of the gathering of a family. My job was to come up with images and forms that could be incorporated into a Pascal Light, that would be able to express these ideas and concerns.

I remembered that several years earlier I had made a small table in which I had explored many of these same ideas. It had been commissioned by a cousin of mine whom I had re-met, after many years, at family reunion. Considering our relationship, and the reunion at which we had re-found each other, it seemed a good idea to use the making of this table as an opportunity to try to explore the whole idea of family. At that large family reunion, I had been struck by the how clearly the family members there fell into three distinct groups—the children, the parents, and the grandparents. This is of course not a very remarkable observation; but I had never noticed it so clearly before because this was the first reunion I had been to as a member of anything other than the “children’s’” group, and children—rightfully—are too busy racing around and having fun to be making observations. Now that I was in the “parents’” group, and looking at the whole gathering rather abstractly, I could see that each group had a very different and separate function or job to do in relation to this whole thing called family. The children’s function was much more an issue of being rather than doing. They were that which gives the family a future—which keeps it alive. The grandparents’ function (at its best) seemed to me to be an interior one—an assessment of what life had meant, with the hopes of passing some insights and genuine help to the parents and children. Otherwise, they were working on closing the circle of their lives— hopefully, with grace. And in that particular environment, I couldn’t help seeing my own function as primarily being the link between the children and the elders, while at the same time being called upon to build something that might be called my own life.

So, it was with these ideas in mind that I set out to make the table that would be called “Three Generations in A Gyre”. A “gyre” is a spinning thing. This seemed to be an apt metaphor for all the families I had known—with each member spinning out his or her own life, yet always in relation to and influenced (for better or worse) by the other members spinning out theirs. And all of this within the edifice of that larger spinning thing—the family— held together, at the least, by shared DNA, and at the best (for the lucky ones) by love.

With these ideas in mind it becomes rather easy to “read” this table. It is of course, first of all, simply a functional object. But it is also a re-presentation—a snapshot made of iron—presenting to me again what I observed and then felt, at that reunion. The three legs give a body to those three noted generations. The tapered, hoop-like bands give arms to those bodies, which describe the function or job I saw each generation trying to do. The elders are just about to close their circles. My generation is relating the elders to the children. And the children—without a function that supports the structure yet—are simply reaching. They stand there with arms outstretched, in that immediately recognizable “pick me up right now” pose. The varying lengths, and degree of completeness of the three hoop, or arm forms give an impression of growth and upward motion, while the tight twists hint at an individual and overall spinning motion.

There is surely a risk that the “reading” of the forms and images in a table like this may become too clear, maybe even a little dull. But the first time I looked at this table completed, I couldn’t help sensing the presence of a little serpent in this garden, which I didn’t understand. The objects toward which the child’s outstretched arms were reaching looked quite undeniably like wounds.

It wasn’t until a year later, when I learned that my father had prostate cancer, that the significance of these wounds throughout the form of my table about family became clearer. The table now came to stand for me as an emblem of the nature of the extremely close relationship my father and I had with each other. We, of course, knew one another’s strengths—since everyone is willing to communicate about, and share their strengths. But, extraordinarily, we so trusted each other that we were able and willing to share, and expose, and explore one another’s weaknesses, dark places, and even wounds. So now the table had become a portrait of my own family—as a very simple three-legged structure, whose ability to penetrate and be penetrated, supported a platform upon which a feast could be served.

The fact that this table, which had so kindly and effectively helped me deal with a very difficult rite of passage of my own, would sit silently in the home of the person who had commissioned it never seemed quite right to me. I felt that if it had helped me in this way, it might be able to help others, but now it seemed to be almost hidden. It’s therefore not surprising that, as I worked on drawings for the Pascal Light, images from that three-legged portrait of a family, which I had made several years earlier kept coming to mind.

I had said very little about the symbolism of the table to the person who had commissioned it. Some images are too difficult, even if they live only in a symbolic world. So it was with a bit of trepidation that I showed a picture of this table, along with my drawings for the Pascal Light to the Dean of the Cathedral, and to the lady who had originally contacted me about it, and who also wanted to commission its making. I realized immediately, to my great relief, that they both were smitten, not with discomfort, but with a sense of recognition and familiarity. To my surprise, I found that this image—as abstract and distilled as it was—served them in exactly the same way it served me. It seemed to concretize and clarify a few of the ungraspable emotions which death makes more urgent, regarding both the potential and the genuine difficulties in achieving any real communication with our loved ones. Both of them spoke of how this piece seemed to directly address some of their own acquaintances and family members—both the fortunate ones, who had been able not to hide (or hide from) their own weaknesses and wounds, as well as the less fortunate ones, who had lived hidden, unshared lives.

This project seemed a kind of milestone for me, in that the level of clear communication of my own emotions was so high; but I still thought that it didn’t address the gnawing problem of my best and most extreme work only being available to people of extreme means. But even this resolved itself, albeit unexpectedly. The Dean had asked if I would bring the Pascal Light to his adult Sunday school class and try to share some of my ideas about it with them. Before the class convened, the large group got together for coffee, doughnuts, and conviviality. As I waited in the cloister, a young woman haltingly stepped out, spilling half her coffee. She was homeless, and clearly very mentally and physically challenged. She limped over to look more closely at this strange piece of ironwork, and smiled at it, and then at me. In a flash ,it struck me that this Pascal Light literally belonged to this woman just as much as it belonged to the Dean, or to the lady who had commissioned and paid for it. I couldn’t believe my good fortune: Finally a solution.

I so wanted to convey my happiness at this realization to the lady who had commissioned the piece but was a bit concerned that it might be taken as ingratitude. I decided to risk it, although I was not at all prepared for her response. “Oh no,” she said, “it belongs much more to her than it does to me because she has suffered so much more for it.”

Guest Links:

Daniel Miller's website http://millermetalsmith.com/gallery/index.php

Sponsor for today: ABANA, www.abana.org

What We Talked About

• Denise went to university in the UK for three-dimensional design after a 25-year career as a nurse. In her second year at university, she took a forging class, was very drawn to the craft and decided that was what she wanted to do.
• It took her another five years to convince the Rural Development Commission to let her in on the New Entrants Training Scheme in pure forge work. After taking a few courses at the Hereford School of art with Adrian Legge, taking as many BABA workshops as possible and giving up her nursing career she finally qualified into the Scheme in 2003. The Training Scheme was a UK government funded scheme aimed at 16 to 25-year old’s to become apprentice blacksmiths for 12 weeks over a course of 2 years.
• Denise moves just about every two years due to her husband being in the Air Force, so she has to be particular regarding the tools she buys knowing she will need to move it to another location every 2 years.
• When Denise moved to Australia she decided to sell most of her blacksmith tools she had acquired in the UK and buy more blacksmith tools in Australia. She soon found out that the tools were ten times the cost of everything she had already bought in the UK.
• Denise attended the Ypres blacksmith event in Belgium and worked on Patrick Pelgrom’s team to forge his design panel for the cenotaph site. This was a lifetime experience that she didn’t want to miss out on and she could catch up with a lot of her UK friends.
• Last month Denise attended a 4-day hammer making class at the historic Eveleigh Locomotive Workshop in Sydney.
• In 2004 Denise was the first female to win the UK Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths‘Champion Blacksmith’ with her forged table.

Guest Links

• Denise’s website - http://artisanblacksmith.org/
• Facebook Page – Denise Axelsen Artisan Blacksmith https://www.facebook.com/artisanblacksmithnewry/?fref=ts
• Instagram - @deniseaxelsenartisanblacksmith

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Center for Metal Arts

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• Matthew has partnered up with two other people to grow the blacksmithing craft in Sydney, Australia by taking over the lease of the historic Eveleigh Locomotive workshop starting in September of 2016.
• They are offering tool making, knife making, and sculptural classes at the workshop. Some classes are weekend long classes and others are night classes.
• The Eveleigh Locomotive workshop is 130 years old and in the height if it’s day it had 5000 to 6000 employees forging, heat treating and building steam locomotives. This is from the from the Eveleigh website talking about the workshop equipment of the past:

“Bay 1 was the domain of heavy-metal forging, with the Davy Press and its attendant equipment dominating the northern end. In the south, glaring back at the Davy is the other workshop heavyweight – the mighty double-arch steam drop hammer. Used for fire-welding and metal forging, the drop hammer put on spectacular fireworks shows in the course of its daily duties. With its deafening bangs and lightning-quick blows to scorching billets, it belched flames and showered the workshop with fantastical streams of iron embers, terrifying apprentices, singeing eyebrows and igniting the fashionable newspaper hats donned by nearby blacksmiths.”

• The Davey press was decommissioned in the 80’s, so it is not running currently today. When the press was in good working condition it took one of the four C36 class steam locomotive boilers in the workshop to drive that press. The 6-meter-high press weighs 1500 tons. Matthew would like to get it back into running condition, though it would take 5 to 6 people to run it.
• The double arch steam drop hammer is another goliath that sits decommissioned in the shop. It is 2 tons of moving parts and is older than the Eveleigh shop, built around the 1850’s.
• Matthew’s blacksmith education came from the local vocational tech school called Ultimo TAFE where a blacksmith certificate course is offered. The main instructor is Lindsay Cole, who is one of the last remaining blacksmiths that worked in the Eveleigh workshop.

Guest Links

• Eveleigh Works website - http://www.blacksmithingclasses.com.au/teachers/
• Matthew’s Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/mwmdesignaustralia/
• Matthew’s blacksmith website - http://www.mwmdesign.com.au/

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What We Talked About

• With five weeks into his blacksmith program, he has obtained an A+ in Drawing and forged some tools; a hot chisel, hardy hot cut, punch, drift, and center punch.
• He just successfully completed his first forge weld a few days ago for a pair of tongs.
• There are 15 students in the class with an age range from 17 to 57 years old.
• Each student has to come up with a design of a final project and forge it by the end of the program, Toby’s is going to be a table and table top and it will be his rendition of a compass rose.
• Along with the final project, each student will also have to show 8 different completed projects. Toby plans to make a set of repousse tools, a demo of repousse, kitchen utensils, a set of garden tools, and more chisels.
• Toby is already looking to reach out to a few Toronto blacksmith businesses for an apprenticeship.

Guest Links

• Fleming College Artist blacksmith program - http://flemingcollege.ca/programs/artist-blacksmith/courses

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Fleming College

Maybe more pictures

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Guest appearances on this episode:

• Rick Barter from Kentucky
• Phoebe Anne Graham from Indiana
• Colin Fung from McHenry, Illinois
• Jeff McCrady from Parkersburg, West Virginia

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Southern Ohio Forge and Anvil, www.sofablacksmiths.org

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• Bruce tells us how his ABANA 2016 experience was as an attendee and an Anyang Rep, demonstrating some the Anyang Hammers onsite.
• Being a faraway Australian member of ABANA for many years, he recalls the first five years of ABANA and how Dick Quinnell visited one the early conferences and was inspired to start the British Artist Blacksmith Association back in the UK.
• Australia has many state based blacksmith associations, though it doesn’t have one large association that covers all of Australia, such as ABANA.
• Bruce’s passion for blacksmithing started when he was 15 in school. He took a metals class that included forging metal. After school he decided to continue forging and work as an apprentice, he was offered a job with the Australian Navy as an industrial blacksmith.
• We talk about why Bruce approached me to do an Australian Series of podcasts with Aussie blacksmiths. He would like to bring awareness of the craft to the Australian public as well as grow the education opportunities for blacksmiths.
• The Australian Series of podcasts will include interviewing:
  • Lindsay Cole, the head instructor at Ultimo Tafe (TAFE – stands for Technical And Further Education government funded college) for the trade training of industrial blacksmiths
  • Matt Mewburn, Matt is a successful graduate of Lindsay’s teaching and is now running classes himself at the historic Eveleigh Railway Blacksmith Shop as well as running his own business.
  • Amanda Gibson, coordinated the Tree Project, a mammoth undertaking in time, resilience and determination. The Tree project is a memorial to the people who lost their lives in the Black Saturday Bushfires of 2009. It is a full sized tree forged from Stainless Steel covered with over three thousand leaves from around the world. It is set in a very peaceful garden setting with forged timber and steel seating and a lovely garden, it is a special place you cannot help but be touched when you visit it.
  • Denise Axelsen is another Blacksmith that I think would bring an interesting perspective. Denise trained at Hereford at the same time as Mark Aspery and she is a past secretary of BABA. She has travelled to a number of places to live and that is a story in itself, Blacksmithing in Saudi Arabia (as a woman). In Perth, Australia, Cairns, Australia and now a new forge in rural Victoria.
• Gameco will be the sponsor of this series because the owner, Corwin, has been the driving force and playing a large part in supplying and growing the bladesmith and blacksmith craft there in Australia.

