I am glad to see Jesse Knight’s finished documentary filmed here during the Timber Framer’s Guild’s big event at the Folk School in 2009 when they converged to craft and raise the white pine and oak timber frame for the new Clay Spencer Blacksmith Shop. I got to be a small part of the documentary, and was happy to spend some time with Jesse as he moved around during the two weeks filming and interviewing the participants. He had time lapse cameras set up, which I like, and had a good style of roving about and being right in the middle of the action without being in the way.

The finished film shows well the framing methods, and the spirit of the group as a whole during the event. Hats off to him for sorting out hours and hours of recording to produce a documentary that is a pleasure to watch.

A copy of the documentary is available for viewing in the upstairs library/clean room of the Clay Spencer Blacksmith Shop.

Watch a promotional teaser of Jesse’s documentary.

Last week we welcomed Bob Rupert of Pennsylvania, and his assistant Gary Cooper to the Spencer/Whitaker Blacksmith Shops for their first visit to Brasstown. They both quickly acclimated to the new Five Star facility, and found it easy to fall into the spirit of the Folk School during the week.

Bob went to a lot of effort to prepare a curriculum for the beginning to intermediate class. This included printed materials, and some high quality intructional media that he produced, and that the students watched in the air-conditioned comfort of the shop’s classroom/resource library upstairs. While the DVDs played, Bob and Gary were busy preparing the forge, and cutting stock needed for the upcoming project. This efficiency led to a very productive week, with the students who were lucky enough to be in this full class finishing the week with some really nice items to take home.

Jordan Coppedge/Henley shows the hammer head that he made

Bob also orchestrated a really nice Thursday night demo for anyone at the school who wanted to attend. Usually, demos are just folks watching the instructor forge a few things and talking about the craft. Bob did that too, but in addition, at the same time, some of the students were working in teams to produce the components for a few collaborative projects that were assembled and donated to the November 5th annual Blacksmith’s Auction.

The main project was a Freidrich’s cross (named after the Swiss smith who developed this now widely emulated version). Here is a shot of Bob at the main forge addressing the large crowd.

 And here is Jordan and Bonnie Anderson working on the base for the cross sculpture.

Forging the Base

Another collaborative sculpture done was started by Hannes Giger from Switzerland, and Kipp Coddington. They teamed up to hot cut and chisel a large piece of bar stock, and then twist sections of it in preparation for final forging under a power hammer.

Kipp at left, and Hannes working the piece

Kipp had such a great week, and was so inspired by his experience here, that he pledged to support the blacksmithing program by committing to the Buy-a-Beam campaign where anyone can buy one of the more that 250 timber beams in the Spencer Blacksmith Shop. And Hannes offered to host myself and fellow Folk School Instructor, Matt Jenkins, at his house in Basel, Switzerland for a night as we travel through on our way to the World Forging Championships in Stia, Italy this September.

And finally, here is a photo of instructor Bob at the shop’s big, new Say-Mak air hammer forging the twisted piece down into its final form for the donated piece.

At the Hammer

It was a another great week  full of great people, and we look forward to having Bob and Gary back as soon as possible. Their experience here was hopefully the start of a long and mutually beneficial love affair with the Folk School.

Blacksmith Work Week is a wonderful annual tradition at the Folk School where blacksmiths from all over come and volunteer their time to do smithing projects around campus and make improvements in the Shop. It’s been 15 or 20 years that they have gathered here every spring, for Blacksmith Work Week, so Paul Garrett, the Resident Blacksmith tells me. When I visited, there were about 20 men and at least one woman circling like bees. They are all over the balconies, in corners and down on the floor.  Red hot metal is being pounded beside blazing forges, power hammers have metal running through at a rapid speed, and components are being welded together.  It is high-level intensity with professional focus in the shop today.  No students are here; the blacksmiths are giving their time and talent to retrofit the Francis Whitaker Blacksmith Shop. What was the primary blacksmith shop is now being set up for material storage, welding, grinding, and drilling. A few forges have been left in place for this studio.

