My first ever Blacksmithing lesson!
Dec 16, 2007 0:17:00 GMT
Post by Matt993f.o.d on Dec 16, 2007 0:17:00 GMT
Despite the way that a severe bout of the only ever travel-sickness I have ever had conspired to ruin it, I had a perfect day!
We arrived at half eight in the morning, at the westpoint forge, where the course is run. The teacher, an expert blacksmith called John Bellamy got us straight to work on our first project for the day; forging a simple outdoor drinks stand for holding a wine glass. There were three other people present on the course. My dear old dad, a chap by the name of Tom who kept flicking roll-up ends into my forge and a young Japanese fellow whose ambition is to become a master bladesmith. All lovely people, whom I got on with very well. Our teacher was a helpful fellow, with a thick geordie accent. A great bloke though, and really enthusiastic about his trade.
First thing, we learnt how to light the forge. We were using giant old English coke forges that were water cooled, and that gave off tons of sooty smoke when lit. I developed an instant rapport with the one I was using, and managed to keep it perfectly controlled the whole day.
Next we chose an anvil, and a hammer. The trick is to choose an anvil that is the right height, so that all your hammer blows land perfectly flat and true on the piece you are working, and not cocked over. I chose a lighter hammer, more suited to my short height. I didnt find it tiring to use at all. The poor bloke next to me chose a massive hammer and got knackered really quick.
After a great demonstration of making the glass holder, John set us to work making our own. The first task is to forge on the point that will secure the holder into the ground. Excuse the poor picture; It looks much better in the flesh.
Mine went ok, but I overestimated how long it would take to heat the iron through, and so burnt it slightly. I had to file it quite a bit to remove the ruined pasty metal. It fixed up fine after that. I only made that mistake once!
I was really suprised how quickly the forge heats the metal to forging temperature, and how soft it actually gets when it is heated. I found that when drawing down, it is easiest to shape when yellow, and easiest to neaten up when cooling to red.
We then forged a chisel-point on the end, scrolled it over, and made a double bend to form the actual glass holder.
I was chuffed to bits with mine.
Here is the finished product:
We then moved on to something a little harder; forging and shaping a set of nice toasting/BBQ forks.
We started with a short flat bar of steel, which we punched marks in to remind us where to forge. We then slimmed down the end section to make the hook for hanging the fork. After drawing it down, and rounding it, we made a nice artful twist to act as a sort of handle. Mine went a bit wrong at first, but was easily fixable.
We then started to form the actual forks. First we took the other end of the bar, and cut a groove in it with a cold chisel. After heating the steel to forging temperature, we deepened the groove with a hot chisel until it cut through. Once we had two prongs, we bent one up, to get it out the way, then drew the other down to a nice point. I was getting ok at this by now. Once it was done, the process was repeated for the other side. Once we had our forks, we hammered them together until they were just touching (to avoid heating them up too much during the next step) and then tapered the section just behind the prongs to make it a little neater. The prongs were then seperated with the hot chisel, hammered till they were facing away from each other, and then shaped over the pointy end of the anvil to form the final forks.
As you can see, I forged one slightly thicker than the other by accident. To sort of remedy it, I forged the thicker one until it was much longer, and then trimmed it with the hot chisel, and re-pointed it. It sort of worked, but the only thing that stopped me making them both the same is that we ran out of time, and had to move on to finishing.
Here is the final product, the photo makes it look wonkier than it is, but the prongs are both the same length.
Finishing was by wire brushing off the scale (John referred to it as "Clinker" for some geordie reason), filing the edges smooth, and then treating the steel with sunflower oil by heating, brushing with oil, reheating and then wiping down. This apparently is a mild form of rust protection, and gives the steel a nice black colour.
The day was great fun and a huge success. As Sam predicted, I was "wide eyed and open mouthed all day"! I don't think I did too badly for a first go. My Dad's were easily the best pieces made by students on the day. Mine were probably the third best out of four, but I might add that most of my finishing was done by forging (since I couldnt get enough of it!) and I did far less filing than everyone else.
It was a great experience, and one I thoroughly recommend. I have the option of taking more courses as soon as I can afford them, and am looking forward to taking the simple blademaking course in November next year. A long wait, but worth it. Interestingly, John doesnt much go for blademaking. He has only ever made two swords in his entire (long) career. Doesnt mean he isnt kick ass at making them though! A proper genius with metal. What amazed me most is the way that he looks at a piece of work which everyone else thinks looks fine, and can pick out tiny imperfections in detail and remedy them, showing the true attention to detail you need to do this kind of work.
