A Hammer-In is a teaching meeting for Blacksmiths. You bring your own hammer and come on in! The Adirondack Chapter is a part of the New York State Designer Blacksmiths. Both are educational organizations that seek to preserve and teach the skills of Blacksmithing. A number of demonstrations and projects were done throughout the day. I demonstrated some traditional forge welded items made with the coal forge, hammer, and anvil.
Work was done on the old South Bend Lathe. A repair gear blank for a hand crank forge blower was turned from copper bar stock. Old tools are still good tools if you can make the replacement parts yourself!
A young member finished a project started at a previous meeting. He had forged and filed a knife blade blank from an old file. At this meeting he hardened it in oil and then drew the temper with a torch. Look at the range of temper colors in the iridescent sheen on the steel.
A meeting is also a social event that not only gives people a chance to teach and learn, but also a chance to catch up.
Marty's English Mouse hole Forge Anvil is probably around 160 years old. It looks ready for a lot more work!
It was a fun meeting. If you are interested in learning more about Blacksmithing look for the ABANA chapter organization near you!
No comments:
Post a Comment