Taking a break outside the Francis Whitaker Blacksmith Shop

Clay Spencer takes me on a tour of the new shop to see the newly forged elements of the sign to be mounted on the silo.  In all, close to 50 jobs were listed on index cards lying on a table.  Each person takes the card of choice and when the job listed is complete, the card gets initialed and put in a file folder.  At this time on Thursday afternoon, an impressive 34 jobs are already complete.  As we are standing there, Rooney Floyd and another man lift up an anvil to a just finished metal stand with a rack underneath to hold tools.  My tour concludes with Clay showing me the tire hammer.  It is a smaller power hammer than the Little Giant and others in the shop.  He explains that he has taught blacksmiths all over the country how to build this hammer for their shops with a spare tire and a 1 horsepower motor. When he starts the hammer with the foot pedal, the force and the noise are so unmistakable that I jump back!  Turning to look as I leave, I feel a surge of gratitude at the hugeness of talent so freely given to the Folk School.  I feel blessed and a bit awed to be any part of such dedication to the highest ideals in art.  The giving of your devotion to following generations of students inspires me on the path of my true calling.

We recently had local artist/blacksmith Joe Miller back to teach his popular “Critters” class in the blacksmith shop for one of January’s advanced weeks. The class is a combination of forging and fabricating, and the students make a critter or two of their choice that might be some kind of a fish, a bird, spider of a animal of just about any species.

The students picked a project and then learned how to hammer the shape of it out of sheet metal in two halves which were then joined together, smoothed out and detailed with fins, feathers, or feet. They added gills, tails, ears, eyes, beaks, claws, feathers, scales and whatever else made them look realistic, all under the experienced tutelage of Joe.

Joe has created a niche for himself over the years by creating commissions like these both large and small for public and private spaces. The critters are made of metal, but are surprisingly realistic. They can be large or small, and more often than not, they can be displayed in realistic environments also made out of steel. A fish can be swimming through sunken logs or lily pads, a bird can be perched on a branch, or a otter sunning on a rock. Creating the display can be a fun and challenging as the subject itself.

This year some  projects included a jumping hare done by one of our resident artists, Ted Cooley. Shown here is a photograph of Ted in the finishing stages of the creation.

Ted fussing with his hare

Another neat project was Caleb Givens’  koi fish swimming among lily pads. Caleb has been here for a whole month of intensive study, taking several classes and getting serious about his blacksmithing. He will certainly benefit from the wide range of classes that he took during his time here.

The Koi fish and lily pads

And pictured here is a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a menacing pose. It was done by Chris Carter. Chris was also here to take multiple classes, and has been here numerous times in recent years.

Chris and his sculpture

Joe will be back again in 2012, and offering the class tentatively in March. This is a great class for any blacksmiths or metal artists who want to expand their skills to three dimensional metal sculpting, or to just about anyone with some metalworking experience who would like to try it.

The Intergenerational Class of 2010

The much awaited first class in the Clay Spencer Shop was a resounding success. Everything worked as advertised, and except for a few minor glitches, the week went smoothly. The class was full, and they gave the place a good shakedown. I was pretty happy to see that all the planning paid off, and that the space is very functional. There will be several weeks or months of fine tuning to optimize the shop, but in the meantime, small things can sometimes take care of themselves.

Take for instance the paper towel holder above the hand washing sink. There was none. So, one of the students, Asa Hewlett, took it upon himself to just hammer one out. He did it in part of a day, and decorated it with a ram’s head detail on top. No easy job.

Asa is fourteen, and has become a regular here for Intergenerational Week, and Little/Middle Folk School as well. He is becoming a very good blacksmith, has a forge of his own at home and is even, I believe, doing work for other people. This week he made a fire place screen and completed it despite taking the time to do the towel holder.

Asa With the Towel Holder

This is the kind of giving that makes the Folk School special, and no gift or donation is too large nor too small. It is what keeps the place going, and getting better year after year.

Today, we opened the new Clay Spencer Blacksmith Shop. After a week of moving some of the tools and tables and things from the the old Francis Whitaker shop, we are ready to teach classes again, and welcome instructor Judy Berger, her son David, and the students of Intergenerational Week.

The Intergenerational Class Orientation

We had a small but hardworking group of folks here over the last week to make the switch, and got a tremendous amount of work done. There was a lot of cleaning, welding, lifting, toting, fitting, grinding, painting, etc, to get it all ready to go and make it appear as though it was a seamless transition.

