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| West Coast USA forges
link with East Coast AUS A hop across the Pacific Ocean in October saw Californian smith Brent Bailey join forces with Queenslander Alan Ball for Australia’s Hot Iron Muster 2003, held in Logan Village just outside Brisbane. This was the fourth annual Muster hosted by Alan as a skills development opportunity for Australian blacksmithing enthusiasts. “While we have some very talented smiths in Australia, we are still in the early stages of building a resource network” said Alan. “My ABANA membership provides the ideal way to make contact with US smiths willing to share expertise and holiday in our great country at the same time.” As with previous Musters, this year’s event began with a Demonstration Day to allow a wider audience to see some action at the forge and anvil. Several of the 50 attendees were first-timers keen to experience the magic of working hot metal, while the hardened converts travelled from near and far for the chance to talk blacksmithing and pick up some new tips from Brent.
Drawing on his background in both ornamental ironwork and toolmaking, Brent’s demonstrations began with a contemporary take on a large leaf and a split cross, followed by a finely finished chisel in H13 tool steel. He forged a cross peen hammerhead from 4140 steel, slitting and drifting the hole for the hammer handle. Sharing the techniques learned during a previous international exchange, he hammered out a fine Zimbabwean spearhead with a double offset in the blade making it a complex exercise. Turning back to decorative elements, he made light work of the popular pineapple and rope twists, with his expertly executed examples much admired. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly Brent’s seemingly effortless demonstration of pattern welding. After showing the effect that can be achieved with wire cable, he demonstrated the welding and twisting of layers of mild and 15N20 high nickel tool steel before cutting through to expose the cross section. A quick dip into the etching solution revealed the pattern. Although time did not allow for a totally finished and polished billet, he had previously completed the same twisted pattern with 34 layers and 7 revolutions for display. After the heavy hammering of the day, Brent elected for a change of pace with a final demonstration of repousse. Drawing a simple flower on a sheet of copper, he swapped the anvil for a block of wood and with precise and concentrated raps soon had the petals blossoming out from the surface. It was an aspect of decorative metalwork not often seen in Australia, and created new interest for the die-hard blacksmiths. Brent’s skills were much appreciated by the audience, and his ready-made hammers, punches and chisels were in big demand. Those who had secured a place in the three hands-on workshops to follow eagerly awaited their own chance to continue the experience. The first of the 2-day workshops offered the opportunity for newcomers to try out their hammer hands on a Kitchen Utensil Hanger. The design called for two sides of the frame to be tapered to decorative ends, then wrapped around and riveted over the other two sides. After Brent’s initial demonstration, the fires were started. Participants warmed up by making their punches that would later be put to good use making the various holes for assembly. Once onto the project itself, sweats were soon raised in drawing out the 40mm flat bar frame. The challenge for the less experienced was to make all 4 tapers match as closely as possible. The hanging racks were inserted with mortise and tenon joins, and a variety of hooks were forged to hang the frame and hold utensils. All participants declared themselves well pleased with their completed projects.
A set of 3 BBQ Utensils was the project for the next workshop. Brent first demonstrated the decorative handle, drawing out 12mm square bar to form a tight scrolled end, then punching two pairs of holes to allow the bar to be looped over and riveted against itself. With all participants having previous forging experience, work began quickly on the matching handles. Once they were ready, Brent continued with the business ends of the utensils. The simple steak turner was a novelty to the class, not being a common tool in Australia. Along with the double-pronged fork, it was forged from the existing handles. Brent’s version of a spatula cross-peened out of 40x6mm flat bar tested the endurance of the group in the sultry conditions, and all were very happy to complete that final fire-weld to its handle. The new utensils were carried off as proud trophies to be the talking point at many Aussie BBQ’s to come.
Hand tools of a different kind were the topic for the final 2-day workshop. After seeing the quality of Brent’s hammers, punches and chisels at the beginning of the Muster, all participants were keen to get started on their own sets. Being in short supply in Australia, a cross peen hammer had top billing. Following Brent’s lead, the group got started on a slitting chisel in H13 and a drift in 4140 steel to be ready to use on the hammerhead. With these experienced smiths needing little guidance, Brent was soon back in action at the demonstration forge. His hard-hitting expertise saw the embryonic hammerhead steadily take shape. Taking the process right through to a finished (but unpolished) hammer, he produced a fine example for the group to aspire to. Alan had pre-cut the stock and attached handles to save time for the participants, so the forges were quickly fired up while the biggest hammers emerged from the toolboxes to wait in readiness on the anvils. The enthusiasm to make an impression on the 38mm round 4140 bar saw several requests to try out Brent’s 2kg hammer. It was however soon surrendered when the weight began to take its toll on unfamiliar muscles. Strikers were a popular alternative, with many of the group as well as Alan and Brent rotating around the anvils. Perseverance won through, with the majority of hammerheads being close to completion by the end of the day. The celebratory dinner at the local hotel saw a very weary group voting for a quiet night of recovery to prepare for the following morning. Still keen for another hammer after completing the first one, some of the participants elected to work on a Swedish pattern cross peen. The project progressed quickly after Brent’s demonstration, aided by the previous day’s newfound experience. He also demonstrated his stylish centre-punch, and those who were “all hammered out” were delighted to add the pyramid design with square tapers at both ends to their toolboxes. After lunch on the last day depleted energy levels and continuing hot conditions gave rise to a popular idea for Brent to work while everyone else watched. Pattern-welding easily won the vote for a suitable project. Brent elected to demonstrate a star pattern mosaic, interleaving 12 layers of mild steel with bandsaw blade which has a high nickel content. The resulting solid billet was squared up and then cut in half for 2 identical pieces. In the meantime Alan diagonally sliced a piece of 20mm square bar and with the apexes facing each other, attached the 2 triangular pieces to a looped handle to make a spring cutter. Holding each red-hot billet in the cutter, Brent hammered it through to obtain 2 triangular billets with the layers running vertically to the apex. After hammering each of these into a V-shaped swage to ensure that all pieces were identical, the 4 were reassembled with the layers of the top and bottom triangles running at right angles to those of the sides. Forge-welding all together again formed the radiating pattern to delight the entranced audience. Even with the barrage of questions from the onlookers, Brent’s expertise saw this project completed in good time. He then made light work of forging a simple but elegant bracelet from thin flat bar coiled, flattened and then unravelled to be hammered out coil by coil. For encore performances he forged steak turner and fork ends for those who had missed the BBQ utensil workshop. Although everyone was reluctant to see the fire extinguished, “Full Time” had to finally be called on another very successful Hot Iron Muster. In summing up the event from his perspective, Brent commended Alan for his efforts to give the Australian blacksmithing community access to international resources. “My visit to Australia has exceeded even my highest expectations”, he said. “I strongly encourage my fellow smiths to take the opportunity to travel down under for a great experience.” |