Guest Links

• Ultimo TAFE – Blacksmithing Advanced Course
• Gameco - http://gameco.com.au/
• Anyang power hammer videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jamesrjohn

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Gameco Artisan Supplies

What We Talked About

• Toby Druce has been a social worker and grants administrator for the past 29 years working with municipal homeless and street outreach programs for the City of Toronto, Ontario Canada.
• Toby was first drawn to blacksmithing when he took a beginner class at a local high school, in their auto body shop.
• When toby lost his job in 2015 he knew this was a great opportunity to pursue blacksmithing as a career. He looked at blacksmith programs in the UK and Canada and choose the Fleming College blacksmith program through the Haliburton School of Art and Design because of the condensed 15-week program.
• The courses covered are: Forging Basics, History of Ornamental Ironwork, Drawing, Artistic Blacksmith - Projects I, Design, Marketing/Portfolio Development, and Artistic Blacksmith - Projects II.
• For Toby, choosing the path to become a blacksmith was not for the monetary gains (which we know can be a very difficult path to financial freedom!) but instead to use his social working skills along with the blacksmith skills to further the work of social working organizations.
• The program requires 600 hours of shop forge time and for each student to have 8 finished pieces to start your own body of work. The student will then learn how to photograph the eight pieces and professionally create a portfolio to present to a gallery.
• Toby will be turning 50 in November, in the middle of the program and he couldn’t think of a better way to spend his 50th

Guest Links

• Fleming College Artist blacksmith program - http://flemingcollege.ca/programs/artist-blacksmith/courses

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Fleming College

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• The couple met each other at a historical theme park, Gold Reef City, a re-creation of Johannesburg as a mining town 100 years ago. Heather was the blacksmith on site and Kevin was helping the woodworker in his workshop. Eventually they began spending a lot of time together in each workshop, so much that the management decided to move the workshops closer together!
• They both enjoy many outdoor activities together such as fly fishing, four wheeling, and taking care of their 4 horses (which are named after weapons, Assagai, Bowie, Tomahawk). And their sheep named Valiant.
• In 1998 they both traveled to the American Bladesmith School in Arkansas for training. After returning to South Africa, they immediately founded the Southern African Bladesmiths Association (S.A.B.A) along with Bertie Rietveld and Tom Nelson. They had at least 100 people show up for their first “hammer-in” , this was due to the fact that no one was forging knives at the time, most knifemakers were using the stock removal process. So seeing forging techniques and heat treatment processes was very new to the current knifemakers in the area.
• Kevin and Heather were involved with creating a marking schedule to be used by the Knifemakers' Guild of Southern Africa's evaluation committee in order to allow forged knives to be recognized and for people to attain guild membership by submitting forged knives. In 2003 Heather was the first person to pass their Guild evaluation using forged blades.
• In 2003 they both received their Master Smith certifications in Atlanta with the American Bladesmith Society.
• The recent television program “Forged in Fire” has helped fill Kevin and Heather’s knife classes they offer at Heavin Forge. In fact, they are booked full until June of 2017!
• Their shop consists of three rooms: the clean room where they perform hand work, the dusty room is where the belt grinders are housed and the hot house room where all of the forging happens. They have enough stations for 6 students at one time.
• Due to the lack of good quality anvils being available in South Africa, Kevin designed an anvil pattern and had a group of 12 cast. He talks about the process and what it was like seeking out foundries and heat treaters in South Africa.
• They will be coming to the US to demonstrate at the SOFA Quad State Round up in September 2016. The demonstration will be making a Zulu Assegai (spear) where the blade length, excluding the narrow tang, is between 14 – 16 inches. The demo will involve forging the blade, heat treating it, grinding and polishing. The wooden shaft will be made at their home in South Africa from royal wood known as “pink ivory” which was only used by Zulu chiefs in their weapons. Heather will be giving a presentation and lecture on the Zulu culture and the history of the Assegai weapon.
• Heather is not able to forge anymore due to having some injuries to her right thumb and left forearm. The injuries are not related to forging, they were separate accidents that happened on their farm.

Guest Links

• Heavin Forge Website – heavinforge.co.za
• American Bladesmith Society - http://www.americanbladesmith.com/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor –Sothern Ohio Forge and Anvil organization, http://www.sofablacksmiths.org/index.html

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• Delyth has a clay background for her education which includes a Bachelor of Art and a Masters from the Royal College of Art in London. After her education, she exhibited her clay art in many venues and also completed some bronze castings.
• She began as a ceramics and clay teacher at an art school in Cardiff that offers a single discipline Ceramics degree. This led to becoming the course director for the program at the school.
• After a few years of running the ceramics program in Cardiff, Delyth felt that she would like to move to the next step in her career. A position opened at the Hereford College of the Arts to oversee all of the programs at the college, Delyth applied and was hired.
• After being at Hereford for 10 years and working with the students, Delyth saw the need for a master’s program to be developed for the contemporary art students, so Delyth, along with a coworker, developed a 45 week Master’s degree program in Contemporary Craft.
• Hereford College of the Arts offers a 3-year Artist Blacksmiths program that teaches a solid grounding in history and in critical ways of thinking about creative practice. This is done by simultaneously teaching process and design creation, always pushing the student to generate design ideas from their inspirations. The program also includes a professional work placement, creating a professional portfolio and business plan.
• Delyth talks about her ABANA conference experience in Salt Lake City and how she led a series of lectures along with Rick Smith and Heiner Zimmerman.
• The Ypres International Blacksmithing Event will be held in Ypres, Belgium, September 1 – 6th and Delyth has organized a lecture series with some of the 24 master blacksmiths that have been selected to forge a panel during the event.
• Another project that Delyth is spearheading involves coordinating a major international, contemporary, forged metal touring exhibition, called “Transition” to coincide with the Ypres event and then continuing on, travelling to other countries and galleries. The exhibition’s theme is about the transitions that happen during the first world war in landscape, languages, and process.
• The exhibition drew over 90 art submissions from 15 different countries. A panel of 5 judges took 6 weeks to look over the submissions and select 40 pieces of art to be in the exhibition.

Guest Links

• Hereford College of Arts website - http://www.hca.ac.uk/Courses/University-Level/BA-(Hons)/Artist-Blacksmithing
• Ypres International Blacksmith Event website – Ypres2016.com

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – www.Ypres2016.com

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• Philip received a degree in 1986 for graphic design. He then went to the Academy of Fine Art in Brussels, Belgium for 7 years and received a Blacksmithing degree. Belgium is one of the only countries in the world that has an art school sponsored by the Government and it offers a Blacksmithing degree!
• Philip is now a teacher for the blacksmith program at the Academy. Besides teaching the skills and techniques of the craft he also teaches about the history of ornamental ironwork to his students.
• As a teacher, Philip encourages his students to draw every day to help enhance their own style and body of work. He thinks it is very important to sketch ideas out first and then make a scaled 1:1 drawing before going into the shop.

• Philip’s design for the Ypres panel has beautiful pointed tabs as connections that wrap around a rod. The tabs are part of three masks that are the main design of the panel. The three masks represent the three fates. Three sisters appeared in Greek and Roman mythology and were believed to “spin out” the destiny of a child at birth, through spinning the thread of life. Their names in Greek were Clotho, (“the spinner”), Lachesis (“the apportioner”, measurer) and Atropos (“the inevitable”, the cutter).
• He will make and bring very fine chisels to the Ypres event because his design involves a lot of fine cuts for the pointed tabs.
• Philip two grandfathers were involved with WW1, one worked in a war camp and escaped and the other grandfather was in the underground Resistance.
• Philip is also the editor of the Belgian Blacksmith Association’s newsletter that is released every three months, it is called “The Rivet”. The Association has around 200 members.

What We Talked About

• Industrially trained in Australia as a blacksmith and boiler maker. He has spent several years as a journeyman overseas working, learning and collaborating with some of the best smiths in England, USA, Russia, Europe, Ukraine and
• Ultimo TAFE is the only school that teaches blacksmithing in Australia, it is in Sydney. The program focuses on industrial blacksmithing.
• Will thinks that the blacksmith craft is growing in Australia, though it is still a pretty small community. Their New South Wales Blacksmith Association has about 130 members.
• After learning the industrial smithing, Will decided to travel abroad to experience artistic blacksmithing. Will was able to work with Terry Clark on two sets of large gates for Oxford University.
• Getting blacksmith tools is difficult in Australia, but there is a company who is now distributing a few blacksmith supply tools, the company is Gameco Pty Ltd. The CEO of the company is sponsoring Will to go to the Ypres event to forge a panel for the cenotaph sculpture.
• The title of his Ypres panel design is “Human Tangle” and it has a few abstract human forms with elongated arms and legs entangled with each other. Expressing the progression and regression of determining what is right from wrong, determining their own fate.
• The human forms will be riveted to the frame and where they cross each other he will pin (a very small rivet) them together.
• Will really enjoyed the process of coming up with a bunch of designs for the Ypres panel and he may pursue them in future pieces.

Guest Links

• Website: http://www.willblacksmith.com.au/

Thank you to Ypres 2016 International Blacksmithing Event, www.ypres2016.com

What We Talked About

• Sandra received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Waterloo University, but discovered blacksmithing while in a painting class with a friend who worked with a glass artist. That artist set up a forge to make lamps and after Sandra came in to try it, the thee set up a shop together.
• After a year at the shop, Sandra gave up her night job teaching art to focus on blacksmithing full time. She says she knew nothing and had no skills, but took two weekend courses and attended some ABANA conferences. “That’s really what enabled me to learn. Just the environment of people who are extremely open and friendly.”
• After forging full time for four years, Sandra joined with coppersmith Stephen White. They worked together 14 years, which allowed her to learn about how to work with copper.
• Dunn recently won a public art competition for a piece that’s displayed at the Waterloo Service Center (the city department that deals with sewers). She describes the piece as a section of “sewer pipe” suspended 12’ in the air with a column of copper “water” coming from the pipe and three fish swimming in and out of the water before it pours into a drain in the ground.
• Sandra explains how several grants have enabled her to travel, research and ultimately build several pieces, including a commercial door using a full sheet of copper.
• Dunn’s best advice on landing grants is to have really good photos of your work. She says her writing skills and English degree also come in handy.
• Sandra spent 12 years as a seasonal instructor at Haliburton College of Fine Arts in Ontario teaching Forge Fundamentals, Applied Design and History of Ornamental Ironwork, but ultimately left because of the 4-hour commute and the increasing time commitment.
• For this September’s Ypres International Blacksmithing event in Belgium, Sandra will appear as a master blacksmith. She will design and build one panel of 25 that will surround a 12-ton World War I Cenotaph (empty tomb) to be installed in a public park.
• Her panel design consists of several plant stalks leaning at angles and at different heights. Each one will have about 20 bronze discs as flower tops to represent the ID tags the soldiers wore. Each disc will be stamped with words from actual letters describing the soldier’s experiences, desires and fears.
• Sandra’s father is a veteran and her grandfather fought in WWI, so this piece has significant personal meaning to her.
• As for the techniques involved in creating the piece on the spot, she’s feeling confident. She will use traditional joinery techniques and try to keep it simple so it can be installed in the two day window.

Guest Links

• www.twosmiths.ca

What We Talked About

• At 12 years old, James became interested in the blacksmith craft one year when he saw a blacksmith hammering on an anvil at a local fair.
• He soon became active in the local Appalachian Blacksmith Association to learn and expand his skills.
• The book “Country Blacksmithing” by Charles McRaven was a great resource for James, as well as “Professional Smithing” by Darryl Streeter.
• To further his career as a blacksmith he applied for an apprenticeship with Dragon Forge in Colorado. Craig May introduced James to being a modern blacksmith by using modern blacksmith equipment, hydraulic presses, and power hammers. He was an apprentice there for 5 years.
• For the past 10 years, he has been the main artist blacksmith at Living Design Studios, Inc. They design and create large commercial commissions as well as private residential commissions.
• James has been picked to be a Master blacksmith at the Ypres 2016 International Blacksmith event. His panel design was one of the winning designs picked from the 104 designs submitted.
• His panel design includes nine different examples of shovels from WW1. Each shovel has its own unique design based on the country of where it was made.
• When asked how he came up with the idea of using shovels in his design, he said the simple utilitarian item played a big role each soldier’s lives during that time, in living, in surviving and in death. When looking at old pictures from WW1, you would almost always see a shovel in the picture.
• While attending the event in Belgium, James will take a full-size drawing of the panel and possibly a small maquette to help with communicating the design to his assisting smiths.

Guest Links

Living Design Studios, Inc website - http://livingdesignstudios.com/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – www.ypres2016.com

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• Phil Johnson, Shona’s father, was interested in blacksmithing from seeing his father-in-law’s forged work (this would be Shona’s grandfather, a blacksmith) and soon discovered the BABA, British Artist Blacksmith Organization. This is when he really went down the path to becoming a full time blacksmith and founded the P Johnson & Co as a blacksmith business.
• The company also has a designer, Jois Hunter, who turns ideas into sketches, detailed drawings and models, contributing much to the success and achievements of the business.
• Shona studied agriculture and worked in farms and loved working with the livestock and the way of life. Though she couldn’t see a future career in agriculture. In 1989 her father asked her to come work at the company while she figured out what to do next, it’s 2016 and she’s still there at the company blacksmithing.
• She learned a lot from her father and from working with other smiths at hammer-ins and conferences.
• The company makes a variety of gates, railings, and sculptures through commissions. They also work with Municipal parks for public sculptures.
• Shona has been invited to design and make a panel for the Ypres 2016 WW1 Memorial. Her panel design tells a story of her grandfather and his brother meeting each other near the front lines during WW1. Her grandfather was a sniper for the Royal Irish Rifles and heard that his brother Johnny was close by on the front lines, so he sent a note to him saying “let’s try to meet. They each rode bicycles to meet each other during the war to talk about family and home.

Here is Shona’s account of her panel design:

The Finnegan Brothers, Thoughts of Home

My Granddad, Jimmy Finnegan volunteered in 1914 when he was 17 years old leaving his blacksmithing apprenticeship to join the Royal Irish Rifles. While serving on the front line, as a sniper, he got word that his brother, Jonny Finnegan, was billeted nearby. The two brothers managed to send messages to each other and arranged a time and place to meet on the reserve line. Both borrowed bicycles and remarkably meet up and spent a short precious time together before returning to their regiments and the job of war. The brothers would not meet again until several years later, at the end of the war, home in their beloved Edinburgh. Jonny returning from fighting on the front line & Jimmy liberated from a German prisoner of war camp.

