I'm no Meg Langslow
Blacksmithing class on Saturday was awful, interesting, exciting, hot, dirty, miserable, frustrating and awesome. It was so hard. I am not strong and tried to use a hammer too heavy for me on an anvil too high. By the time I figured out how it should be done I had no strength left at all. It was so hot; I didn't pee the whole time I was there (from 8:30am to 4:00pm). I drank about ten bottles of water, but I sweat it all out.
Chris, the main teacher, teaches like my dad. As a friend says, he doesn't use his words. When asked how something should be done, he just took over and did it without explanation. So not only did I still not know how to do it, I didn't get a chance because it had already been done. I was frustrated because that's what my dad does, so I brought my baggage with me. Once I prayed on it "Bless him, change me, damn it!" it went better. Still frustrating, but I didn’t feel like running away or breaking things.
I could not figure out why Chris was rushing us. At ten he was pushing me to stop on my practice piece and pick a project. The class was supposed to run until five so I wasn’t in a rush. Turns out he had to leave at 3:00. Luckily Kirk, the guy who runs the farm, is also a blacksmith. His teaching style is more compatible to my learning style. More patient and uses his words. He is the one who noticed I was too short for the anvil I started at. He also told me to use a smaller hammer. Once Chris left Kirk gave me some pointers on my stance and where my elbows should be. By that time I had no strength left, but at least I finally knew what my hammer should be doing.
I will take the course again. Hopefully they'll have learned some lessons from our class. We were the first; the guinea pigs. The two portable forges they set up outside didn’t work. It would be better to have more space instead of six people trying to use a fire designed for one. I really like the fireplace fork (marshmallow fork?) I assisted making. I banged the metal around, but most of the final shaping of each section was done by the teachers. I made the curly bit on the end though, that's all me baby. The twist is the simplest part. Just heat that section, put one end in a vise and then pull and twist the other end. I had help on that too. You only get one shot and I just didn’t have the strength left. It was one of the last things we did.
Did I mention how dirty it was? The fuel was coal. My shower water turned black. My legs were dark grey above my sock line even though I was wearing jeans. I could still smell the coal smoke in my hair after showering and then swimming. When green coal is first added to the fire it releases this funky greenish-yellow smoke. That’s the sulfur and other organics in the coal burning off. Then it becomes coke. It didn’t smell bad, just distinctive.
Hey, I learned what clinker is. I've read the word in stories, but never really got it. It's a waste product that builds up in the furnace and it absorbs all the heat. So it looks like the fire is going great, but your metal does get to the temp it needs to be. You have to pull the clinker out. I had trouble telling the difference between coke burning how it is supposed to and clinker. But when clinker is pulled out it glows red much longer. Just learning to tend the forge is a huge part of blacksmithing.
I didn't know metal can burn, but it can. Then the burnt part is useless and brittle. A lot of people lost a fork tine in the fire. It would just fall off. The top three inches of my practice piece fell off into the fire. How do you tell if it is burning? It sparks like a sparkler. Then it looks all pitted and crunchy. I burnt part of my piece where the tines split, but not bad enough to have to cut it off and start over.
I wish there was a second class this Saturday. It took all day to figure out how the fire should look and sound and what color the metal should be. I think I could do more of the work myself if I had another chance once my arm and hand muscles recover.
This weekend I intend to sew my pirate dress and make a start on BugBoy's three-headed boy costume. I figure I'll have to make multiple stuffed heads before I get the hang of it, so I'm going to start off with some half-size pieces. I'm using the dress pattern on the right with long sleeves. I don't plan to make the overskirt shown on model at right unless it needs it or I have oodles of time left over after the three-headed costume. (Ha! Right.) This will be my first attempt to sew anything with gathers (the ruffle at bottom) or with elastic (neck and arms). It should be interesting.