Swung a hammer at the Tullie Smith House yesterday. It was good. The people from the house were great. I was told that tours and visitors would be wandering through all day. If I wanted to demonstrate or talk to them, that was fine, but if I just wanted to work, I could tell them I was a visiting blacksmith and not with the Center, and not bother. I usually only talked with the kids, anyway. They were fun.
I made some stuff for Ellen, a chisel that I messed up by overheating, a set of tongs (all but the rivet and forming the jaws), and messed up a start on the cookset.
Things I learned:
1. I need a lot of work. Practice makes perfect, and I'm needing to learn how to put a piece together in the right order. If you make certain parts in the wrong order, it's hard to heat or hold the piece for later heats and work. Design and planning are a big deal.
2. It's harder alone than in a class. When someone else has planned the piece, it's easy to make. When you're doing the design and planning, it's hard.
3. Stock size is a BIG difference. Heating and hammering time between 1/4 and 1/2 stock is an enormous change.
I left some round stock in their rack to leave the place better than I had found it. I need to make some anvil tools (hardies, fullers, etc) for that anvil. All they had was one dinged-up and chipped hotcut hardie. Sad.
In all, a good day. I'm only a little sore. Their schedule is pretty open over the next month, so I'll be back there soon, I'm sure. Probably a week or two.
Posted by Tom at May 27, 2005 12:07 PM