I wanted to capture the essence of the brother’s rendezvous, caught between the harsh reality of the war, death, despair and the ravaged landscape and their thoughts and chat of cherished family and friends many miles away back home in Edinburgh. The stunted trees represent the war torn landscape with the brothers greeting each other towards the center of the panel and memories of home symbolized by crow-stepped gabled houses and the tall tenement buildings of Edinburgh, home to the Finnegan family.

Shona Johnson Ratho Byres Forge April 2016

• Shona and her husband are planning on making and bring custom tooling needed to texture and finish the panel. She’s also planning on bring a life sized drawing of the panel as well.
• The Ratho Byers Forge (where their business is out of) held a poppy making workshop and had around 20 blacksmiths show up to make 200 poppies to donate to the Ypres event.

Guest Links

• P Johnson & Co Business website - http://rathobyresforge.co.uk/?q=node/2
• Facebook – P Johnson & Co at Rytho Byers Forge, https://www.facebook.com/pjohnsonandcompanyatrathobyresforge/?fref=ts

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Ypres 2016 International Blacksmith Event, www.Ypres2016.com

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
• subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
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What We Talked About

• The book “The Backyard Blacksmith” is celebrating its 10th year in publication and still the number 1 blacksmithing book on the market!
• Lorelei was inspired by her grandfather and his copper organic looking metalwork. This was her connection to botanical work in metal, hence the subject for the new publication.
• When Lorelei makes botanically inspired metalwork, she first dissects the organic forms such as the flower, the bud, the vine. Then she organizes each piece in an eye pleasing composition.
• “Organic Metalworking” is Lorelei’s next publication, similar to a magazine format and size it will concentrate on her floral and organic techniques. This serial publication was released in March of th2016. To get information on how to purchase “Organic Metalworking” visit http://www.blacksmithchic.com/ .
• Queue McMillan is the editor and designer of the Organic Metalworking publication, so she and Lorelei first had to fit all of the content into 3 distinct categories; tools/ equipment, techniques, and projects. So they decided to concentrate on the vine and leaf motif for each of the categories.
• Lorelei remembers when Quarry publications contacted her to write the “Backyard Blacksmith” and the first thing she remembers was thinking… “how hard can it be?”. At the time, she was offered a one-time writers fee with no future royalties.
• This first edition of Organic Metalworking was dedicated to Dano Goostree who was a blacksmith. His specialty was adhering copper to the bottom of cookware, which is a lost art. He passed away in 2013.
• The second publication of Organic Metalworking will be about the woodlands and should be released in the next year or so.

Guest Links

• Lorelei’s website - http://www.blacksmithchic.com/index.html
• BlacksmithChic Business Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/fivepointsblacksmithshop?fref=ts
• A Craftsmen Legacy episode with Lorelei - http://www.craftsmanslegacy.com/episodes/season_1/Episode-9

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
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What We Talked About

• The event takes place in September 2016 to arrange the meeting of 300 to 400 blacksmiths and farriers from around the world. They will erect a 22-foot cenotaph surrounded by 2016 poppies and 25 panels to form a lasting memorial for all who were affected by WW1.
• There is a core group that is organizing this large international event, there are 8 in the group. The group also has help from country representatives, a group of blacksmiths in the UK and Hereford College students are also helping.
• The idea started in 2009 when a group of UK blacksmiths collaborated on a large sculpture called the “Pillar of Friendship” in Liverpool UK. Luc Vandacasteele, a Belgian smith, started thinking about doing another collaborative blacksmith event in Ypres, Belgium because of the importance of the Menin Gate, a memorial built in 1927 for soldiers that were never found. Luc brought the idea to the BABA Association to see if they would like to help with the organization of the event.
• Luc has done a tremendous amount of work in the way of organization of donated materials for the sculpture. He has coordinated the donation of services and materials for local businesses.
• The companies that have donated their services and materials are:
  • A German steel supplier donated the material for the cenotaph. The raw material for the cenotaph alone costs just over 10,000 euros, its 23 ft tall, 6 ft wide, 4 inches thick and 12.5 tons.
  • A Belgian engineering company donated their cutting services to plasma cut the positive and negative part of the poppy in the cenotaph.
  • Another Belgian company donated their services to making the steel frame that will mount the cenotaph.
  • A Belgian concrete company has donated the pre-cast concrete mound that will hold the 2016 poppies.
  • Transportation of materials, structural engineering calculations, and many other services have been done free of charge.
• The core group is still working on raising the remaining money needed, about 80,000 pounds to cover the setup of the market with tents, forges, anvils, swage blocks, etc all in one day, also to reimburse the 25 Masters will incur for traveling to the event. A crowd funding campaign has been started to raise the funds, you can see and donate here, https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ypres-2016-blacksmith-farrier-cenotaph#/
• This blacksmith event is one of many in the town of Ypres happening for the centennial commemoration of the great war. Luc applied to the Ypres mayor years ago to have access to the center market for a week long blacksmith event.
• For the last 90 years, every night at 8 o’clock the local fire brigade provides buglers who play the last post at Menin Gate. The building is always full to capacity and for those who have applied ahead of time, there is a chance to lay a wreath in memory of a loved one. The core group has arranged for a blacksmith ceremony at Menin Gate one of the nights, it will include laying a wreath of poppies forged from children around the world.
• Alan recommends for us to read about the Jones Brothers, the article is on the Ypres 2016 website, http://www.ypres2016.com/category/the-great-war-stories/. A sample panel has been forged in honor of the Jones boys.
• The 25 panels that will surround the cenotaph will have interpretive information about each design so the half a million visitors per year can connect to WW1 and the memorial. 10 masters were invited and have accepted to design and make a panel each. 16 more blacksmiths have been chosen through a competition that was held internationally. Seven members of the core group reviewed 104 designs that were submitted for the competition. The 25 Masters that have been chosen are:
  • SHONA JOHNSON - SCOTLAND
  • KHEIR AKER - ISREAL
  • TAKAYOSHI KOMINE - JAPAN
  • PETER DE BEUS - BELGUIM
  • WILL MAGUIRE - AUSTRALIA
  • FRANSISCO GAZITUA - CHILI
  • ACHIM KUHN - GERMANY
  • VLADAMIR SOKHONEVICH - RUSSIA
  • JEFFRY FUNK – AMERICA
  • SANDRA DUNN - CANADA
  • STEVEN LAURIJS – NETHERLANDS
  • JIM WHITSON - SCOTLAND
  • EGOR BAVYKIN - RUSSIA
  • ONDREJ GELA – CZECHLOSLOVAKIA
  • AMBROSE BURNE – UNITED KINGDOM
  • IVAN KADOCHNIKOV - RUSSIA
  • ROBERTO GIORDANI - ITALY
  • ALEXANDER SUSHNIKOV - RUSSIA
  • GIOVANNI SARTORI - ITALY
  • JAMES MAKELY - AMERICA
  • BENJAMIN KJELLMAN-CHAPIN - NORWAY
  • JACOB HAGGERTY – UNITED KINGDOM
  • PATRICK PELGROMS - BELGIUM
  • PHILIP VERCAMMEN - BELGIUM
  • PAUL MIKULA – SOUTH AFRICA
• There is an opportunity to register as a delegate to have the opportunity to forge with the master’s teams. The registration sign up is on the website here, http://www.ypres2016.com/delegate-registration/
• An exhibition of curated forged work will also be set up next to the event called “Transitions”. Delyth Done is in charge of curating and organizing the exhibition. The exhibition will continue to tour around Europe after the Ypres event.

Guest Links

• Ypres 2016 website – ypres2016.com
• Alan Dawson’s website - http://www.adaptahaus.co.uk/artmetal.php

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Ypres 2016 International Blacksmith event, www.2016.com

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
• subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
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Thanks so much for your support!

What We Talked About

• The event takes place in September 2016 to arrange the meeting of 300 to 400 blacksmiths and farriers from around the world. They will erect a 22-foot cenotaph surrounded by 2016 poppies and 25 panels to form a lasting memorial for all who were affected by WW1.
• There is a core group that is organizing this large international event, there are 8 in the group. The group also has help from country representatives, a group of blacksmiths in the UK and Hereford College students are also helping.
• The idea started in 2009 when a group of UK blacksmiths collaborated on a large sculpture called the “Pillar of Friendship” in Liverpool UK. Luc Vandacasteele, a Belgian smith, started thinking about doing another collaborative blacksmith event in Ypres, Belgium because of the importance of the Menin Gate, a memorial built in 1927 for soldiers that were never found. Luc brought the idea to the BABA Association to see if they would like to help with the organization of the event.
• Luc has done a tremendous amount of work in the way of organization of donated materials for the sculpture. He has coordinated the donation of services and materials for local businesses.
• The companies that have donated their services and materials are:
  • A German steel supplier donated the material for the cenotaph. The raw material for the cenotaph alone costs just over 10,000 euros, its 23 ft tall, 6 ft wide, 4 inches thick and 12.5 tons.
  • A Belgian engineering company donated their cutting services to plasma cut the positive and negative part of the poppy in the cenotaph.
  • Another Belgian company donated their services to making the steel frame that will mount the cenotaph.
  • A Belgian concrete company has donated the pre-cast concrete mound that will hold the 2016 poppies.
  • Transportation of materials, structural engineering calculations, and many other services have been done free of charge.
• The core group is still working on raising the remaining money needed, about 80,000 pounds to cover the setup of the market with tents, forges, anvils, swage blocks, etc all in one day, also to reimburse the 25 Masters will incur for traveling to the event. A crowd funding campaign has been started to raise the funds, you can see and donate here, https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ypres-2016-blacksmith-farrier-cenotaph#/
• This blacksmith event is one of many in the town of Ypres happening for the centennial commemoration of the great war. Luc applied to the Ypres mayor years ago to have access to the center market for a week long blacksmith event.
• For the last 90 years, every night at 8 o’clock the local fire brigade provides buglers who play the last post at Menin Gate. The building is always full to capacity and for those who have applied ahead of time, there is a chance to lay a wreath in memory of a loved one. The core group has arranged for a blacksmith ceremony at Menin Gate one of the nights, it will include laying a wreath of poppies forged from children around the world.
• Alan recommends for us to read about the Jones Brothers, the article is on the Ypres 2016 website, http://www.ypres2016.com/category/the-great-war-stories/. A sample panel has been forged in honor of the Jones boys.
• The 25 panels that will surround the cenotaph will have interpretive information about each design so the half a million visitors per year can connect to WW1 and the memorial. 10 masters were invited and have accepted to design and make a panel each. 16 more blacksmiths have been chosen through a competition that was held internationally. Seven members of the core group reviewed 104 designs that were submitted for the competition. The 25 Masters that have been chosen are:
  • SHONA JOHNSON - SCOTLAND
  • KHEIR AKER - ISREAL
  • TAKAYOSHI KOMINE - JAPAN
  • PETER DE BEUS - BELGUIM
  • WILL MAGUIRE - AUSTRALIA
  • FRANSISCO GAZITUA - CHILI
  • ACHIM KUHN - GERMANY
  • VLADAMIR SOKHONEVICH - RUSSIA
  • JEFFRY FUNK – AMERICA
  • SANDRA DUNN - CANADA
  • STEVEN LAURIJS – NETHERLANDS
  • JIM WHITSON - SCOTLAND
  • EGOR BAVYKIN - RUSSIA
  • ONDREJ GELA – CZECHLOSLOVAKIA
  • AMBROSE BURNE – UNITED KINGDOM
  • IVAN KADOCHNIKOV - RUSSIA
  • ROBERTO GIORDANI - ITALY
  • ALEXANDER SUSHNIKOV - RUSSIA
  • GIOVANNI SARTORI - ITALY
  • JAMES MAKELY - AMERICA
  • BENJAMIN KJELLMAN-CHAPIN - NORWAY
  • JACOB HAGGERTY – UNITED KINGDOM
  • PATRICK PELGROMS - BELGIUM
  • PHILIP VERCAMMEN - BELGIUM
  • PAUL MIKULA – SOUTH AFRICA
• There is an opportunity to register as a delegate to have the opportunity to forge with the master’s teams. The registration sign up is on the website here, http://www.ypres2016.com/delegate-registration/
• An exhibition of curated forged work will also be set up next to the event called “Transitions”. Delyth Done is in charge of curating and organizing the exhibition. The exhibition will continue to tour around Europe after the Ypres event.

