This is a truly ‘by-hand’ experience of working metal. Come and play with fire for a day or two and see what magic you can create from steel at plastic heat. A day of fun and challenge. Take home something decorative/useful. Both days a mixture of beginners and repeat offenders. All materials and tuition provided.
SESSIONS: One or two day workshops – Saturday and Sunday
MATERIALS CHARGE $10.00
What you will need
Safety gear: clear safety glasses, gloves, ear plugs or muffs.
A ball pein hammer of a weight that you can swing all day and not do yourself an injury. Borrowed is ok – but don’t go out and buy one as I have spares.
Sun protection and lots of water.
You will not be permitted to the work area with out safety glasses on.
Earplugs
Leather shoes
Leather apron and leather gloves optional
Using 100 year old blowers and traditional charcoal forges and anvils (with no electricity) – the object of the workshop is to learn the fundaments of hot forging. Most of you will take home the skills of ‘drawing out’ (making the workpiece longer and thinner), ‘upsetting’ (making it shorter and thicker), ‘twisting’, ‘hot cutting’ and ‘punching’ to form a hole.
SAFETY. Working at a hospital in my day job gives me a fairly good grounding in what it takes to create a good OHS work environment. Burns are the main risk and I take great care to make participants aware of the specific risks and ways to avoid them. Having said that there is often someone who gets a minor burn in a workshop (for which we keep a first aid kit). In one workshop I ran last year it was me! I did what I had just told everyone not to do. So if you stick to the guidelines you will be relatively safe .
THE PROJECTS. Everyone starts by making a simple hook on which to put into practice the basics. Even for those with experience it’s a good warm-up exercise.
After a morning tea we move onto one of a couple of possible projects (last year a garden hose stand, in other workshops last year – a riveted hand garden fork or the ubiquitous fire poker) By the time this is accomplished, everyone’s whistle is whet and they are ready to try something of their own design or variations to the theme. By pack up time you will be completely addicted and won’t want to down tools.
Be prepared to be muscle-sore in your dominant arm and pleasantly challenged to do stuff that is for most, totally new and possibly a bit daunting.
Blacksmithing is very like playing with plasticine only one needs to hold the material with tongs and manipulate it with a hammer and anvil. It has another similarity to working plasticine in that it is very basic. Most people find that in a short time and with a little practice they can achieve the task and begin to apply their own uniqueness of design.
Indeed, like all hand crafts each practitioner develops their own unique style that may reflect something of their own character and each piece has its own variations that mark it as different from the previous.
In a world where the mass manufactured good is indistinguishable from the previous, that can be refreshing and inspiring.
Each time I fire up the forge it’s like I take a little holiday from the oppressiveness of this sameness.
I say that it’s good for my spirit. Hope it’s good for yours!
ABOUT ME. This year is my twentieth since I kicked off with my first forge from an auction. Since then I studied blacksmithing at TAFE NSW where I attained a second trade certificate as a blacksmith (the first as a fitter and turner) and during a short trip to America to participate in their biannual conference (ABANA).