Hope you enjoy the pics!
We arrived at half eight in the morning, at the westpoint forge, where the course is run. The teacher, an expert blacksmith called John Bellamy got us straight to work on our first project for the day; forging a simple outdoor drinks stand for holding a wine glass. There were three other people present on the course. My dear old dad, a chap by the name of Tom who kept flicking roll-up ends into my forge and a young Japanese fellow whose ambition is to become a master bladesmith. All lovely people, whom I got on with very well. Our teacher was a helpful fellow, with a thick geordie accent. A great bloke though, and really enthusiastic about his trade.
First thing, we learnt how to light the forge. We were using giant old English coke forges that were water cooled, and that gave off tons of sooty smoke when lit. I developed an instant rapport with the one I was using, and managed to keep it perfectly controlled the whole day.
Next we chose an anvil, and a hammer. The trick is to choose an anvil that is the right height, so that all your hammer blows land perfectly flat and true on the piece you are working, and not cocked over. I chose a lighter hammer, more suited to my short height. I didnt find it tiring to use at all. The poor bloke next to me chose a massive hammer and got knackered really quick.
After a great demonstration of making the glass holder, John set us to work making our own. The first task is to forge on the point that will secure the holder into the ground. Excuse the poor picture; It looks much better in the flesh.
Mine went ok, but I overestimated how long it would take to heat the iron through, and so burnt it slightly. I had to file it quite a bit to remove the ruined pasty metal. It fixed up fine after that. I only made that mistake once!
I was really suprised how quickly the forge heats the metal to forging temperature, and how soft it actually gets when it is heated. I found that when drawing down, it is easiest to shape when yellow, and easiest to neaten up when cooling to red.
We then forged a chisel-point on the end, scrolled it over, and made a double bend to form the actual glass holder.
I was chuffed to bits with mine.
Here is the finished product:
We then moved on to something a little harder; forging and shaping a set of nice toasting/BBQ forks.
We started with a short flat bar of steel, which we punched marks in to remind us where to forge. We then slimmed down the end section to make the hook for hanging the fork. After drawing it down, and rounding it, we made a nice artful twist to act as a sort of handle. Mine went a bit wrong at first, but was easily fixable.
We then started to form the actual forks. First we took the other end of the bar, and cut a groove in it with a cold chisel. After heating the steel to forging temperature, we deepened the groove with a hot chisel until it cut through. Once we had two prongs, we bent one up, to get it out the way, then drew the other down to a nice point. I was getting ok at this by now. Once it was done, the process was repeated for the other side. Once we had our forks, we hammered them together until they were just touching (to avoid heating them up too much during the next step) and then tapered the section just behind the prongs to make it a little neater. The prongs were then seperated with the hot chisel, hammered till they were facing away from each other, and then shaped over the pointy end of the anvil to form the final forks.
As you can see, I forged one slightly thicker than the other by accident. To sort of remedy it, I forged the thicker one until it was much longer, and then trimmed it with the hot chisel, and re-pointed it. It sort of worked, but the only thing that stopped me making them both the same is that we ran out of time, and had to move on to finishing.
Here is the final product, the photo makes it look wonkier than it is, but the prongs are both the same length.
Finishing was by wire brushing off the scale (John referred to it as "Clinker" for some geordie reason), filing the edges smooth, and then treating the steel with sunflower oil by heating, brushing with oil, reheating and then wiping down. This apparently is a mild form of rust protection, and gives the steel a nice black colour.
The day was great fun and a huge success. As Sam predicted, I was "wide eyed and open mouthed all day"! I don't think I did too badly for a first go. My Dad's were easily the best pieces made by students on the day. Mine were probably the third best out of four, but I might add that most of my finishing was done by forging (since I couldnt get enough of it!) and I did far less filing than everyone else.
It was a great experience, and one I thoroughly recommend. I have the option of taking more courses as soon as I can afford them, and am looking forward to taking the simple blademaking course in November next year. A long wait, but worth it. Interestingly, John doesnt much go for blademaking. He has only ever made two swords in his entire (long) career. Doesnt mean he isnt kick ass at making them though! A proper genius with metal. What amazed me most is the way that he looks at a piece of work which everyone else thinks looks fine, and can pick out tiny imperfections in detail and remedy them, showing the true attention to detail you need to do this kind of work.
Hope you enjoy the pics!