Guest Links

• Ypres 2016 website – ypres2016.com
• Alan Dawson’s website - http://www.adaptahaus.co.uk/artmetal.php

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Ypres 2016 International Blacksmith event, www.Ypres2016.com

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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• Peggy says the Eureka Springs School of Art (ESSA) opened in 2001 and was originally called the School Without Walls because they didn’t have their own facility. Over time, however, they grew into a 40-acre campus that attracts students from all over the country. She says that 60% of their students come from out of state.
• Originally the school’s blacksmithing program was held outdoors and at satellite locations with classes taught by Bob Patrick. Because of high demand for blacksmithing, the school sought grant funding for a new studio. The studio opened its doors in 2014.
• The new Iron Studio houses four propane forges, two coal forges inside, one outside and stations for metal fabrication. Those stations include three welders, plasma cutters, a large air hammer and treadle hammer and more items being added each year.
• Bob Patrick designed the coal forges for the studio from scratch. He’s been blacksmithing since the late 1960s and is largely self-taught. His background is in horseshoeing, sleigh building and restoration. He also founded an ABANA chapter and has participated in four of their conferences.
• About winning the Bealer Award in 2002, Bob says, “A tremendous number of people who deserve this award will never get it. There’s no fairness to that. The award is a tremendous honor, but the best thing is getting to do the metalwork.”
• About blacksmithing as an art, Bob says, “Many times I feel I’m luckier than my customers because a lot of the things I’ll make on a piece look better when they’re red hot than they do when they’re installed and cleaned up and painted. We get to see it when it’s growing and alive.”
• Patty says that there’s a definite movement building in the Ozarks toward blacksmithing and even young people are showing interest. They recently worked with a local school providing art classes for kids for a week. With the new studio, they were able to offer an iron studio class with 1:1 supervision. She describes it as “amazing”. “I think there’s a young group coming up that really wants to understand this craft. They’re in their backyards with charcoal grills making metal hot and pounding it on a rock,” Peggy says.
• Bob says most of the classes at ESSA are beginner level, with a few intermediate. He’s also taught a gate building workshop.
• ESSA recently hosted a smelting event for the Blacksmiths of Arkansas organization and they used local iron ore. The 3-day event included building an outdoor furnace and then doing the smelting.
• When asked about book recommendations, Bob offered the following:

1. The Backyard Blacksmith by Lorelei Sims, because everything is within a beginner’s grasp;
2. The Smithy’s Craft and Tools by Otto Schmirler, because he shows all the basic techniques and “the drawings are magnificent”.

• ESSA is offering several 5-day workshops this summer including:

Beginning Metal Sculpture

Basics of Knife Making

Fire Tools for the Coal Forge and Fireplace

Forging Edged Tools

• Peggy says that while ESSA offers all of the arts and every medium, “Iron is our newest and hottest because we’ve got that brand new studio out there. Everybody’s fired up.”

Guest Links

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EurekaSpringsSchoolOfTheArts/photos
• Eureka Springs School of Art – www.essa-art.org
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EurekaSpringsArts

What We Talked About

• Jack’s father was a high school Industrial Arts teacher and Jack learned a lot about the metal field through osmosis from his father.
• 1972 Jack and his parents created the business “Klahm and Sons”, first as a furniture business, then it eventually became a full-on metal blacksmith business making gates and doing large restoration commissions. His shop was 12 ft by 12 ft, with a hand shear, a railroad track for an anvil, oxy/acetylene set up and an AC buzz box.
• Jack has a family history of metalsmiths – his great grandfather was a blacksmith and grandfather was a stainless steel metal worker in Germany.
• His shop now had 3 other smiths working with him and they have been there for 10 years.
• Jack’s first restoration project was the Iolani Palace in Hawaii. The project was to bring back the original metal color on a half a mile of fencing, 4 driveway entrance gates and 8 pedestrian gates.
• The second restoration project was the Royal Mausoleum in Hawaii, where all of the Hawaiian kings and Queens are buried.
• Jack’s family moved to Florida in 1985 and received another restoration project working on Samuel Yellin’s driveway gates at the National Historic Landmark of Vizcaya.
• His skills have all been self-taught. Growing up with dyslexia strengthened his perseverance to succeed, that paired with a high mechanical aptitude has grown his successful business.
• In 1992, Jack was commissioned by a client who didn’t want any rust to show up on the work for years to come, this is when Jack started to work primarily in Aluminum.
• Jack has learned over the years that the stories you can tell about your work. Projects and relationships with clients really sell your work for you.
• The ABANA 2016 Conference committee has asked Jack to be a demonstrator this summer. He will be giving demo’s on forging aluminum and bronze as well as a slideshow on Saturday showing his works over the past 43 years. The demonstrations will have a metallurgical flair to them, talking about the different alloys of aluminum and bronze.
• 1992, in Asheville North Carolina, was Jack’s last ABANA demonstration, where he was the first person to demonstrate forging aluminum.
• Jack has been a member of the NOMMA organization for many years, this has given him the ability to teach many students who have gone on to win NOMMA awards. Jack has also made teaching videos for NOMMA on creating curved staircases.
• When asked if he could learn from any blacksmith for a day, dead or alive, who would that be – he said from the people who aren’t with us anymore, Bill Gichner, Ernest Wiemann. He also mentioned Steve Swerzer, who lives close to Jack, Michael Bondi and Bob Bergman.

Guest Links

• Klahm and Sons Website - http://www.klahmandsons.com/
• ABANA Demonstrator Link - http://www.abana.org/Conferences/2016/contents/en-us/d16_Jack_Klahm.html

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA 2016 Conference, http://www.abana.org/Conferences/2016/index.html

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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His desire to give homage to those who proceeded him and his desire for information have led him to moderate several historical metal forums including the Society of American Silversmiths and Society of Arts & Crafts website. A creative innovator of materials and tools to create unique designs, Fred has attended and assisted in many workshops in metal and other media.

His focus in the past 30 years has been teaching metals classes. Teaching is a natural extension of his desire to share with others what he knows.

What We Talked About

• Fred started working with copper in high school making small sculptures.
• He continued his art career by being a bench jeweler and also a teacher.
• His first teaching job was with the Arts and Prisoners program in Anchorage, Alaska. He also taught a metals class with the Tucson Arts and Recreation program for 19 years.
• He has made copper outdoor fountains for a living in Tucson, now Fred currently makes brooches that entail landscape designs.
• Fred will be a demonstrator at the ABANA 2016 conference, he will be demonstrating chasing on 20-gauge copper. He will also be teaching a hands-on workshop there and he is prepping 10 pitch bowls with 20 sets of bumping and texture tools for the student’s stations.
• The most memorable times for Fred while teaching and working with students, is when they have that “ah-ha” moment.
• His desire to give homage to those who proceeded him and his desire for information have led him to moderate several historical metal forums including the Society of American Silversmiths and Society of Arts & Crafts website.
• Fred has become so talented in chasing and repousse by respecting the process of the techniques. He designs around a process and he works in multiples (makes 3 of the same design). This allows you to give yourself the freedom to explore different areas with different end results.
• These days, Fred works as a mechanical designer and teaches art on the side.
• Fred recommends some chasing and repousse books such as:
  • Marsha Lewis – “Chasing” book
  • Adolf Steines – “Moving Metal – The Art of Chasing and Repousse”
  • Nancy Megan Corwin – “Chasing and Repousse”

Guest Links

Zweig Video on Chasing & Repousse

fredz49.blogspot.com

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA 2016 Conference, www.abana.org/2016slc .

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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He completed his academic studies with a Master’s Degree in art and did additional studies in welding and restoration. His knowledge and skill led to a professorship at University Gothenburg Sweden which, like Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is one of only a few colleges in the world to offer advanced art degrees with a focus on blacksmithing.

What We Talked About

• Heiner shares that his childhood was always filled with a supportive artistic environment. He spent a lot of time in his father’s forge and had the opportunity to forge his own first piece at the age of 12, it was a sword.
• By the age of 16 Heiner was already working in the forge assisting with forging, striking and installations. Around that age you needed to choose your career path and blacksmithing was, at first, not Heiner’s first choice. Though, after thinking about it some more, he chose to become a blacksmith and was educated by his father for 3 ½ years.
• Heiner learned his first business lesson at a blacksmith conference when Dick Quinnell offered to buy Heiner’s candle holder from the gallery. Heiner sold it to him for a paltry price, then Dick Quinnell said “OK, I will now take it home and sell it for twice the price, so now I have taught you a business lesson”.
• Through the 1990’s Heiner received a few grants to be able to further his education by apprenticing with other blacksmiths around the world. The most important lesson he learned through his travels was that the world became smaller to him which made him focus on the similarities that the blacksmiths share, things that unite them, not the things that divide them. This revelation works it way into Heiner's artwork.
• Heiner has a lot of thoughts on the blacksmith craft and where it’s going in the 21st He will address his thoughts and ideas at the ABANA 2016 conference during his lecture. He will talk about what a blacksmith’s role is in today’s world, what they represent and how does society view blacksmiths today.
• The blacksmith craft started centuries ago from people taking risks with innovation such as punching holes in hot iron and forge welding. These techniques have been handed down over generations and Heiner feels a great responsibility to preserve the craft and keep it alive. His contributions to preserving the craft are being open minded to trying new things, taking risks, creating new contemporary techniques, pushing the boundaries.
• When ABANA approached Heiner to give a lecture at this year’s “Education” themed conference, Heiner had an idea to include leaders from the three most prominent higher education institutions that offer a blacksmith program, Southern Illinois University, Hereford College of the Arts and University of Gothenburg. ABANA agreed to include Rick Smith from SIU and Delyth Done from Hereford to join Heiner in lecturing on higher education and intentions and practice in the craft. They will also hold a “critique talk” panel discussion where they will critique pieces made from attendees.
• Heiner talks about how to be a successful blacksmith today in business terms. Competing with manufacturing will not work in today’s world, so selling the process and the story behind the piece will work. He discusses the difference between functional design and sculptural design, the intention, the process and how we communicate as artists.
• The metal art program where Heiner teaches (Craft and Design at Steneby, University of Gothenburg) their first-year students to take risks, experiment and develop an artistic language for themselves. Then they move onto the business part of things, marketing, curating and exhibiting.

Guest Links

• Heiner’s website - heinerzimmermann.de
• The University of Gothenburg at Steneby - http://www.hdk.gu.se/en/programmes-courses/crafts-and-design-steneby

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA 2016 Conference, http://www.abana.org/Conferences/2016/index.html

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
• subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
• subscribing to the show in Stitcher, http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=54499&refid=stpr

What We Talked About

• Jeff and the crew in the Paley Studios are currently preparing a few public art installations that will be installed on a few different states across the country. One of them is destined for Colorado and it about 22 ft tall and 10,000 lbs. One of the other pieces will be installed on a hurricane wall which will be 42 ft long, and around 7000 lbs of stainless steel.
• One of Jeff’s main duties as the shop Forman is to make sure that sculptures are ready to be worked on when Albert is there at the shop. Albert has a very busy travel schedule due to the many lectures he gives across the country and to the classes he teaches, so Albert’s time in the shop is limited and Jeff makes the most of that time by being as efficient as possible.
• Jeff’s educational background is in painting (watercolors) and he attended SUNY Brockport to receive a Bachelors of art. Jeff met Albert for the first time in a jewelry class that Jeff took and Albert was the instructor.
• When Jeff finished college he went to work for Tom Markusen doing forging and learning how to weld, use a power hammer and a coal forge.
• Also, during the summers Jeff worked in a historical reenactment museum in the blacksmith shop. This is where he taught himself more traditional blacksmith skills.
• For 7 years, 1980 – 87, Jeff was working at a structural steel firm and every year he would approach Albert to hire him to work in the studio. Albert hired him on to work part-time at night, so Jeff was working both jobs for about a year until Jeff was laid off from the structural steel firm. He then asked Albert for a full-time job and got it!
• Paley Studios is now in a 40,000 sq ft building, 10,000 of it is upstairs with the offices, archives, and a print storage room. The shop is 25,000 sq ft and about 7,000 sq ft of warehouse for storage.
• Currently, there are 14 employees in the shop working on the floor. They perform most of the grinding, welding and torch work. Jeff and Albert do most of the forging. They end up hiring out a lot of the cutting, machining and forming to subcontractors.
• Jeff stays busy at the studio with coordinating: the ordering of materials, the scheduling of outside contractors, photo shoots of finished pieces, ongoing projects of Albert’s series work, installing art and the ongoing submittals for public art.
• Jeff talks about the differences in character between him and Albert, and how those differences have enhanced their working relationship for the past 30 years.
• This summer, in Salt Lake City Utah, Jeff will be giving a few lectures at the ABANA Conference covering the day to day operations at the studio and the NYC Park Ave installation of 13 sculptures.

Guest Links

• Jeff’s Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/jeffrey.jubenville?fref=ts
• Paley studios website - http://www.albertpaley.com/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA 2016 Conference in SLC, Utah.

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• He learned to blacksmith at a very young age and spent a lot of time in his father’s shop. He continued his education learning about metal and building restoration.
• Tony Benneton was a big influence on Roberto’s vision of metal and how it can be transformed into modern forms and sculpture.
• He worked with Alfred Habermann at the Helfenstien Castle for two weeks where he made a sculpture for the castle property.
• Roberto met Claudio Bottero about 15 years ago and has worked with him at various times over that period. He has demonstrated and taught at The Claudio Bottero School in Stia, Italy and at his school that he founded called the Arts Factory. This is an international school that invites artist and craftsmen of many disciplines to come to his studio and teach both traditional and modern techniques.
• His ABANA Conference demonstration will include making a sculpture titled “Steelhead”
• While Roberto is in the US for one month, he will also visit the state of Virginia to teach a 4 day class and to New York state to teach another 4 day class as well.

