Intermediate Blacksmith Class Day 1

I had the first day of my Intermediate Blacksmithing class from the Guild of Metalsmiths  last Saturday and had a ball.  This is one of those things that makes the day just fly by.  I was a little nervous as I hadn’t done a lot of actual smithing since I made my hammer, but it came right back.

The ultimate goal is to make as grille.  You can see what it entails here at the ABANA website. It’s a way to make sure a smith has the techniques down. Ours is similar to this but has a twist in the middle vertical bar and some other variations.  Stay tuned for the final version.

I managed to get the forge going (twice — the first time with some help of some coals from a neighbor, the second time was all me) and do what I needed to do to keep up in class. 

Here’s a video of the forge with a piece of iron glowing red hot as I get ready to work it.

httpvh://youtu.be/gKjeE3Bl1lg

Here’s a couple of the pieces after I upset the ends and punched holes in either end for the tenons.

And here’s a photo of the outside frame for the grille.  I used a monkey tool to start the tenon.  I accidentally referred to it as a monkey “wrench” and caught grief for it.  Sometimes the brain and mouth don’t communicate very well.

That was most of a day’s work.  I know, slow.