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| Hot Iron Muster 2002
“Good time, good company, learnt a lot and enjoyed
myself!” The third annual event for skills development and networking in the Australian blacksmithing community was hosted by Alan & Helen Ball at their smithy in Logan Village, Queensland from September 29th to October 4th. Guest instructor Steve Williamson travelled with wife Vicky from Columbia, Tennessee to lead the Muster and share their experiences and adventures in the dynamic world of US smithing. Combining the running of his own custom ironwork shop with teaching at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina and the Appalachian Centre for Crafts in his home state, Steve brought a great mix of down-to-earth talents to share with his eager Aussie audience. A Demonstration Day once again opened proceedings on Sunday with about 40 devotees gathering to enjoy a day of blacksmithing infotainment. Undeterred by having charcoal as his forge fuel, Steve settled into his stride making a finely forged bottle opener with an eagle’s head. Not content with just the aesthetics of the piece, the audience called for a practical test. A bottle of beer was duly found and the opener applied to its task. While it performed admirably, the beer had unfortunately developed a very large head of froth which promptly cascaded from the bottle. Recovering from his despair at the loss of the beer, Steve dried out over the fire and soon transformed a railway spike into a stern-faced wizard. Coming from the mule capital of the USA, he couldn’t resist hammering out a wall hook adorned with the head of a determined-looking mule. Using his trademark mouse, Steve then demonstrated the making of a die to speed up subsequent forgings. To prove its worth, another mouse was quickly born from the die. A special request to make a rose allowed Steve to demonstrate the combined use of forge and gas torch to produce a very fine example of a flower about to bloom. With a preference in Australia for propane over acetylene for heating, he was able to compare the two gases and declared himself well pleased with the propane alternative. Keeping up a running commentary of his procedures and fielding questions throughout the day, Steve kept the audience enthralled and set the stage for the hands-on workshops to follow. Furniture with traditional joinery was to be the focus for the week. Although all 12 participants were graduates of previous Musters or Alan’s own classes, the challenging projects were designed to advance their skill levels and introduce some new techniques. The assignment for the first 2-day session was a set of fire tools with braided handles to hang on a ram’s head wall bracket. The second 3-day session would concentrate on the more precise techniques of mortise and tenon joins to make a coffee table base. Steve and Alan pre-made a supply of twisting wrenches, monkey tools, spring swages, butcher tools, punches and drifts to allow maximum time to work on the projects. The first tools out of the rack on Monday morning were notebooks and pencils. Steve outlined the project and explained the first steps of forging a braid – a new technique to all present. With the pre-cut bundles of steel ready at each forging station, the anvils were soon ringing in chorus. As soon as everyone had their first of 4 strands bent, ‘lick’-welded at the end and twisted, Steve demonstrated forge-welding the set of 4 strands together and then on to the stem of the fire tool. Now it was up to the team to repeat this procedure for each of their 3 fire tools. Sparks were flying from more than the steel by the time the braids took shape! Tuesday morning’s tasks offered little respite from forge-welding practice. Once all the finished braids were welded to their stems, the poker and rake ends were forged. Steve’s travelling toolbox yielded his forming jig for the shovels, so those were quickly finished and riveted in place. The next demonstration was the ram’s head for the wall bracket. The long curled horns of Steve’s version made for a variety of twisting devices being created to complete the effect. It was a tired and happy group of accomplished forge-welders who packed up their new fire tools at the end of the day. Realising that even a die-hard enthusiast has to take a break from the forge sometime, Alan & Helen decided to organise a couple of social functions during the week. The dilemma of what does a smith like to do in his spare time was quickly solved - watch someone else blacksmithing of course! With Alan and several of the attendees being members, ABANA was happy to allow Steve to bring out a couple of videos for a group viewing. Wednesday afternoon saw the forge fires extinguished around 5pm to allow time for showers and a change of clothes before meeting again at the local hotel. Served with platters of hot Aussie favourites like meat pies and sausage rolls, everyone settled down to be amazed at the scope of work depicted in “The Yellin Legacy”, and dream about attending events such as those shown in “European Festivals”. Steve also had footage of a group of smiths including himself forging a huge basket twist during Work Week at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. All inspirational material for a mob of deprived Aussies. The second social event was a tour of the Railway Workshops and Museum at Ipswich, less than an hour’s drive from Brisbane. Once the maintenance centre for Queensland Rail, the workshops built and maintained engines, carriages, lines and the myriad of components and fittings associated with trains. Of the 3500 staff employed there around the 1940’s, up to 200 worked in the blacksmith shop, which housed about 80 forges and an estimated 400 tons of tools. With a new workshop complex now operating at nearby Redbank, the original 1903 buildings have in part been opened for public tours. A museum showcasing the development of the rail network has also been built on the 40-acre site. Still an operating facility, the blacksmith workshop even now retains a vast array of anvils, forges, furnaces, overflowing racks of tongs, punches, swages and specialist tools. 8 power hammers ranging in size from 2 to 15 cwt also remain. Our specific interest group was treated to a private tour of the entire blacksmith and spring shop, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the current engine restoration projects. Guides Kel Creedy and James Colthrup each with over 30 years service as blacksmiths were proud to talk about the rich history of the workshops and their own experiences working through the ranks. They demonstrated various pieces of equipment that previously played a big part in the manufacture of rail components, and explained the system that kept the vast network operating for so many years. One of the large furnaces and “Bill” the 15 cwt power hammer was put into action to show how a 3-person team was required for many of the projects. 2 smiths manipulated the hot iron while a third controlled the strike. Getting so few opportunities to see heavy blacksmithing work, the group was mesmerized. The usual 40-minute tour of the site stretched out to more than an hour and a half, with everyone reluctant to end this journey back to the past. The start of the new coffee table project on Wednesday had everyone anxiously awaiting Steve’s description of the procedures. There was a collective sigh of relief when it was revealed that the design did not call for a single forge-weld. After Steve demonstrated the forging of the oval punch, drift and spring swage tools, the fires were lit for the Muster’s second assignment. Having the steel once again cut to size and ready at the forging stations, the 20mm square legs were quickly upset and punched for the 16mm square horizontals. The two lower bars were also punched to take 12mm cross bars for a magazine rack. With nearly 300 tenons to be formed by the group, Alan’s two treadle hammers were much in demand. The daytime temperatures were already climbing to 30 degrees although only halfway through Spring. This ensured a big demand also for those essential fuels of chocolate bars and Cocoa-Cola to keep the inner fires burning. Steve had a special surprise at lunch break on Friday in the form of pins and magazines from ABANA, as well as pins and t-shirts from his group the Appalachian Area Chapter of ABANA. This gesture of goodwill from the US blacksmithing community was much appreciated by the group, and emphasized the camaraderie that can be found whenever and wherever people met with a common interest in this fine craft. Everyone returned to their forges with renewed vigour to make the most of the time remaining in this circle of friendship. Steve’s final demonstration was a special heading tool made from a ball pein hammer. This was designed to eliminate any possible cracking of the tenon when hammered over and produce a well-defined rivet head. When the last joins were riveted over in the afternoon, a tower of tables was erected in celebration. ‘X’ might mark the spot on many occasions, but being in Queensland, this one called for XXXX. The cold ales were savoured, as were the happy reflections on the week’s efforts and achievements. The fire tools and coffee tables were duly packed away for the journey to their new homes as lasting mementos of Hot Iron Muster 2002. |
