SPARKS

Took this picture last week for my header. Looking at the picture made me think of the spark test you can do to determine metal composition. The description for Mild steel being; The leaf is smaller and gives rise to a number of sparks. Some streaks are shorter. (description source unknown)

THE KING OF CRAFTS MAKES HIS/HER OWN TOOLS

A big thank you to Mark Aspery for letting me use this passage from his excellent book THE SKILLS OF A BLACKSMITH VOLUME 1 - MASTERING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF BLACKSMITHING.

THE KING OF CRAFTS MAKES HIS/HER OWN TOOLS

Camelot had been finished for a month or so, the concrete curing to perfection,King Arthur decided to throw a feast to honour all the craftsmen that had helped construct the palace.

As the craftsmen entered the great hall, they were instructed to seat themselves in a manner where those that had most to do with the construction sit nearest the King and those that had least to do with it sit furthest away. In that way honour could be given in an equitable fashion.

Arthur was renown for his wisdom and council throughout the Kingdom. Part way through the main course Arthur looked about the room. He stood after the main meal and walked about the tables.

He approached the craftsman nearest to him and asked what was his occupation? The man replied,"Why sire, I am your tailor!"

          Arthur asked what he had constructed. The tailor replied "Those fine robes that you're wearing sire, the tapestry that hangs on the wall. I made those!" Arthur congratulated him on his fine workmanship and moved to the next person.

He asked the same question. The man replied "I am, a goldsmith sire, That platter that you eat from, the goblet that you drink from, I made both of those. I even made the fine gold thread in the tapestry."

Arthur again offered his congratulations and moved on.

The next in line was the silversmith. His reply to Arthur's question was to point out the cutlery at the King's table and the fine candle sticks adorning the Kings table.

And so Arthur made his way down the table. Stone mason, Carpenter and so on until he reached the blacksmith sitting at the far end of the room.

He asked the Blacksmith what he had contributed to the palace. The Blacksmith replied that he had made the hinges for the door, but not a lot else. Seeming satisfied with his meetings, Arthur returned to his seat.

After the fine dessert, Arthur again stood and walked around the table.

He approached the Tailor.

Arthur asked "Tell me, your scissors,your needles, where do you get those from?" The tailor replied "Sire I go to the blacksmith!"

Arthur asked the question of the goldsmith "your hammer and stakes, where do you get those from?"  The goldsmith replied "sire I have the blacksmith make them"

Arthur got the same response all the way along the table until he reached the blacksmith. Arthur asked the question of the blacksmith and the smith replied "Sire, I make my own tools, and those of others. That is my trade."

          Arthur exclaimed

"SMITH!  BY YOUR  HAMMER AND HAND ALL CRAFTS DO STAND! YOU SHOULD BE SEATED AT THE TOP OF THE TABLE"

 Arthur bade the blacksmith to move to the top of the table. He asked the tailor to swap seats as he thought the smith had been done an injustice. The smith was very embarrassed as he had just come from the forge and was still wearing his apron.The tailor was livid.

So intent was the tailor to exact some sort of revenge That he snuck beneath the table with his scissors and when he reached the Blacksmith, he cut a fringe on the blacksmith's apron.

After the meal the smith noticed his apron and understood what had happened. He continued to wear the apron for work at the forge and always exclaimed delight when someone would ask him the story behind the fringe.

"Why" he would say " The tailor gave me this recognition of my services to the crafts" That is why, to this day, a blacksmith should have a fringe cut on the bottom of his/her apron. 

And make his/her own tools.

 

EVOLUTION

These three key rings are a good measure of progress made within the first 6 weeks back in the summer. The middle keyring was made at home using Mapp gas and 6mm square bar. The keyring to the far right was my last project at the end of the first 6 weeks. At the time i was more than happy with the outcome, as taking the first keyring as a measure of progress, i was certainly evolving!!

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT - VERY FIRST FORGING ATTEMPT, 4 WEEKS INTO FIRST COURSE AND FINALLY END OF FIRST COURSE

GREAT VIDEO OF A HAND FORGED VIKING AXE HEAD

Very taken by this video when i came across it two weeks ago, Something to aspire too !

