I made fire!

Okay, no. I did not actually make fire. Andrew and I took the last weekend in April off from work, and we traveled to Western North Carolina. First, we drove up to Asheville along the scenic route as Andrew had never been in that area before. We stopped for a driving break along the Nantahala and watched two rafts with paddlers float by us. The weather was amazing: sunny. Spring was popping up with green leaves and a nice breeze. Needless to say, it was the perfect drive.

We arrived in Asheville around 1pm, and we headed to the Biltmore Estate (I already had tickets.) Again, it was another spot that Andrew had never been, and the last time I visited it was 2004. My how much it has changed. I love the architecture of the Biltmore, and I love the iron chandelier hanging four stories with a cantilevered staircase surrounding it. However, it has become much more touristy. First of all, Fridays are not the days to visit. It was packed with school tours of disrespectful kids cussing and pushing people around. It made walking through the house incredibly difficult. Second, the Biltmore herds you into a "chute" between the banquet room and breakfast room for a required picture. It would be nice if this picture had the same conservatory back drop as what is behind you, but it's one of the "pick this up at the end of your tour" pictures in which you are pasted into the back drop of the Biltmore. After walking through the house (and trying to avoid the school tours,) we continued down to the gardens. Sadly, the only thing in bloom at that time were the Azalea bushes in a separate location. Here are some of the photos we snapped at the Biltmore (you are not allowed to take any photos, recordings, or sketches of the inside of the Biltmore. This sucked because I wanted a photo of the kitchen!)

After the Biltmore and checking into our hotel (Holiday Inn at Biltmore Mall - WOULD stay there again!) we headed to downtown Asheville. After making several loops before settling on a parking deck, we began our conquest to find food. Of course we were in sensory overload, but we managed to settle on Carmel's Restaurant. I am glad we did. Our server, Jay, was amazing, and the food was just as good. We chose to sit outside and people watch before finishing our meals and heading to Kilwin's just around the corner to get some ice cream before our trek back to our car. We were so tired or we would have spent much more time walking around Asheville.

The next morning our friends Silvia, Nona, and Mark drove up from Atlanta so we could all head to Fire on the Mountain Blacksmith Festival in Spruce Pine, NC. It is about an hour from Asheville, and it is a quaint and unique town. The majority of smiths and booths there were hosted by Penland School of Crafts in Burnsville, NC (nearby.)

We met up with our friend, Lo, who had been attending Penland for a few weeks. She was participating in a "snake-off" (forging a snake in a designated amount of time.) Unfortunately, she couldn't get a good heat as the propane tanks were freezing, but here she is in action:

We were able to see some awesome demos including one by Elizabeth Brim. You may notice she wears a pearl necklace. She does this because when she started smithing someone told her it wasn't ladylike to blacksmith so she started wearing a pearl necklace.

The festival was so much fun. We ended up spending five or six hours there before heading up to Penland for a pig roast and a tour of Lo's shop. After climbing the winding drive to the school, it was as if the mists parted, and here was this wonderful world called Penland. 

Some of the awesome sights seen around the shop:

And of course, Mark had to get in on some fun, too. Andrew and I were outside standing near the awesome forged gate (seen above) when we heard a hammer ringing on metal in the shop. I said, "I recognize those hammer blows. That's Mark." Sure enough when we walked in, Mark was forging his own snake at Lo's coal-burning (awesome) forge. Andrew said to me, "give it a few minutes, and Mark will have a crowd." Sure enough - he did. Also at the festival and Penland we met Jamie Rogers of Big Giant Swords. She had recognized Mark from an event while we were at the festival, and we had the chance to meet her while we were watching Elizabeth Brim's demo.

By the time we came down off the mountain, it was time to call it a night. After breakfast the next morning, we all headed our ways. Andrew and I stopped at Spring Ridge Creamery in Otto, NC for some milk, cheese, and ice cream, and then we stopped in at a flea market in Mountain City, GA before picking up the dogs and heading home.

It was an awesome weekend, and we can't wait to move up there in about three years.

Flooding you with blacksmithing posts.

Luckily, my husband has been bitten by the blacksmithing bug. After his introductory February 15th class, we headed to Metal Supermarkets - Marietta (ask for "Heinie") to purchase some of our own square stock steel for Hammer Therapy on Friday nights at the Goat n Hammer. We picked up some 1/4" and 1/2" square stock (1/4" hooks, 1/2" fire poker.)

While we were only supposed to go to Hammer Therapy on the 27th, we decided to go on the 20th as well (who am I to argue, right?) The drive down to Atlanta was fun (not! see "omg! snow flurries! panic! pull over!") and we arrived in time for Hammer Therapy. I decided to just work on J-hooks while Andrew decided to work on all three. After a good two plus hours of hammering some steel, we called it a night. Not much to brag about. We made hooks. It was cold.

Instead, we invited any of our friends to come down on the 27th to the 6-8 Hammer Therapy and dinner afterwards at Six Feet Under. I've been arguing with the weather and crossing my fingers for a clear night, and it appears to have worked (thus far. It is Georgia, after all.)

I don't have any new and interesting pieces to share with you, but if you think blacksmithing might pique your interest, I invite you to Hammer Therapy on Friday nights. It is open to beginners who want to see if they might enjoy swinging a hammer enough to participate in the introductory classes.

I enjoy it so much that I signed up for the blacksmithing curriculum class and start on Monday, March 2nd! (which I just realized is not too far away)

Everybody's working for the weekend; I'm working for blacksmithing.

