Blacksmithing, the ancient art of shaping iron with fire, hammer and anvil, will be on display at a “Hammer-In” at The Good Forge at BCC, Saturday, March 10 from 10am to 6pm. This gathering of smiths, which is open to all interested members of the public, will include demonstrations of smithing, and tailgate sales of blacksmithing equipment. Admission is $20 for the day and includes a hot dog (or veggie dog) lunch. Proceeds support the Craft Center’s blacksmithing program.
Demonstrations are the heart of the event:
• American Bladesmithing Society (ABS) Mastersmith and Blade Magazine Columnist Joe Szilaski will demonstrate the making of Tomahawks.
• Local smith Peter Swarz-Burt will make blacksmith’s tongs – the blacksmith is the craftsman who can make his own tools.
• BCC Instructor Matthew Parkinson will demonstrate knife finishing and forging a fire poker.
• ABS Journeyman Smith Mace Vitale will demo knife forging.
• Mike Coffey will be making armor.
• Local smith Jamie Lundell will be forging decorative faces.
• Peter Swarz-Burt and Jamie Lundell will demonstrate team forging.
This “hammer-in” is an ideal opportunity for anyone interested in blacksmithing to gain access to the collective knowledge of the local smithing community, do a little networking or just spend the day talking fire and iron. It’s also a chance to appreciate the consummate skill of these modern day workers in iron. And, just for the record, no horses will be involved.
No “Clopping Plugs” is a serious over sight. Ask most any old farmer. All through WWI most of the food produced in this country was produced under horse power, not tractors and what tractors they had were small like the old Fordsons, Ford “Jubilee” and 8 or 9 N Ford “red belly”. The horse may be labor intensive, but on traditional farms it is a perfect source of “solar energy” that is seldom recognized as such. After the 1973 oil embargo in the upper mid west they were actually increasing the number of draft horses. The Smithsonian Magazine had an article on this that ended with this old farmer saying “We have been watching these tractors for a long time and we haven’t yet seen two of them get together and make their own replacement.”
Your building is obviously an old water powered mill. Do you still have any of the original machinery? W. Y.