TRIVET

As you can see from the pictures the good old tapers make yet another appearance. We began with the steel ring. Material was heated then shaped around the bick of the anvil ,until something resembling a circle was formed. Once happy with the form, a small weld was made, then taken back to the anvil to try and hide the weld best possible. Gentle hammering around the join cleaned up most of the weld. To the right of the tapered leg in the secong photo you can see some evidence of the weld.

Newly formed ring was placed back into the forge for a heat then placed on a cone mandrel, sometimes known as a Witches hat, due to the resemblance. The ring is placed over the cone so it can be trued and shaped to form  

With our ring made and set aside, it was time to move on to the tapered legs. Some opted for more elaborate legs with different designs for the centre. I decided on this design purely to keep things simple. On a personal level more elaborate designs can come later, you cannot run before you can walk! A total of 5 tapers were made with the best three being selected. Material was heated then tapered, a quick measure then bent to a 90 degree angle.

Group discussion followed once we all at the same stage. Time for the very rusty Mathematics to be used, not my strongest point, seeing how i only ever calculate how much money i have left halfway through the month. As a group it was decided to use PI to calculate circumference and all that malarkey, you know 314............... with the calculations complete( i done mine by eye), chalk marks ready, it was time for some hot punching, which went a lot better than expected. Tapered legs were drilled with a cordless, however most of us suffered problems at this stage due to too much quenching. Quenching hardens the material, not a problem at play until you start drilling bloody holes.

This was to be the second attempt at riveting with the help of a vice. Oxy- acetylene was used to heat the rivets, then hammered once at orange heat. Job done!

Due to the shortness of the legs, i hve used this trivet on a number of occaisons for placing hot pans at the table. With longer legs it could be used for a kettle or pan on an open fire.

BACKGROUND AND REFLECTION

Why? Why become so taken by the fire, i know it is not the frustration that is so evident, even amongst experienced Smiths and students alike, definitely experienced by myself at least every 20 minutes. Why?...............................................
Put simply - As frustrating as can be, it is equally satisfying and rewarding at the same time! The highs outweigh the lows easily, the feeling of triumph and reward when a finished piece is shown to others, the inner feeling of knowing how much work went into the shaping and sculpting of the metal.

I never opted for Metalwork at school, somehow never setting foot into the metals classroom during the 5 years of secondary school. I did however opt for Woodwork, probably a natural choice at the time having grown up around a Sawmill, plenty of Oak and a very handy Father with a love wood. A love we both, still share to this day. Do i regret not discovering Metalwork earlier?
Strange as it may seem, no i don't. If i had discovered Metals earlier, would i have the appreciation for the craft, would i be able to watch a skilled Smith at work, and marvel at there required skills and dedication, probably not!

If a person is of a practical nature i do believe they can embrace other disciplines, of course skills have to be learnt, from the bottom up, but in a lot of respects for me this is a whole new learning curve. The forge, how do you light the damn thing? Can i remember how to operate the oxy, not always(hardly ever).

My greatest passion is to cook, one of the reasons for my starting the courses in the first place was to require enough skills to be able to make practical cooking tools, explore methods of cooking. How does this relate to Blacksmithing. In every way really, the idea that i could eventually design or redesign bbq's, look into methods of open fire cooking, thus be able to design and make spits, trivets and assorted cooking appliances. My love of street food around the world was another reason, someone somewhere makes charcoal grills,special food carts with 50cc chicken chasers attached and griddles, not all of these are mass produced! Many years down the line i would like to be able to design cook knives. To be able to explore the ergonomics of the knife handle. Could i eventually make a beautifully hand crafted cooks knife, custom made for the user? I sure know that in the past i have spent a small fortune on cooks knifes, mainly blinded by looks and not whether or not they are comfortable to use.