SHORT CHRONOLOGY

2015 Mount Hood, USA. Teaching at C.B.A (California and Oregon Blacksmith Association).

2014 Anchiari (Tuscany), Personal exhibition.

2013 Sansepolcro (Tuscany). “Plasticity Iron”, personal exhibition at Franco Alessandrini Gallery.

2013 Bagno di Romagna. From iron to art”, personal exhibition at Palazzo del Capitano.

2012 Cesena. “Metamorphosis of metal”. Personal exhibition at Palazzo del Ridotto modern art gallery.

2012 Kolbermoor, Germany, “Iron Modern Sculptures”, collective exhibit.

2012 Barcelona, Spain. Impromptu performance at Forja Viva.

2012 San Francisco, USA. Forging performance at the C.B.A. Spring Conference.

2011 Helfstyn Castle, Czech Republic. “Sculptured by Fire”, personal exhibition.

2010 Brussel, Belgium. “Feu & Fer”, personal exhibition.

2006 Helfstyn Forum, Czech Republic. “Energies Meeting”, public performance.

2006 Kiruna, Sweden. Ice Sculpture at the Kiruna Snow Festival (“Meteor”, third prize).

2005 Stia (Tuscany), Forging performance contest, 1st prize.

2004 Chefchaouen, Morocco. Teacher at “Forging Fundamentals” international training course.

PUBLICATIONS

“CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN SMITHS”, Antonello Rizzo, edited by Rizzo, 2015

“IL LETTO E DINTORNI”, Giuseppe Ciscato, edited by Alinea, 2000

“LA MAGIA DEL FERRO BATTUTO ITALIANO”, Giuseppe Ciscato, edited by Alinea

“METAL DESIGN International 2008”, Elgass Peter, edited by Hephaistos Jahrbuch, 2008

“SCULTURE, Roberto Giordani”, edited by Petruzzi, 2007

“FROM FIRE TO FORM “, Mathew S. Clarke, edited by Schiffer, 2008

“I MAESTRI ITALIANI DEL FERRO BATTUTO 2“, Giuseppe Ciscato, edited by Alinea, 2007

“DAMASCUS“, Emilio Albericci, Flavio Galizzi and Luca Pizzi, edited by Rizzo, 2010

Guest Links

http://www.corsiferrobattuto.com/en/ http://www.giordaniscultura.it/index.html http://www.robertogiordani.com/index.html

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA 2016 Conference

Maybe more pictures

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What We Talked About

• Charles is currently teaching at an Art College and he tells his students to think of different ways a project can be re-used to aid in being efficient.
• He still writes for a variety of publications, currently the Sante Fe Symposium Conference has asked him to write a chapter in their annual book they publish.
• Charles talks about the time he spent in a German art school, which is where he came up with the fold forming technique. Many revered jewelers also attended this same school such as Alan Revere, Charon Kransen, and Harold O’Conner.
• The first exposure of Charles demonstrating the fold forming technique was in 1985 at the SNAG (Society of North American Goldsmiths) conference in Toronto, Canada.
• The first exposure that blacksmiths had to fold forming was when Charles demonstrated at the 1987 ABANA Conference in Alfred, NY. Tom Joyce was assisting Charles with fold forming steel on the power hammer.
• His roommate at this 1987 conference was Daryl Meier, who was a skilled bladesmith that was well known in the bladesmith world, the jewelry world and the blacksmith world. They both noticed that in the blacksmith world there was no hierarchy of skilled to beginner, everyone would talk to everyone.
• Charles recommends artists schedule an hour a week of playtime in the shop with no particular goal in mind, from this ideas are born.
• Pay attention to your mistakes instead of rejecting them, he says “If you make the same mistake three times, it’s a technique”.

Guest Links

His website - http://www.brainpress.com/

The Ganoskin Project website - http://www.ganoksin.com/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA 2016 Conference

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• Monica has been blacksmithing for 12 years. She went to a local Hamer-in at Weaverville, CA and took a class with Mark Aspery. This sparked her passion for the craft.
• She then sought out opportunities to learn and apprentice with experienced blacksmiths such as Toby Hickman and Daniel Miller. She spent 2 years as an apprentice with Toby.
• 4 years later she quit her job at the welding fabrication shop and built and off grid shop on her and her husband’s land.
• Monica tells us how her husband built her forge shop from the ground up that is completely off the grid! The shop has solar and hydro power along with a backup diesel generator if needed.
• When Monica was asked to be a demonstrator at ABANA, she knew she wanted to show the sliding dovetail joint techniques that she has been perfecting for the last 4 years.
• Regarding her thought process on the sculpture design that she came up with for the ABANA demo she thought about where in your body would a sliding dovetail joint fit. Naturally it would be at the biggest pivot joint in your body, at the hips, where the spine connects to the pelvic bone.
• Deeper research into the pelvic bone pointed Monica to Greek Mythology. The word “Ilium” comes from the word “ilia” and “ilia” is another name for Rhea Silvia. Rhea Silvia was the mother of Romulus and Remus who founded Rome, therefore Rhea or Ilia can be interpreted to be the mother of civilization. When Monica works with metal she is always trying to understand the connection between the civilized world and the natural world.
• For her Ilia design she will start with 1” square stock to make the Ilium or the hip bones, she will use ¾” square bar to make the tailbone (or the tenon part of the dovetail joint) and the wedge pin, representing the spine, will be made from 1’2” square stock.
• Monica studied woodworking in college and made some wooden dovetail joints before and she had always wanted to make that joint in metal. The first metal dovetail joint she made was about 4 years ago and she has been perfecting the techniques, angles and ways to use them.
• Mike Limb will be Monica’s assistant at ABANA and they have been friends for many years. Monica met Mike Limb at the Weaverville Hammer-in and they have both grown their blacksmith skills together there.

Monica Coyne’s Links:

Website – http://www.monicacoyneartistblacksmith.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MonicaCoyneArtistBlacksmith

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA 2016 Conference, http://www.abana.org/Conferences/2016/index.html

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Guest Intro:

Douglas Pryor lives in Rockland, California and works as a repousse artist, primarily making armor. When possible, he uses only hand tools to mimic the authentic conditions of ancient time periods. His main techniques are sculpting, raising, chasing and repousse. Douglas also moonlights as a parkour instructor. He’s been selected as one of the demonstrators for this year’s ABANA Conference in Salt Lake City.

What we talked about:

• Douglas got into armor making because he liked roughhousing as a kid, but found it could be painful. Instead of stopping the activity, he fashioned suits of protection out of gutter sheet metal and catcher helmets. That ultimately led him to look deeper into the topic of armor and he began taking metalworking courses.

• He went to college for a welding program and was immediately hooked on metalwork. “I knew I wanted to work with metal as I continued to kind of fall in love with the elasticity and how much shape and three-dimensional form you can get into it. It captivated me.” He says he owes much of his success to amazing instructors at Sierra College and access to a lot of good information early in his studies.

• But it turned out welding was not his passion. “The deeper I got, the more I wanted to NOT weld. The more proficient I got at modern techniques, the more interested I got in traditional techniques.” He began to explore how these arts were performed in the past.

• Douglas works mostly with 10-12 gauge steel because many of his pieces must be able to hold up to full contact sports. He almost exclusively uses hand hammers and tooling versus pneumatic tools to make the process more historically authentic.

• Douglas says that he’s able to make a decent living in this line of work selling armor pieces. He mostly works on commissioned items and he usually has up to eight people in cue for projects from all over the world. He estimates he works 40-60 hours per week on these projects.

• As a side job, Douglas works as an instructor at a parkour gym he helped build. He loves the physical aspect of dynamic human movement and enjoys working with people in a completely different way than he can when doing metalwork. He says it offers him an equally important, but very different perspective.

• For pricing, Douglas says he has an hourly and a daily rate, but he ultimately charges what a piece is worth. He’s says that open communication and being very transparent with his clients is important.

• As part of the construction process, Douglas says it can be extremely personal, with people sometimes sending him full body casts for custom work. He describes it as very labor intensive, hence the cost. “You can cut corners with machines, but part of my discipline and part of my practice is doing it traditionally. There’s a lot of appreciation for hand-made goods. I can’t say thank you enough to the people who support me,” he says.

• With such a unique skill set, Douglas has considered working for Hollywood, but instead prefers the slower paced work he gets with private collectors. He likes time to do research and become engrossed in the project instead of trying to turn out pieces quickly. Douglas says he has done work on some video game projects.

• So how long does it take to make these pieces? Douglas says it varies wildly depending on the project. He said it could take weeks or even years. As an example, he recently made an Octopus Helmet for a client in Australia. The helmet was forged out of a single plate of steel and has three very unique interchangeable visors. That project took 12 months and he had a documentary film crew following the process.

• Douglas is starting to offer some workshops and recently did a practice run with instructors from the college he attended. He also offered a free workshop for about 7-8 students. He plans to do another one in Arizona this October.

• At this summer’s ABANA conference, Douglas is going to be doing a 3-part demonstration on face sculpture. He says he will only have 9 hours to work on a piece that would normally take him more than 20 hours. He will start with hot raising to raise the form into a conical shape. Later, he will do some forging, but most of the process is cold work. He will get into smaller and sharper tools near the end of the project.

• If Douglas could meet any metalworker, dead or alive, who would it be? Douglas has a huge interest in early Scandinavian helmets and heard of an old ship burial ground possibly in Sweden where pre-Viking helmets were found. He’d like to travel back in time and learn the history and artistry of these helmets. He’s also interested in a mine in the Alps where pre-iron age jade hand axes were found. Since there was no written language at the time, he’d like to learn more about those.

Guest Links:

• Web: www.douglaspryor.com
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI453XqGzuSDOziqkyB3MXQ
• Instagram: instagram.com/douglas_pryor
• YouTube link https://www.youtube.com/user/ParkourWithDouglas/feed
• Gargoyle practice video https://youtu.be/bwjS7PZ5c6w
• Skeleton breastplate video https://youtu.be/CPeGAe0kY4k

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA 2016 Conference

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What We Talked About

• Matt followed in his father's footsteps by working summers at Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site as a blacksmith doing historical re-creations for the public. He recalls some of the funniest questions people asked him and the jokes his dad used to play on the tourists.
• Matt received a degree in mechanical engineering, but also studied at the John C. Campbell school in North Carolina, where he still teaches one week every summer. This year his class will take place in September.
• He works two full-time jobs. During the day, he's a mechanical engineer for a custom metal manufacturer doing computer aided drafting. On nights and weekends he's in his own shop, Cloverdale Forge, on his family's farm. His shop is 400 square feet and he's looking at doing an expansion soon.
• Matt teaches classes at Cloverdale and has 4 planned for this summer doing basic beginner blacksmithing. He's tyring to build a blacksmithing community and an appreciation for the art in a fairly isolated location.
• Last summer Matt won 1st place at the World Forging Championship in Stia, Italy in the Drawing and Design competition. The contest theme was trash cans. His drawing can be seen at http://www.biennaleartefabbrile.it/il-campionato/classifica-2015/
• Matt's trip to Italy was part of a larger European trip he took with two other blacksmith friends. They attended a conference in the Czech Republic where Matt won the “longest spike competition” in part of a Blacksmith Triathlon. They also visited Germany and blacksmith friend Gosta Gablick. “It's fun traveling with other blacksmiths because they look at the same weird things that I do,” Matt says.
• Matt is also a part of an annual art event in Winnipeg called “Nuit Blanche” where artists create and display their works overnight. “We pull the forges into city square and build something,” Matt says. “In our area, the only time you experience blacksmithing is at a fur trading post, so to show people it's not just repair of muskets and traps, I bring the art to them on that night.”
• Matt uses many outlets to advertise and sell his products including a business web site with a blog, Facebook, Instagram and Etsy. The Etsy site works well for advertising and exposure, Matt says, but doesn't bring in huge sales.
• If Matt could meet one blacksmith, dead or alive, he says he would choose the “nameless guys” who've been doing it forever. “Everyone says the artistic stuff, but the art comes from me. I want to learn the skills.”

Guest Links

• Web Page: cloverdaleforge.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/cloverdaleforge/
• Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/CloverdaleForge
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cloverdaleforge
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cloverdaleforge/

• Stia Drawing and Design website - http://www.biennaleartefabbrile.it/the-championship/regulation-design-contest/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Adirondack Folk School, www.adirondackfolkschool.org

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What We Talked About

• John learned his trade from an Italian trained smith in a union iron-working shop in Oakland, California during the 1970's and 80's. He joined the Shopmen Ironworkers Union and worked in a large fabrication shop.
• One of the main skills he learned was how to design, build and install stair railings.
• In 1989 John left the Ironworks Union after being vested with them for 10 years. He moved to the Sierra Mountains and began working for Auburn Ironworks, the oldest running blacksmith shop in northern California.
• A few years after hiring John, the company downsized and let him go. This pushed John to start his own blacksmithing business.
• After five years of running the business he took a hard look at his expenses and income and found out that he was making about $7/hour, which wasn’t sustainable. So he shut the business down and went to work for other fabricators.
• Eventually he moved to Georgetown and stated another blacksmith business.
• In between metal jobs John does shoe repair for additional income.
• John will be demonstrating how to design, measure, layout and install a stair railing. 46 feet of railing will be the goal to be finished and installed on-site for a handicap ramp.
• The railing will be a collaborative project and John is asking for participants to help make the railing and also make 18 rings for the railing. The rings are to be made from 1” x ¼” flat bar, bent into a 7” circle the easy way and forge welded. Your design can go on the inside of the ring, but will need to allow space on the sides for collaring and on the top for a rivet. More details here: http://www.piehtoolco.com/abana/2016%20ABANA%20RAILING-Layout1.pdf
• If you plan on making a ring, please let John know by email, [email protected] .
• John is hoping to have six forging stations for participants to work in pairs assisting in making the railing components. The ideal participant will have level 2 blacksmith skills.