The title about says it all. I don't have many updates to share, but I will say that I forged to finished my first knife last weekend (the 14th, of all days.) I enjoyed it immensely. Thanks to the wonderful instruction by Mark (see previous post,) I have learned a sliver of how metal moves, how to make it move in the direction I want it to move, and how to fix most of my blunders. However, not so contrary to the rest of things I try, every once in awhile, they'll be a blunder that I am at a complete loss as to how to fix, and even Mark asks, "what the fuuuuuuh?" I don't know. I consider that talent!

The culmination of the previous classes (J-hooks and S-hooks, fire poker, and copper spoon) is the railroad spike knife. Everything that had been learned in prior classes is used in the railroad spike knife class. I had some wobbles along the way, but instead of causing a "WTF" moment, I was able to pull it back around and, with the help of Mark's instruction, fix my minor blunders. Looking at my knife NOW, I pick it apart, "I could have cleaned this up a bit more; I could have straightened that out just a bit," but that's how it's supposed to be, right?

And this is my finished product.....

 

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Riding on the confidence high from my RR spike knife, I then signed up for the Viking Belt Knife class. Now, I could already tell by the finished product that this knife was going to be quite different from the RR spike knife. The fact that it is forged from a piece of curved metal from a coil spring didn't bother me. The statement by Mark earlier in the day was enough to make me go, "oh dear God...." and that statement was, "dress warmly...make sure you eat a good meal before you come...we have a lot of metal to move, and I don't want anyone growing faint." Normally, that'd be a har har har moment. This was NOT a har har har moment.

After leaving work near the Atlanta city limits at 4, I drove home, grabbed good to eat on the rest of my drive home, got home at 5, let dogs out, fed dogs, changed clothes (wear layers,) waited for Andrew, and headed down to Goat n Hammer. Basically my drive went point A to point B to back down to point A and then 15 miles further. Did I mention it was f*%#ing cold? Cold as in....20s (Fahrenheit) with a windchill making it "feel like 8 degrees." Good thing forging = fire. 

We start with the spring coil that has been cut, and for sake of brevity, I will say the steps go something like this (give or take a dozen I am probably missing, and several heats in between:)

* Forge curve to flat piece
* Set down at measured mark
* Set down on horn at original mark and then 90 degree mark until about 3/8" or so
* Flip piece around, and start drawing out the 4" to 7" (lots and lots and lots of King Kong hammering...not with a power hammer....a regular 2 - 2-1/2" hammer)
* Clean up drawn out piece into nice squared piece
* Make octagonals on diamond one side, 180 degrees to other side
* Make octagonals on opposite diamond on one side, 180 degrees to other side
* End up with a nice, almost round shape
* Flip piece back around and put in fire
* Bring piece out, hammer square point on end to draw out to 4-1/2" length (I think...if I remember correctly.)
* Hammer "blade" flat (after turning 90 degrees from the hammer point)
* Hammer the shit out of it until it's the right thickness
* Clean up hammer blows, ensure bottom line is straight, smooth top line to a nice, gentle curve, draw down tip
* Cross peen down the middle of one side of the blade
* Cross peen down the blade edge of the other side
* Repeat
* Ensure blade is cleaned up nicely
* Flip blade around
* Fish tail the end of the octagonal side
* Curve fish tail to match curve of ricasso
* Heat and curve fish tail end into loop
* Fish tailed end should fit nicely in ricasso area

I got the set down portion. I ran through octagonals (because of time and the fact that I can come back and clean them up,) and I started on my blade. That's it, and hey, I'm okay with that. I won't give up on my little knife, but like other pieces I work on (artwork,) there comes a point when you need to set it to the side and give it some time before picking it back up again to continue work on it. I'm not mad at it. I'm not upset at the way it is turning out, but it just needs some time so that I can work on some other things (like hooks and such,) build up more confidence and skill, and approach it fresh in the future.

Got home around 11:30 last night, showered, and in bed for work the next morning. Feel like a cross between a flu patient and a hard-worked older woman.

Blacksmithing.

Blacksmithing has always intrigued me: intrigued me in a sense of "well that's neat." It wasn't until I had seen some of my friend, Brad's, creations that I became interested in wanting to learn how to do that. When my friend, Nona, had mentioned Goat n' Hammer in Atlanta, I quickly visited their website and saw they offered classes.

Under the guidance of the ever-patient and entertaining Mark Hopper, I have been honored and humbled to explore the realm of blacksmithing with the 4-part Introductory Series of classes: J-hook and S-hooks, fire poker, copper spoon (now steel spoon,) and a railroad spike knife.

After my first class, I couldn't feel my forearms and burned myself in two places. After my second class, Nona couldn't feel her forearms. Mark and Jessica told us about some exercises we could do to strengthen a "teeny tiny muscle" that is a flexor muscle.

If you succeed at other forms of art and hardwork, and you go into trying blacksmithing and apply things you know about whatever, you'll be sorely disappointed. Blacksmithing is quite a bit more than heating up some metal and smacking it with a hammer. There are body mechanics. There are ways various types of metal move under heat and when cold. It's like chasing a herd of cats, and then when you're done, you have this finished piece. This chasing cats activity is even more prevalent in working with copper. There was a point (the first hour and a half) where Nona and I looked at each other and said, "I have no idea what I'm doing, but apparently, I'm doing it right." We just followed instructions and continued from there. Hammer here, hammer there, file here, do this, go here, do that, not too much heat, more heat needed, and voila! A spoon! Okay, it's a bit more than that, but OUR first time? That's what it felt like.

Goat n' Hammer is located off Foster Street in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of the Goat Farm Arts Center. Classes are offered in the four part introduction series and now a blacksmithing curriculum as well. Mark and John are both very patient with newbies, and they offer open anvil sessions referred to as "Hammer Therapy" and open anvil without any form of guidance sessions called "Church."

And now....pictures....