Blacksmithing Class Number Two

Because I will be traveling for work, I was going to miss my second blacksmith class. Luckily my instructor, Jonathan Nebor, let me come in over the weekend and he gave me a private lesson, so I won't be behind in class when I return. Again, it was AWESOME!

I continued to work on the horseshoe project. I tried to build my own fire and set up the chimney. I then worked on forging and learned how to weld with flux. Welding through a fire is very different then welding with a machine, like TIG welding. The principle is the same between the different methods. Welding is bringing different pieces of metal together to become one piece.

I kept laying the hammer down in the wrong direction on the anvil. The brush is to take the scale off when finishing a piece. It was really nice to be able to work by myself at the fire. I felt like I had the time to try different ways of holding the piece and working the metal. Jonathan is a great teacher. He knows how to give instruction and then to back off so you can take your time to absorb the information and try it out.

I got to throw some big sparks, which was exciting. I need to work on the positioning of my body in relation to the anvil and piece. I kept standing too far from the work and not having enough leverage to hammer properly. Because I am a small person, I have to be especially cognizant of where I am working so I don't have to do extra work to make a piece or tire my muscles out. I finished my project and forgot to take a photo of it! I did get some nice shots of Jonathan's shop.