Guest Links

• John’s Website: http://www.barroncreations.com/
• His page on the ABANA Conference website: http://www.abana.org/Conferences/2016/contents/en-us/d10_John_Baron_SP_.html

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA 2016 Salt Lake Conference

Maybe more pictures

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What We Talked About

• While completing his bachelor’s degree at Alfred university he focused in fabrication of sheet metal work and hollow forms.
• When Patrick graduated he moved to Vermont for a job at a production forge company as a welder, but the company only had an opening for a blacksmith to mainly work on the power hammer and hydraulic bending machines pumping out production pieces, so he was hired for that position.
• While Patrick was working at the production forge he rented a local barn to have his own studio space to practice his hand forging.
• Eventually, he quit his job and ran his own blacksmith business in Vermont for a few years. This led him to some big stainless steel jobs to complete in NYC during the winters. This allowed him to live in Vermont in the summertime to work on his portfolio.
• In 2011, he applied to a graduate program at Southern Illinois University, a 3-year program.
• He now works for the Center for Metal Arts as the blacksmith program director and class instructor. The school is in Florida, New York an hour north of New York City.
• The school offers 1 to 4-day classes for all levels of blacksmithing, as well as silver soldering, enameling, and jewelry making.
• While most of the classes he teaches are on the weekends, he uses the weekdays to make private commissioned work. Most of the commissions are architectural in nature, and he will add his sculptural designs to them.
• Patrick will be part of the 2016 ABANA conference demonstrations, he is one of the team of 12 working with Jake James on a collaborative sculpture.
• The school’s shop consists of milling machine, a lathe, 5 welding machines, bandsaws, platen and fabrication layout tables, 3 power hammers, 8 forging stations complete with anvils, forges, and hand tools.
• Patrick likes to read books that are technique based for forging, open die forging, tool making and older books about crafts.
• When asked who would he spend a day with learning from – he answered to work with the guys at the Hay Budden Anvil making shop in Brooklyn in the early 1900’s.

Guest Links

Patrick’s website - http://www.patrickjquinn.com/

The Center for Metal Arts website - http://www.centerformetalarts.com/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – The Center for Metal Arts

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• John's interest in blacksmithing began when he was 8 years old and inherited his grandfather's ranching equipment. He taught himself the trade by reading library books. In the 1970s he joined the California Blacksmith Association.
• McLellan Blacksmithing opened in 1977 and focused on shoeing horses, a skill John learned in a high school regional occupation program. He took the class for two years and then taught it for five years after graduating.
• He got into architectural blacksmithing in the mid-1980s, hired several employees and now works almost exclusively designing intricate metalwork for high-end homes. He spends most of his time now doing design, drawing and bids and does less hands-on work than in the past.
• About 10 years ago, John hired a staff of 12 employees to work on the renovation of a local cathedral. Built in the 1880s, it needed a complete refurbishing. His crew did all the metalwork including light fixtures, railings, crosses, hand rails and door hardware.
• McLellan Blacksmithing is in an 8,000 square foot shop in Loomis, which includes a machine shop, a fabrication area, a place to paint out back, a showroom up front and class space upstairs. They offer monthly basic blacksmithing classes from September through April.
• John is currently serving as the 2016 ABANA Conference co-chair. The conference will be held July 13-16 in Salt Lake City. John's been working on arrangements for attendees including transportation, lodging, and food. He says they will have several food vendors including food trucks with gourmet options. The Saturday night banquet will be a catered, sit-down meal.
• The conference is still accepting donations for the auction as well as pieces to showcase at the gallery. Please see the ABANA website for details.
• John says there's a great lineup of demonstrators and sponsors this year and about 350 people have signed up to attend so far. Registration is still open and the cost will increase after April 1.
• One of the features of the conference is the Education Tents, which will offer demonstrations throughout the day with hands-on project work after each demo. Some of the demos include Level 2 grill work, punches and chisels, animal head work and making bottle openers.
• There will also be some forging competitions in the evenings. Topics include chain making, animal heads and tong making. These competitions are free to participate in with conference attendance.

Guest Links

• Website: www.mclellanblacksmithing.com
• ABANA 2016 Conference - www.abana.org/Conferences/2016/index.html

Thank you to today's sponsor the ABANA 2016 Salt Lake City Conference

What I cover in the podcast

• A book review by Elspeth Bennie and Steve Rook on the book “The Art of Shouting Quietly”
• Pete Mosely is the author of the book and he has previously written articles for the Artist Blacksmith magazine, and was one of the key speakers at BABA’s seminar on personal development.
• The book looks at different ways to promote your blacksmith business. It guides you through a series of self-analysis exercises to ascertain how you tick.
• Helping you to understand yourself and your beliefs steers you in the right direction for success
• An article called “The Business of Blacksmithing” by Will Barker
• The article talks about how Will has come to some personal conclusions about business and blacksmithing.
• Will urges the blacksmith to take time to learn how to market their business and also to try to do 10%more marketing.
• Will’s social media expertise is Twitter. He recommends Twitter because it’s a huge search engine and can be free advertising for you and your business.
• He recommends to tweet 2 times a day, this will allow you to show up in your followers feed more often and will keep you top of mind for them.
• Encourage others to tweet about you and your work/process. This helps in gaining trust from your followers.
• Don’t just tweet about yourself – promote other’s work by re-tweeting or give a pat on the back to a colleague who’s done good work.
• Don’t ignore other Tweeters, it should be a two-way conversation and include engagement.
• Don’t follow other just for the sake of it. “Your overall Twitter persona is enhanced when you follow based on quality” Morgan Leu Parkhurst.

Links

Book “The Art of Shouting Quietly” by Pete Mosely on Amazon

BABA - http://www.baba.org.uk/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Adirondack Folk School.

Jerry Coe is a sculptural metalsmith who specializes in bronze. He's the founder of Coe Studios Architectural Lighting in Berkeley, California. His interest in blacksmithing began when he was a mountain climber and park ranger at Yosemite National Park. It was there that he became an apprentice stagecoach builder and has been blacksmithing full time since 1979. Jerry also enjoys tango dancing and is currently organizing a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina with a large group of blacksmiths from around the world.

• Jerry traveled to Argentina a few years ago and was amazed by the amount of iron work there. He said the quality and quantity rivals London, Paris and New York City. Yet because of political changes, no one has cared for it or developed any more since the 1930s. In fact, there are almost no blacksmiths left in the entire country.
• Jerry shared his pictures and stories from Argentina with a friend who edits a magazine and then produced a short video. A colleague who watched it encouraged him to apply for a grant to go back to Buenos Aires and study more about the history of the metalwork there.
• He traveled back to Buenos Aires in October of 2014 for 3 weeks. He met with architects and a local blacksmith and they formed the Association for Architectural Preservation.
• Using his own money, Jerry invited a couple of blacksmiths to California last spring to work in different shops for three weeks.
• Jerry came up with the idea to go back to Buenos Aires to teach some free classes to try to revive metalworking there. He contacted the US Embassy and they immediately wanted to get involved. “They decided this was a perfect program that fits the ambassador's plans for Argentina to have community involvement and education and all free,” Jerry says.
• Soon about 40 people had expressed interest in joining Jerry on the 12-day trip coming up at the end of February.
• Jerry contacted a mayor in Buenos Aires and she offered the group a public park in the middle of the city with all the amenities they will need. In return, the group will build a permanent sculpture for the park over the 3 days they teach there.
• At the park, they'll teach basic blacksmithing, tool making, sheet metal work as well as putting together the sculpture. They want to encourage locals to learn and help as much as possible.
• 20 full-time blacksmiths will be helping out with this project. Another 17 will be there for support. Additionally, another 45 people from a local blacksmith club will be on hand and as many as 100 other people who have expressed interest in this project may also join them. Jerry is hopeful that the community will also be heavily involved in the entire project.
• Jerry hopes that the community will learn enough to restore and care for the metal in Buenos Aires. “I'm hoping to inspire a group of craftspeople to take it on,” he says. He also wants to inspire young blacksmiths. “It's a beautiful opportunity to express yourself in lasting, functional art.”
• Jerry says that pulling off an event of this magnitude is challenging. “We're trying to make something happen there that hasn't happened in 85 years, so we're really pushing the envelope.” He says they will do their best to come up with enough anvils and forges and basic items to make the project happen. Blacksmiths will be bringing tools along and plan to leave them there for the community.
• Even meals will be a challenge with this size of a group, so he's arranged for locals to walk with guests through town and break off into small groups to visit local eateries.
• Jerry is also looking forward to enjoying the night life of Buenos Aires where he can put his tango skills to use. He's encouraging all travelers to learn some dance moves.
• For a website dedicated to this trip, please see http://www.restorationcraftsmen.org

Guest Links

• Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jerry.coe.75
• Coe Studios Architectural Lighting: http://coestudios.com/
• Argentina Trip Web Site: http://www.restorationcraftsmen.org/

Thanks to ABANA for sponsorship!

What We Talked About

• The article by Mark Manley titled, “How Much Carbon Monoxide is in Your Shop?” appeared in the California Blacksmithing Association newsletter in December 2006 and originally in the Northern Rockies Blacksmith Association Newsletter
• The article states that a properly adjusted propane forge produces little to no carbon monoxide with proper ventilation. But how do you know if yours is properly adjusted? And how do you know if you have enough air flow?
• The author suggests purchasing a carbon monoxide alarm for about $40. The unit plugs into the wall. It should have a digital display that reads from 0-999 parts per million (ppm) and will sound an 85-decibel alarm at 150 ppm.
• OSHA regulations state that 50 ppm is the maximum allowable CO exposure for adults in an 8 hour period.
• Here are some general guidelines about CO exposure:

-200 ppm will cause a slight headache, fatigue, nausea and dizziness at 2-3 hours of exposure

-400 ppm will cause headache, fatigue, dizziness and nausea within 1-2 hours and is life threatening after 3 hours

-800 ppm will cause dizziness, nausea and convulsions within 45 minutes, unconsciousness within 2 hours and death in 2-3 hours

-1600 ppm causes death within 30 minutes

• When the author plugged his new detector in he was surprised to find unsafe levels of 30-160 ppm over long periods of time.
• He was able to adjust the air-fuel ratio and ventilation and it went down to 0 ppm.
• He suggests everyone (whether using propane or coal) monitor their shops at all times and make these small adjustments for safety.

What We Talked About

• Finin's grandfather, James Christie, was considered one of Ireland's best blacksmiths and worked for the national railway. Although he died when Finin was just 5 years old, Finin had a five-year apprenticeship at the railway where he was taught by his grandfather's apprentices. Finin says he received excellent training by these older blacksmiths just before their retirement.
• After his railway work, Ireland had an economic downturn and Finin struck off on his own. He traveled by bike with his anvil on the back, his grinder along the crossbar and his sledge hammer across the handlebars. “I used to knock on every door in Dublin that had a bent gate and I'd ask them if they wanted me to repair their gates,” he recalls.
• One year later Finin was able to purchase his own van and the next year he registered his own business and began getting steady work. “There was no work then, but I made work,” Finin says. “And I've been working for myself ever since.”
• Finin's specialty is traditional style railings and gates. He was the official contractor for the City of Dublin for about 16 years, working on government buildings, city parks and county council houses. He did a lot of restoration of old gates and had 18 men working for him.
• He stopped working for the city about three years ago and now operates out of his own shop, which he says is about 40'x20' and has three anvils. He teaches some classes out of his workshop, but finds it hard to entice young people into such a physically demanding and tedious trade.
• Finin has a couple other hobbies he enjoys when he's not smithing. He’s a boxer, and he has a gym on the other side of his workshop. He also builds model steam trains by hand.
• If Finin could work with any blacksmith, dead or alive, he would choose his grandfather: “Apart from being my grandfather, they say he was one of the greatest [blacksmiths] in the country. He was a great man. He was ahead of his time,” Finin says. After a 53 year blacksmithing career, his grandfather died on the job. Finin still has his grandfather's tools, which he treasures.
• Finin's 9 year old son has shown some interest in blacksmithing and they enjoy working on projects together.

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
• subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
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Thanks so much for your support!

What We Talked About

• Jake “stumbled” into blacksmithing early on in his life and was encouraged to attend the Hereford College of the Arts. At Hereford he took extensive classes in the blacksmithing program for one year. During the Easter Holiday students were encouraged to entre a “work placement” program, Jake was placed in Richard Bent’s workshop. From there he was then was immediately hired as an apprentice by Richard Bent.
• Richard taught Jake how to free up his design work and invested a great deal of time and effort into Jakes training. Richard had a saying “There are no mistakes only opportunities” and it’s one of statements that has stuck with Jake through his designing.
• After spending 3 years at Richard’s shop Jake felt he needed to go find his own design path. He ended up traveling to Sri Lanka and working with low tech blacksmiths making plow shears and farming equipment. He eventually ended up in Canada and met his wife in a pub one night in Vancouver, and there he stayed!
• His blacksmith business has been open since 2005 and he has been able to provide for his family of three kids and his wife. He would like to start a product line and specialize in gates and entry ways, though he takes anything that comes through the door.
• While Jake has a gallery upstairs in his shop for the public to see, he doesn’t advertise that it’s there and open because it’s hard to work on commissions while customers are perusing.
• Jake’s shop is outside of Victoria, near Vancouver. He has a fabrication area in his shop with a welder, drill press, band saw and a concrete floor. He also has a dirt floor space that it his forging area, complete with two anvils, one power hammer, a flypress, 3 gas forges and a coal forge. He has just bought a Massey 300 Clear Space power hammer which is the “Rolls Royce of power hammers”!
• Jake also teaches classes out of his workshop, his future plans are to offer corporate event weekends for a team building experience. Offering an opportunity for a team of 5 or 6 tome spend 3 to 7 days with Jake making a sculpture they can take back to the office.
• The Center of Metal arts hired Jake to come and teach a week long class on designing and forging a collaborative sculpture last year in 2015. Eighteen smiths showed up for the class and they made a “Bacchus” with a theme of wine.
• Something that Jake uses as a design premise is; “Texture should come as a result of generating form”. His design shapes are deeply textured during the forging process, this makes his artistic signature easily recognizable.
• This year’s ABANA conference is in Salt Lake City and Jake will be there demonstrating with a team of 12 hand-picked smiths making a collaborative sculpture.
• There are some very talented young smiths that are proving their mettle. Jake thinks there is room for the craft to grow more in the future, the younger generation smiths don’t have to re-invent or revive the craft as ABANA or BABA did in the 70’s, the younger smiths will take it and expand on it.