10 months down the line, has my emphasis shifted. Maybe, maybe not. What i can say for sure is that a whole new universe has opened. All the time we are encouraged to design and make are own pieces, at home we sketch an idea, not all of the sketches are ever seen, but the point is, we start to take on the persona of a designer/ maker. To think differently.
While this craft is firmly rooted in the past, it has never been so modern. Could the main attraction be the diversity of the blacksmith. The routes that could be followed are many and varied, i have a sudden interest in engineering and of course the art aspect is always evident. To question why? What are we trying to say?

HOOK

Although we had practiced bending on the Anvil this was our first set of Hooks that we had made from start to finish. Simple looking and of course the photo does not give a true representation of the execution. 12mm square bar was heated and placed on the edge of the anvil. The bar turned to an angle of approximately 45 degrees, a shoulder made with the hammer, then hot punched to form a simple hole for hanging.
Next the taper. The bar was taken down to a taper and bent around the bick to the desired shape,sounds very simple but here's the catch. Remembering the 45 degree angle that the shoulder formed, the line from the shoulder to the taper had to be kept true. This sounds pretty simple but in reality as a beginner this proved to be the undoing of many. We were encouraged as a class to make several, of course we only presented our best efforts.

There is a lot to be said for repetitive tasks, and in reality this forms the basis of all Blacksmithing.

INTERESTING LINKS

To the right you will find some interesting links from the college and people i have met through the college. Flameacademy is a blog run by our lecturer Richard Wood who is also studying for an MA at Plymouth college of Art, area of research Entrepreneurship In Creative Practice - building low cost sustainable equipment. Of course i have a link for Plymouth college of Art, where i have the opportunity to study in the evening. Lots of different courses on offer full time,part time,evening and Saturdays. Nice place to study, good vibe and a great choice of courses in the contemporary crafts.

Bex simon is a female Blacksmith from London, who recently came down to the first Forging Fawkes weekend to judge our entries, Lisa Harrison from smythickforge just outside Falmouth.  Joff Hopper from Metalpig forge and Jon Snow the eventual winner of the Forging Fawkes cup, all have links to there Websites and respective businesses.

There is also a link to The city Kitchen which is a Plymouth based Food blog, full of recipes and general foodie related posts.
Links will be updated as and when, and new links are always welcome.

SHOW US YOUR TONGS

My first set of tongs, lovingly made by my hands. No big deal right, well it was for me! Only now 10 months down the line, the significance of crafting your own tools has eventually sank in. Most beginners probably find the task of tong making tedious, take a step back, think for one moment? Who else makes there own tools as well as tools for everyone.

A couple of pages into the book THE SKILLS OF THE BLACKSMITH- VOLUME 1 BY MARK ASPERY  you will come across a wonderful passage called The king of crafts makes his/her own tools. the passage relates to the finishing of Camelot. Towards the end of the passage King Arthur exclaimed "SMITH! BY YOUR HAMMER AND HAND ALL CRAFTS DO STAND"!

The above passage is a wonderful example of the skills of the trained Blacksmith, so back to me the untrained, trainee Blacksmith with wild ideas and some skills in the making. Out of our class no one seemed so interested in the making of tongs and opted for other projects on the next session, i decided to stick with them, and have found uses for them at the fire! As this blog progresses i will find the diagram for tong making and post a step by step sequence, as for now i will explain the title of this blog post.

          Towards the end of the session, with the tongs assembled,riveted and working as they should, they   were placed back into the fire for a last heat to cherry red, a good brush off with the wire brush and a healthy spray of wd-40 for the final finish. After the initial wd-40 inferno had burnt out, the tongs were to take on a grey/black pa lour that to the unaware makes them look just the same as nice and cold hand forged steel. All it took was a handful of seconds a slow response from me whilst looking for piece of chalk to draw the warning of HOT METAL around the tongs. Steve the workshop technician walked past "SHOW US YOUR TONGS" picked them up to the sound of a sizzle,a very similar sound to a Saturday morning frying pan loaded with bacon and eggs. For me this all happened in slow motion, if we could add the theme from chariots of fire you would be on the same page. Mouth open with my best dying fish impression, hand held out with a piece of chalk it was to late, the hand was burnt! What could i do? Well apologise that was about it really!!

