What can happen in a year

Nearly 12 months since last post, so whats the problem?

Well...............Where do i start?

First we got Fucked over by the Art college, all in the name of money!!

In my eyes we had an amazing set up, brilliant lecturer and a great bunch of tech staff. Our lecturer Richard Wood worked tirelessly to set up evening classes and support everyone from the evening beginners through to the 3rd year degree students. A unique facility which is now sadly lost to the world, reduced to a pile of rubble as soon as the last bell went. The steel form work is already making progress and not long before the latest money making structure will be presented to the people of Plymouth - albeit minus the trainee Blacksmiths and  Hot Metal sculpture students.

What made our facility unique was not only the equipment, and we were lucky- but the people.

A great and friendly bunch - Joe the manager, Melissa and Steve  and of course Richard.
Not only is there now no where to study in Plymouth but no where in the south west. Nearest college is Hereford. We have a small unit in Plymouth called Flame works, but sadly at present it would be out of my price range.

 The remaining degree students have 6 hours a week forge time at Flame works. Now that is pretty shit if you paid your monies to a College on the understanding that you were to study and use the range of facilities you first saw when you signed up, and started to dream about Hammer and Anvil!!

Well that was the start!!

I have a backlog of stuff to post, and lots of photos. I might even have some photos of the workshop before it was demolished.

We found out in may that the facility would be closed. Last session to be held a week before the Summer show.

If i am correct the last people to use the facility was myself Harry Chadders and Tech Steve. We managed to bag a three hour session one evening a couple of days after the close, because we missed a session due to amount of bank holidays last year. It was an emotional session on the whole.
Richard spent the duration trying to sort stuff out, but really he was walking around totally gutted and the three of us spent three hours making Snails. Snails???? Well we figured Snails would be therapeutic. Richard looked on amused he even said " two years and you spend your last ever session in this wonderful facility making bloody snails". I can see his point totally, but we were content.

Now the next part!!!!

After session it was straight to the boozer for another session, to be honest in hindsight i didn't really realise that evening how much of an affect the loss of the best thing i have ever done in my life would have.

Fast forward three hours...................................................

Home from the pub and a crate of Doom Bar waiting in  the kitchen, i thought well Fuck It, i may as well carry on, and totally drown my sorrows!!  Then the Missus decides to tell me our 8 year engagement has finished and she wants me out of the house!!!!! In all honesty things hadn't been great for a couple of months and i knew it was on the cards. But why choose the night that college finished for good. Ah a women's scorn!! I ma sure the moment was well thought out, anyhow she denies that she chose that moment....................

Reminds me of a line from New Order song.......

So fast forward six months and where am i? That's a good question. Well she had her way, i have moved out of our house, i have visitation rights to my beautiful dog but that is it really................

Moved in with my father who just happens to have a massive garden, Started a 3d practice course at the same college, which worked quite well because the main emphasis of the course is furniture, and all along i have been hoping to achieve enough forging skills to combine wood and forged metal in furniture...................................................................................................................................................

Sounds good eh........Wait for it.................10 weeks in and the college strikes again!!!!!! They pulled this courses as well..............Journey 0 v college 2

So here we have it a year on no college,missus,blacksmithing,house,dog all gone.................................

However we will rise above this and forge on. Got an Anvil lined up(150kg), borrowing a forge of Harry whilst he is away, and some kind soul long retired has agreed to let me have his welder!!

So when up and running Happy days will be here again! Even better if i had my Dog along side!!

So a bloody big Thankyou to the good guys and girls of the Hot Metals dept (deceased), for all that i learnt and the good times we had at Anvil........

I have some stuff to post from the previous six months and hopefully i will be up and running and able to continue my forge training. I will continue to post my progress!!!

FIRE WELDING - LOSING MY VIRGINITY

 Previously i posted about my first day back and how nothing is quite as it seems in the forge. As luck would have it i was an hour early for our second session.With the forges still blowing and the workshop still being supervised(believe me it needs to be supervised when I'm there), i was able to crack on and get 45 minutes extra forge time.

But the same as last week, simple tasks were still failing me. I thought as a warm up i would make a couple of hooks, then a snail in prep for November. The hooks were swiftly abandoned, the snail was slow.
I think at this point i was seriously demoralised, not to the point of wanting to go home, but seriously pissed off, then the magic happened!

At the start of the class, Richard asked if we would like to do a taught session on Fire Welding. Everybody was well into the idea of a taught session and having some of the myths demystified.

Absolutely brilliant session, with Richard explaining in depth about managing the fire, and the importance of a clean managed fire when Fire Welding.