Guest Links

Jake’s Website - http://www.jakejames.ca/the-blacksmith/

Jake’s Etsy page - https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/JakeJamesBlacksmith

Jake’s Houzz.com page - http://www.houzz.com/pro/jake-james/jake-james-artist-blacksmith

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – www.ABANA.org

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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The theme of 2016 is “Education” for me, for BlacksmitHer radio, and for you! I thought it was fitting since the theme of this year’s ABANA conference is “education” too! A few things that are playing into this theme and the first one is super exciting to me!

I’m introducing BlacksmitHer Academy, www.blacksmitheracademy.com . The main mission of the academy is offer top notch blacksmithing education online. You will be able to learn from the best blacksmiths around the world right from your own home. It’s like I’m bringing the instructors to you – no travel expenses needed.

There will be:

• Live blacksmithing workshops that are online in my new virtual classroom, they will have specific dates and times
• And eventually professionally created online technique courses, where you can learn at your own pace. Each course will have pictured tutorials, audio of the instructor talking though the steps, pdf handouts and interactive communication with the other students in the course and the instructor. I’m talking with ABANA on tying in their Controlled Hand Forging certification levels so the students going through each level will have direction throughout the series. Also looking into giving out certifications of completed levels. But that’s in the beginning stages right now and there’s a lot to work with that path!

So I have the first two live online workshops scheduled for January 20th, a Wednesday and January 28th, a Thursday. Both at 5pm PST and each workshop will cover 8 different ways of punching and drifting with Mark Aspery as the teacher.

He will cover 8 modules split into 2 workshops, each about 90 minutes in length.

By signing up and registering for the workshops, you’ll receive exclusive access to my private state-of-the-art virtual classroom where you can chit chat with each other and ask the instructor questions.

I will be hosting a few free live “Happy Hours” on Thirsty Thursdays Jan 7th and 14th in the classroom before the workshops so everyone can get a chance to check out the room, get used to it and chat with each other and about Mark’s Punch and Drift workshop. It’ll be fun, please join me at the “Happy Hour” events, I’ll be emailing my list details and I will post them on the BlacksmitHer website under the live blacksmithing classes tab, so stay tuned for those details.

I will have the registration sign up links set up soon, hopefully this week.

I’ve got a few educational things planned for my own growth in blacksmithing. I will be travelling to Argentina for 10 days in March with 30 other blacksmiths and architects. We are going to Buenos Aires, the Paris of Latin America. This city enjoyed a building boom for 50 years, from 1880-1930, as the capital of what was once one the ten wealthiest countries in the world. As a city lacking in major new construction over the last 80 years, Buenos Aires has felt the loss of the oral traditions of craft. Along with reviving craft, the populace is enthusiastic about the need to preserve their priceless architectural heritage. After we explore the city with locals on the first few days, we will divide into two groups. One group will present three days of blacksmithing demonstrations, 5 stations to be held in a public park, while the second group, US architects with an interest in preservation, will hold meetings and presentations to share their experiences, hear BA architects speak on their work, and seek solutions to current problems in preservation and adaptive re-use of historical buildings. We will be dancing the tango at night and one day we will experience gaucho life on an estancia or ranch. More information can be found on the website http://www.restorationcraftsmen.org/ and I will include some onsite interviews in future podcasts.

I’m’ also trying to plan a trip to Israel this year to take classes from Zeevik Gottleib and Uri Hofi. I don’t know if I told you but I have taken a few lessons from Zeevik online and I really want to learn more about their ergonomic forging and everything else they will teach me. I’m really looking forward to this plan coming together in 2016. Believe me, I’ll share everything I can from that experience.

As far as the direction of BlacksmitHer Radio, I sent out a survey a few months ago to my email list to find out what you wanted to hear and the results were overwhelmingly leaning towards learning new techniques and new projects. So I will be following the education theme to include reading more technical and “how to” articles from various ABANA Affiliate newsletters, with their permission of course!

Also by interviewing more Schools that offer blacksmith instruction and courses. And will interview the instructors too. I’ve interviewed one of them, the Adirondack Folk School in episode #45. I will be talking more about what courses they will be offering this year too.

I want to thank all of the sponsors of the show in 2015, they truly keep the show going, they cover the costs of the show, not all of the hours put into each episode but at least the hard costs of hosting the show are covered by the sponsors. I’ll admit I’m a bit picky when it comes to who I want sponsoring the show. I want them to be not only relevant to blacksmithing but I want them to have quality products to offer you

So see ya later 2015 looking back, I made a few mistakes, I’ve been Impatient, at times a little tactless, and hard to bear with through some episodes. I might not always ask the right questions of my guests or have the right guest for that matter. So my friends, I ask you to forgive my past mistakes and continue to bear with me as I forge ahead with this show and other endeavors I bring to you this year. Welcome to 2016, the here and now. I hope everyone has the best and safest year of their lives.

I’ll leave you with this quote from Mark Twain “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Well, 2015 has been excellent. We’ve shared so much content through BlacksmitHer Radio and I have to say it’s been so much fun and nothing short of EPIC?

Let’s re-cap what we’ve heard and learned:

Way back in January 2015 we found out about a touchmark that includes an anvil and gap-toothed smiley face…who was that, anyone??? That’s Dawn Raines touch mark from episode #14.

Jodie Bliss, episode #14, told us that she writes a business plan every 6 months to stay on the right path.

Then we heard straight from the owner of Nimba anvils, Jim Garrett in episode #16. How he and his brother became the owners and Jim’s latest project of 2 tons of forged bronze on a houseboat for a railing.

Randy McDaniel told us about his new Hydraulic Forging Press book that he recently published with SkipJack Press and we heard from the owner of Skipjack Press Al Krysan. They have a plethora of blacksmithing books.

Then in February Tom Willoughby talked about the cool factor and his anvil vultures in episode #19.

Tim Cisneros told us the story behind the “wave Bench” and can you remember who said this remark? “For every hammer blow there should be a pencil stroke.” That was Mark Aspery in episode #21.

We learned that Monica Coyne’s blacksmith shop runs totally off the grid. Then we hopped over to Australia to hear Mary Hackett talk about the women’s blacksmithing group called “Blacksmith Doris”.

Then it was back to Cali, Weaverville in fact and the collaborative bench project that won an award at the Western States Conference in March,

Carley Eisenburg talked about being on the Ellen DeGeneres show called Ellen’s Design Challenge and Todd Daniels from NOMMA said “to affiliate, the more you give the more you get”.

In April we heard Tobbe Malm talk about his Bolt Poetry and the Iron Rose Project in Norway.

May and June episodes were filled with great interviews of the CanIronX demonstrators: Albert Paley, Grant Haverstock, Zeevik Gottleib, Ian Hope Simpson, Lorelei Simms and her 7 generations of In the heat of July Dennis Dusek talked about his black-eye and how it was messing up his make-up routine in the mornings.

Michael Budd from Ireland told us this on taking risks: “Sometimes you have to learn a new technique for a job and even though it might take twice as long, it pushes you forward as a craftsperson, artist and designer. It's not the most cost-effective way to work, but if you always choose most the cost-effective way, you won't produce the most interesting work.”

In September we heard from a guy that out of his 2-car garage this active duty US Army Sargent offered free knife-making classes dubbed “Blade Therapy.” The organization is known as Resilience Forge and Nate Bocker is still bringing the therapeutic effects of blacksmithing to a wider community.

Then we met Lynda Metcalfe, how she was part of a team that won the NOMMA Top Job Silver Award for a decorative railing near Charlotte, NC. It took 475 hours for her to design, build and install the 30 foot railing.

Frosty the Lucky told us all about his T-burner and the Alaskan blacksmithing scene. Then we hopped across the country to upstate NY and learned about the Adirondack Folk School and their largest course is blacksmithing.

Over Halloween Mark Aspery and I talked about the upcoming teaching tents and forging competitions at ABANA’s main conference in Salk Lake, Utah in July 2016. Do you remember the hints he gave that will help you win the competitions? Listen to episode #46.

Then we met the new Hammer’s Blow editor, Dan Nauman, Wisconnie or Wisconsin. I’ve got to tell you guys something, I went to a Rocky Mtn Smith conference in 1998, this was when I met the infamous Francis Whitaker. Anyway I remember a demonstrator there who dropped an unfinished spiral basket in the slack tub, and he reached all the way down to the bottom, found it, all the while making a huge fuss of how gross the water was in the slack tub, he’s rooting around and then pulls out a completely beautiful finished spiral basket and said “see what the slack tub can do to your iron”….oh, everyone laughed and Francis nearly fell off his stool laughing.

On a more serious note Andy Blakney told us about Quick and Dirty Tool Company’s warehouse fire, Victor Plitt talked about his new online blacksmithing forum called “The Iron Forge Fire”

Kate Dinneen told us all about the upcoming Ypres, Belgium blacksmithing event to honor WWI veterans and their families. You know they are still looking for submittals for a panel design, you have until January 31st. Yes, I am submitting a design with Dennis Dusek, it’s about the American Field Service AKA AFS. “As German troops stormed into France in the summer of 1914, the American Colony in Paris inaugurated a volunteer ambulance service to transport the wounded from the front lines to the American Hospital on the outskirts of Paris.” Some of the drivers were women which was a big deal at the time. And 18 yr. old Ernest Hemingway was a driver for the AFS and used the experience as the basis of his novel A Farewell to Arms. So that’s our idea, what’s yours???

coppersmiths on her mother’s side!

We went across the “pond” to talk to Adriane Legge who told us about the 7 P’s, prior planning and preparation prevents piss poor performance. We stayed across the pond, in England and talked to Terrance Clark’s daughter Rebecca Knott and how she held her first hammer at the age of 3!

What We Talked About

• When he was a little boy, he would visit a place that inspired him to become a blacksmith, the Bryn Athyn Cathedral. The metalwork incorporates animals and plants made of iron and monel (a type of metal alloy similar to wrought iron but has 65% nickel and 25% copper in it and resistant to corrosion).
• Years later Stuart was studying Physics and Astrophysics as a graduate student at Villanova University. While attending University Stuart was looking for a job in Astronomy as a teacher, but they were hard to come by due to NASA cutbacks in the late 1970’s. While looking for a job in the classifieds, he saw an advertisement for an apprentice blacksmith in the “A” section since he was looking for an Astronomy position. He dressed up in a suit and tie for the interview of the apprentice position with master blacksmith, Fyodor Czub. Czub liked the fact that Stuart had enough respect for the craft and the master to dress up in a suit. They hired him immediately. He stayed there for 5 years.
• This position gave Stuart the background to become an industrial blacksmith because of the lifting tools they would make there, such a lifting tongs and clamps to pick up logs and I-beams.
• Stuart ended up supporting his parents after his father lost his job. This smoothed things over since his parents weren’t too happy he didn’t pursue Astrophysics.
• Stuart always had a plan to open his own blacksmith business and bought the machinery needed while he was still employed as an apprentice. He left the company on good terms, so good that the company subcontracted forging work from him for the next 15 years.
• Stuart is still working and teaching classes out of his 40ft x 60ft shop that is situated on 14 acres with the Snake River running through it. The shop is well equipped with trip hammers, seven anvils (including a 700lb Hay Budden), and a lathe.
• Stuart is very involved with many blacksmith Facebook groups, and he is the Admin of a few such as Blacksmithing for Beginners, Blacksmith Enthusiasts, Blacksmithing for Beginners Tailgate page.
• One of Stuart’s hobby’s is being a philatelist (aka stamp collector). The most interesting stamp he owns is one from the Vatican depicting a blacksmith.
• His favorite tool is his 700 lb Hay Budden anvil; he bought it for $650 in 1976!
• Today Stuart has a few companies that by his hand-made tools for a slate roofing industry, a leather retailer called Waltzing Matilda, and for the cooperage industry in Kentucky.

Guest Links

• Stuarts Website - http://snakecreekforge.weebly.com/about-stuart.html
• Characteristics of Monel - http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/113038
• Waltzing Matilda - http://waltzingmatildausa.com/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor Nimba Anvils, www.nimbaanvils.com

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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Forge welding seems to be one of the most controversial procedures in blacksmithing. Probably because it’s the most magical and scientific technique. Clarifying the process is difficult both in a live workshop and in a written article. Sharing the content in a podcast, audibly might be another way for you to absorb this magical process.

From the article:

“The basic requirements for a successful forge-weld are:

• A clean, reducing coke or gas forge
• Metals properly prepared and fluxed
• Proper heat
• Proper hammer control
• Precise manipulation of the material, both within and without the fire
• Speed in execution of the weld

The areas to be welded should be brought to a bright orange or light yellow, wire brushed and fluxed.”

Flux means “to flow”, there are many fluxes to be used, “20 Mule Team Borax” is the one of choice by the author of the article.

Different alloys and carbon contents are talked about – how they will weld at different temperatures.