BLADE,LEAF AND TAPER

 This is between you and me OK! I was excited, really excited to be back in the workshop, six full days have passed since i last burnt myself, the usual kitchen burns just do not measure now! Today's task is ......................................... To make a blade,leaf and taper. Big deal we could have sighed,we have the basics ?(most people get cocky on there third session,honest) , but wait for it...................... We have to join them!! It is amazing how fast one can lose there cockiness, almost like giving it the big one in front of a pretty girl only to find the boyfriend staring at you. You know the boyfriend with the high protein diet, what do you do! SHUT UP!

Now less of the rambling,  using 10mm square the first task was to make the leaf, a much better effort on my part as it almost resembles a leaf, well a bay leaf anyhow :( .

The blade was somewhat easier, but could that be because it did not bare any resemblance to what we were shown. Now with the taper i was impressed , it actually looked like a taper,being equal on all sides. With self esteem restored and intact it was time to attempt a twist. A quick chinwag with our ever understanding, very patient tutor Mr Richard Wood, the mechanics were explained. Keep the heat even where you wish to twist, place material nearest to point you wish to twist  into a vice. Tighten and twist away! Tongs,monkey wrench or handmade twisting device were all to hand, for my first twist i used the handmade twister, a length

 of bar with an L shaped piece of steel welded dead centre. Material to be twisted is then inserted into the L shaped shoulder and twisted the desired direction, up to 360 degrees for a complete twist.

The collar. No one said this bit would be easy, the opposite end to the taper was placed back into the fire, heated then placed on the edge of the anvil, hammered flat then spread to form a collar. The idea being that the collar would wrap and hold the other two pieces together. For every time i wrapped the collar and managed a snug fit the temptation to play, to achieve a better fit would bubble to the surface, only for both pieces of material to loosen. No guessing required for choice words, after several attempts the piece was taken away by the  Blacksmith police. The sentence passed - 2 minutes on the gas welding bench.



BLADE,LEAF AND TAPER WITH  FIRST EVER TWIST, BOTTOM COLLAR GAS WELDED.



SATURDAY WORKSHOPS - MARCH 12TH

Trying to recollect what happened last week poses enough problems let alone ten months ago.
With five budding Smiths fully paid up for the next five weeks an age range of 13-50, a boy girl ratio of 4-2, we were set to go. Building from our elementary knowledge of scrolls and tapers, the most basic of techniques, we were set to work with the emphasis on hammer action and controlling the heat.
A valuable lesson for myself on this session was although i never produced a finished item i did however have lots of fun, and in theory learnt to form a reasonable taper, the scrolls i still struggle with 10 months down the line.
Unfortunately a relative had chosen this day to tie the knot, so my first session was cut short by holy matrimony, however it is amazing what thought processes are to be had, when most revellers were trying bad renditions of what some would desribe as dance others an unknown Parksonian illness, yep i was probably on my 7-8th Doom bar, thinking of hot metal, what one day i might be able to make, and how the next day i would surf the net looking for any related Blacksmith information. Incidentlt none of this happened the next day as i continued my affair with the Doom bar barrel.

MY JOURNEY - SATURDAY WORKSHOP - MARCH 5TH 2011

How could one possibly start to describe a journey as incredible as Hammer,Fire and Anvil.
 Broken limbs, to much time and and some wild ideas, probably pushed me to enrol on a Blacksmith's taster day at Plymouth College of Art.
If memory serves i was without a doubt terrible! A first attempt at a hand forged keyring out of  mild steel round bar probably led to some amusement amongst my fellow tasters, not that i was worried, i was already hooked, even my attempt at a leaf was not enough to deter my inner Smith, even if the leaf resembled a way to thin and over sized beer can ring pull, i was suitably mesmerised.
At the end of the four hour session, i knew i would be back the following week for burns,elation and a hell of a lot of frustration.