After our session it was time for us to step up. As a class we all were successful after a couple of attempts, i managed a scarfed Fire Weld of two pieces of 12mm sq. First attempt was a nightmare the second i managed the join with a little help of some Borax.

We made some attempts at bending the material back on itself and Fire Welding to form a thick end., which resulted in one of the class then making a spoon. After a couple of attempts with varying degrees of success i attempted an animal head of unknown species!! As we are learning, the look of the head was unimportant that will come later.

By the end of the session, i think we were all happy, especially myself as my confidence had been restored to pre- christmas levels.

Picture of animal head and scarf Fire Weld - click on picture for larger image.

PESTLE AND MORTAR

HAND CARVED PESTLE AND MORTAR!

A present i made for my sister, very pleased with final product!!!

Off cut of rough sawn Teak rescued from the missus's Dad who was going to use it as a lump of firewood. Handle, carved Teak. Mortar finished with Walnut oil, Pestle, carved Teak with forged handle made from 20mm sq mild steel, twisted with scroll end and hidden tang. Forged handle heated and finished with olive oil, whilst hot.

20mm sq mild steel salvaged from the casualty scrap bin at college.

A great little achievement considering all components were destined for the Garbage. 

MY FIRST SNAIL

AH BLESS, HOW CUTE!

Jokes aside, after the trip to Finch Foundry, back in November for St Clemence day(patron saint of Blacksmiths), where an annual Snail race is held, i thought i would attempt one myself.
For me this was a major stepping stone, it may not be perfect, but it sure looks good!
After watching the professional Smiths during the race, this attempt was made from memory.

The object of the snail race is to make a snail that will stay upright, resemble a snail, making it in the fastest possible time. All entries are not judged on looks, so they would not be polished like this one.
If memory serves this one probably took about 25 minutes to make then a couple of minutes on the polishing machine.

The eventual winner of the race at Finch completed in 8 minutes. Now i realise that 8 minutes is probably not attainable, seeing how my second attempt three weeks later was a complete disaster. But maybe i can practice over the coming year and get down to a respectable time.

NEW YEAR GOALS

I have never been one for the New Years resolution, but this year i have set myself a couple of goals for the coming year. First and foremost is to continue the learning process at Plymouth college of Art. With one course starting next week and hopefully a place on the hot metals in March, i will at the very least continue with college to June. My first goal in the coming weeks is to attempt and complete a fire weld, a task not yet attempted, which could prove to be headache, but you never know it could also be fun!

Later in the year if Forging Fawks is to be run again, i would like to at least finish and complete my entry into the competition, even if i come last. Last years entry was started way to late, as i spent most of the morning talking,snapping photos and generally hiding! It was only my fellow student Harry's call of help that let me overcome my fears of ridicule and attempt an entry. Last years theme was something to wear, so i made a belt, only for the pin holding the buckle to fall out at the last minute. But no the pin couldn't fall on the floor it had to land in the bloody water trough, much to the amusement of judge for the day Bex Simon who happened to be watching!

I would also like to enter the St Clemence day snail race at Finch Foundry. Last November we made the journey to Sticklpath, Okehampton for the day. A good fun day out at the last remaining water powered forge in the country, here is the link -www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-finchfoundry
The winner of the Snail race completed a snail from start to finish in 8 minutes, i have already had a go at college(photo will follow), i was no where near 8 minutes but the snail looks good and now lives with the salad in the kitchen, well the mantle above the fire!

These little goals are not a tall order and are very achievable, if i can also continue with my interest in wood, which incidentally has had a great start to the new year with a single bed being made over the last week. The bed was a success and not a screw anywhere near. A lot of joints, Mortice and Tenons, Mortice joints and Dowels were used. When completely finished, i will do a whole post on the making of the bed, as it is for the spare room that is currently being redecorated, and i also decided over Christmas that all of the furniture and fittings would be handmade.

This has already caused alarm amongst friends, who only buy high street shite made in Massive Chinese factories. Why they ask don't you just buy a bed, buy a curtain pole, buy some hooks, buy a bedside cabinet. Why i say, don't you just Feck off and leave me be. Why i say; Why because i can!!

Which also brings me to, a little project i have had on my mind for a while. Born out of the misses's moaning for myself not wanting to throw way odds and sods, this and that and bits of useful material. All this stuff has a use and can be remade or recycled. My idea is to come up with a name for the project, lets say project 52 for sake of an argument and reuse and remake 52 items over the coming year. Now i will cheat a little as i have already started at the end of the last year and remade a couple of items. This could be an interesting little project including items small and large, as long as they are say remade as a functional piece.

We will see and time will tell!!!

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

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.