What We Talked About

• Kate's family came from Ireland many generations ago so she has a connection to the British Isles. She travels to the UK regularly to study and work there.
• One of Kate's biggest blacksmith influences is Uri Hofi. She has spent time learning from him in Israel. Two of his students taught her to strike in an ergonomic way that protects the body and allows her to strike much longer.
• Early in her career, Kate was involved in a new gate design at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London where she created one of the featured design elements.
• Kate stays very busy at Hot Flash Metalworks and gets most of her work through word of mouth. She estimates that 60% of her work she gets to design herself and about 40% is based on someone else's idea.
• She does charge a design fee and feels that it's better to charge it up front rather than bundling it in with the entire project cost. Her ideal pay structure would be to charge in three equal payments at beginning, middle and end, but she admits it's very hard to know final costs and the length of each project.
• Kate does sporadically offer some training out of her shop, mostly to beginners. She also teaches a group of “at risk” kids through a local non-profit. “They teach basic job skills through the arts and I'm in charge of the metals component of it,” she says. They worked on spot welding and sheet metal work last semester and next semester they will try forging.
• Kate has been appointed Global Assistant to a blacksmithing event in Ypres, Belgium in September 2016. Ypres is a battle site from World War I, which suffered mass casualties and heavy destruction. A cenotaph (a memorial to honor the dead who are buried elsewhere) will be designed and built.
• The design competition for the 13 panels that will surround the cenotaph is still open until January. Find info at ypres2016.com. Each panel will be 28” x 29” and should contain a design element that is meaningful to WWI.
• The cenotaph will also include 13 panels that represent all the countries that fought at the site. Those are being designed by invited blacksmiths from each country.

Guest Links

• Hot Flash Metals: www.lawrenceblacksmith.com/
• Ypres Event: http://www.ypres2016.com/
• Ypres Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/poppycenotaph/

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• When Victor decided to take up blacksmithing as a hobby, he went to the internet to look for tools to buy and information on learning techniques. He came across the I Forge Iron forum and created a profile to be able to interact with the other members. Soon after joining the forum, Victor’s profile was deleted and he was not allowed back into the forum. Victor thinks it was because he entered his website information in his profile.
• The Iron Forge Fire forum allows you to promote your business and website within your profile. You can also contribute and post information without a profile. There are about 209 members right now.
• Victor held an “Iron in the Pot” challenge this past summer, it’s a very flexible contest for its beginner members to forge something within certain requirements. There were 12 that signed up for the challenge and 3 people ended up making something. At the end of the contest, each of the contestants sends their piece to another smith in the contest.
• Victor is currently talking with the Williams Grove Historical Steam Engine Society about holding a Hammer-in on their grounds that has a blacksmith shop. He’s hoping to grow the blacksmith community there and maybe become an affiliate of ABANA.
• Victor hopes to take his hobby to the next level and open a business with his two brothers. They are each into glass and wood, Victor is hoping to combine all of those mediums into sellable pieces.
• The Iron Forge Fire also has a classifieds page for anyone to post tools for sale. You can upload pictures into tool categories and the checkout system is through PayPal.
• Victor is also thinking about starting an “Etsy” type of online store where blacksmiths can sell their forged pieces and services. He has already bought the URL www.blacksmithgalleries.com.
• Victor’s background in software development came from being in the Real Estate business when it was moving towards being online in the early 1990’s.
• Victor’s favorite book is “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand and the main character’s name is Hank Rearden who developed a new metal alloy and called it Rearden Metal. Victor decided to use “Hank Rearden” as his username inside the Iron Forge Fire forum.

Guest Links

Iron Forge Fire website: http://www.theironforgefire.com/register/register

Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/TheIronForgeFire

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Nimba Anvils, www.nimbaanvils.com

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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What We Talked About

• Quick and dirty Tool Co started in March of 2014 when Andy started working with Larry on making blacksmith tongs. The business has grown quickly to where Andy was making tongs 60 hours a week. In 2014 he made over 4,000 lbs of tongs.
• Both Larry and Andy learned a lot of tool making skills from Grant Sarver who owned Off-Center Tools, which eventually was bought by Kayne and Sons.
• The staple tongs that Quick and dirty Tools make are the v-bit tongs.
• Typically they buy 60 bars of ½” round 1045 steel stock which yields about 810 lbs of tongs or close to 400 pairs of tongs.
• When the fire happened in their shop, luckily they had been mostly caught up on their orders. They had the freshest tongs going in the US!
• Andy is talking to a few blacksmith friends who might be able to continue the process of fulfilling tong orders in the near future.
• When the fire happened, Andy was just about to start teaching a beginner’s blacksmithing class at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, WA. A half an hour after starting the class his cell phone was ringing off the hook and gathering texts from people asking him if he was OK. Andy immediately called Larry and his wife to make sure everyone was OK and then finished teaching his class.
• Quick and Dirty Tool Company has hired a professional advocate to help them with the insurance process and estimation of damage costs.
• The landlord of the building has offered Andy and Larry to move the contents salvaged from the fire to another shop across the street rent free. This is because of the close relationship they have with their landlord over the past 10 years.
• A day after the fire happened a few blacksmiths created a Facebook page called the Quick & Dirty Fundraiser to help support Larry and Andy by asking people to auction items and have the proceeds go directly to Larry and Andy.
• There is also a Go Fund Me page for monetary donations.
• Andy talks about the “magic” punch lube they make and how it’s become known as the best lube for punching. The lube will soon be available for sale on the Quick & Dirty website.

Guest Links

• Go Fund Me page - https://www.gofundme.com/w56vhkss
• Facebook Quick & Dirty Fundraiser page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/478212502348721/
• Quick & Dirty Tool website – http://quickanddirtytools.com/
• Quick & Dirty Tool business Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/QDTool/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Nimba Anvils, www.nimbaanvils.com

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
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Thanks so much for your support!

What we talked about

• Dan’s interest in blacksmithing derived from a childhood of self-sufficiency at a family summer cabin in the backwoods of Wisconsin. He visited a blacksmith shop nearby and was excited to see the craft was still alive.
• He eventually signed up to take a workshop from the blacksmith shop he visited a couple of years earlier. The owners of the shop were impressed with how quickly Dan was learning to swing the hammer and asked if he would like to work at the shop in trade for knowledge. Dan said yes!
• Soon he was signed up with many ABANA affiliates, the Illinois Valley Guild of Metalsmiths, Blacksmiths Association of Missouri, Indiana Blacksmithing Association, Alabama Forge Council and more, to learn what other’s around the country were doing within the blacksmithing world.
• His turning point in blacksmithing came when he spent eight days learning from Francis Whitaker, a modern master blacksmith who worked with Samuel Yellin and Julias Schramm.
• In 1993, Dan opened his first blacksmith shop and was able to survive with an income from this business. Two years later, in 1995, he noticed there was a blacksmith shop in Bailey’s Harbor, WI (the Cape Cod of WI) that he wanted to be involved with to sell his forged pieces.
• Then Dan was able also to lease the blacksmith shop where Dan took his first class; this would make three blacksmith shops that Dan was running at the same time!
• Filling his retail shop in Bailey’s Harbor with forged pieces and filling wholesale orders for The Pottery Barn and Kohler were the main source of income for 11 years. In 2003 both of those companies stopped ordering from Dan and went to China to fill their orders.
• Dan is now a “one man band” working out of his shop, Big Horn Forge. He teaches blacksmithing classes out of his shop, offering 11 workshops for up to 4 students at a time.
• Dan was offered a grant from the Francis Whitaker Educational Blacksmith Foundation to photograph the works of Cyril Colnik, the famed Austrian-born metals master. This led him to become the project director on a documentary film called "Forged Elegance." The video aired on Milwaukee and Wisconsin Public Television. Colnik worked as a smith in Milwaukee during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His works can be seen around Milwaukee—most notably at the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum.
• In 2005, Dan won a National Ornamental and Miscellaneous Metals Association (NOMMA) “Top Job Award” for a chandelier made for the “Captain Frederick Pabst Mansion”, Milwaukee, WI. It was one of the hardest jobs Dan had ever completed.
• Another NOMMA Top Job Award Dan received was for a set of gates he worked on in conjunction with Finelli Ironworks. He made 100 compound rosettes and 64 sets of compound square rosettes (with each rosette taking 5 ½ hours to make) for the gates.
• Dan is now the new editor for the ABANA publication called the Hammer’s Blow magazine.
• Dan’s meaning of being a blacksmith and how the 9 forging fundamentals (drawing, upsetting, bending, twisting, joints, forge welding, punching, slitting) cannot be found in any other metal craft.
• He talks about his direction for the publication, including metalworking compliments such as repousse and chasing. Peter Ross, Tom Latane, Doug Wilson and Bob Walsh will be his “writer’s staff”.

Links:

Dan’s Bighorn Forge website - http://www.bighornforge.com/

Facebook page for Bighorn Forge, Inc - https://www.facebook.com/Bighorn-Forge-Inc-202367173116761/

Bighorn’s Blog website - https://bighornforge.wordpress.com/

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – ABANA

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
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Welcome to Blacksmither Radio, it’s Episode number 47 and today I have a very special guest to mark a change in the Hammer’s Blow editorship. If you are unfamiliar with what the Hammer’s Blow is, it’s a quarterly publication of technical blacksmith projects offered by the non-profit org ABANA. And today I have Mark Aspery here to talk about the end of his time being editor of the Hammer’s Blow.

What we talk about:

• Mark talks about what it takes to put together one issue. He has asked the submitters to send him their forged example pieces for him to photograph because he already has the equipment and set-up. Then there is a discussion around the wording or text for the article. Mark creates a press ready pdf document in a specific software for editing and producing a magazine.
• Within each issue, Mark likes to have at around 4 to 5 different articles published. The goal for Mark has been to include beginner, intermediate and expert level forging projects.
• The Hammer’s Blow editor before Mark Aspery was Brian Gilbert. Brian included a useful tool section, some shop tours, Mark changed the structure a little by focusing on just the smithing.
• One of the things Mark has learned over the past 5 years is when anyone writes anything down about a specific technique, by the time they are finished writing, they will know more about that subject than they did at the start, it’s an educational process.
• What’s next for Mark? Two books are on the horizon: one all about locks, latches and hinges, and the second book will be a coffee table book about the ironwork in the Cathedral of Learning building on the campus of University of Pittsburg. Some of the ironwork includes pieces from Samuel Yellin.
• This winter Mark will have surgery on both of his hands, one at a time, due to a condition called “Viking Hand” (scarring of tissue).
• We talk about the upcoming ABANA conference in Salt Lake, Utah, July 13 – 16, 2016. The benefits of going to the conference include the social interaction, the demonstrations, the hands-on teaching tents, the tailgate sales and the competitions.
• The teaching tents will be split into two Each with about ten forging stations, with a mix of coal and propane forges. There will be six half-day teaching sessions and will be staffed by Darryl Nelson, John McClellan, Gerald Boggs, Gerald Franklin and Mark Aspery.
• Mark is pulling together some lunch time slots in the teaching tent for beginning demonstrators to “cut their teeth” and have a turn at teaching.
• Each competition will be divided into three levels: Novice – beginning or novice smith, Intermediate/Amateur smith and Open/Professional or strong
• Chain Making competition on Wednesday - How many links can you forge weld together to make a chain in a 20 minutes? Hints from Mark:
  • Forge welds don’t have to be pretty, if it’s stuck, then it’s good
  • Make a single link, and then make another single link and make the third “middle” link to chain them together.
  • Then repeat that again - so you have two lengths of three links, then make another single link to connect two lengths together.
  • The novice level will probably make 4 to 5 links, the intermediate level will make 6 to links and the open should make around 8 links.
  • Try using the pritchel hole to make the “u” shape and in your shop (ahead of time) figure out how much of the round stock to put down the hole.
• Thursday’s Competition – Animal Heads with Darryl Nelson who will demonstrate a bear head just before the competition starts.
  • Novice level – Create a two-dimensional animal head, tooling and 1 ¼ x ¼ flat bar provided
  • Intermediate level – Create a three-dimensional animal head from 1-inch square stock, tooling provided. Open mouth optional.
  • Open level – Create a three-dimensional animal head from 1 ½” square stock. Provide your own
• Friday's Competition – Tong making with John McClellan
  • Novice level – Create simple twist Jaw tongs from 3/8” by 3/4” flat bar. Tongs should be able to hold ¼” flat bar. Tooling and material provided punched rivet hole and factory rivet.
  • Intermediate level – Create scrolling tongs forged from 1” by 3/8” flat bar. Punched rivet hole and factory rivet.
  • Open level – Create flat or open jaw tongs to hold ¼” flat bar. ¾” stock will be provided with a ½’” round bar for forge welding on reins, extra points for this! Punched rivet hole, factory rivet or handmade rivet from 3/8” bar.
  • Mark’s tip on bringing punches for punching the rivet hole is to bring two punches. Buff the working ends so they are shiny, then drop the punch into a 3/8 inch hole to produce a ring of color on your punch. This will be the indicator of when your punched hole reaches the 3/8’s dimension.
  • Another tip is to dress the outside top part of the reigns first with your hammer, so when you dress the inside part of the reign, the outside is then being flattened by the face of the anvil.
  • Advice on making your own rivet for the tongs, bring a ½” nut to place under the tongs while forging the top of the rivet head. The length of the rivet should be ½” above the boss, ¾” for the width of the boss and another ½” below the boss.

I’m going to start scoping and I have a plan to scope from the conference and competitions! So What is scoping? It’s called Periscope and it’s a free app for your mobile device (Android or iOS devices) that allows me to broadcast a live stream from anywhere and interact with the people watching you through our mobile devices – and it’s for free! I will be live streaming from blacksmithing events and from some of my podcast interviews. It’s super easy to use too! I’ll have instructions on how to get the app and set up a free account on the blacksmither website, in the blog section, I’ll also include it in my email newsletters too, so be sure you are signed up to receive my weekly emails. You can sign up by clicking the subscribe box on the About page of Blacksmither.com. Once you start to follow me or my handle @blacksmithervic the Periscope app will notify you when I will start a live broadcast. And if you miss the live broadcast, don’t worry, the replays are available on Periscope for 24 hours after the broadcast goes live. If you watch any of my live scopes in the future, know that you can interact with me through a comments field and with others that are watching.