I am most exited about the new layout. We not only have more space, but it is so much better arranged with safety and efficiency in mind. All of the bigger pieces of equipment are centrally located with easy access. There are new work tables, and a much better organised tool room, as well as handier storage.

Some of the Forges and Work Tables

We still have the same number of student forges, twelve in all, and the instructor’s forge now has two fire pots to accommodate the assistant as well.

A View of the Center Equipment Bay

We look forward to many years of classes here. Check out our schedule, and come take a class. Whether you are a beginner, have done it before, or have been waiting for the new shop to open, now is the time. We have something for just about everyone.

The second weekend of  July saw the last forging class in the historic Francis Whitaker Blacksmith Shop. Jerry Darnell was here to teach his “Colonial Lighting” class. Interestingly, Jerry was here for the first class that Francis ever taught here at the Folk School in the mid-seventies, and said that he drove something like six hundred miles to be here and see this man that everyone was talking about. That class was in the older shop across the street - the Oscar Cantrell shop.

This year, the project was to forge and make a double candle, staircase chandelier. I decided to take the class partly because it was the last one in the old buiding, but also it had been a while since I had been in one of Jerry’s classes. I always learn a lot, and I get to brush up on some techniques that I would like to use more often.

The classes routinely involve most all the methods of moving metal, and some forge welding too. In the week long class that Jerry taught the week before, there was a different project each day for the students, so they each got to take home several nice lighting fixtures.

As a retired higher math teacher, Jerry loves the chalk board, and provides impecable notes for the students. It reminded me of college, and I copied the notes verbatim with paper and pencil. They did come in handy.

Jerry Darnell at the chalkboard

I was really happy with my finished chandelier. Not as large as it might sound, it is rather a nice size more fitting to a smaller colonial starcase.

My Finished Chandelier

Jerry insists on all traditional methods, and studies antiques from collections for examples for his reproductions. He is continually researching, so there is usually different pieces for the students to make each succesive year. These are great classes to learn and master these age old techniques that are still the basis for modern blacksmithing. Here is a photo of a part of the process of forge welding the chain links that were used to suspend a light fixture.

Forge Welding a Chain Link.

It was a good weekend in the old shop. Classes have been taught there for thirty one years, ever since Francis taught the first class there in November of 1979. I took my first blacksmithing class here about ten years ago, and have seen many changes in just that time. I hope that the new Clay Spencer Shop eventually smells the same as this one. I always like that smell every time I walk in. It smells of coal smoke, bees wax, and something that I have never been able to quite place, but like it just the same. It smells honest and nostalgic I think.

The building needs a lot of work, and we are actively trying to raise capital to do just that.

A couple of weekends ago, we had a few blacksmiths over for a mini work weekend. Really just a continuation of our annual work week, it was a chance to get some more work done in the new forge building, now officially the Clay Spencer Blacksmith Shop.

Our small crew did a lot actually. We built some hand railing, assembled the coal forge blower piping, finished up on some fabricating on the new forges, anchored the post vice stands, and assembled the instructor’s forge hood that was started a couple of months prior, placed anvil stands, and a dozen other projects as well.

The instructor’s forge hood is a beautiful piece in itself. As with many blacksmith shops, the “Forge” is the center piece of the building, and here, I wanted to make a big splash with it, and design something more than just functional. Don Neuenschwander handled the cutting, texturing, and patination of the copper sheet, as well as the the fabrication of the steel frame with the help of Julie Clark at Work Week. This weekend, Steve Barringer and I scratched our heads to figure out how to set the 300 some copper rivets that hold the whole thing together and came up with an idea that would work quickly and look great. Using a hand held pneumatic hammer and a NASCAR race axle as a backup bar, and Rooney Floyd as the rivet master, we completed it in an evening and the next morning. The result is a focal point that will be the subject of talk and photographs for years to come.

The instructor's forge hood

Another fun project that got done was the last of the Crown Jewels for the grand entrance between the silos. You might have already seen the pictures of the big anvils that appear to support the mail posts of the entry timber frame, and this weekend, we installed the large fabricated hammer head that hangs from the oak king post in the center of the entry. John Campbell carved the hammer handle out with a mainly a chainsaw,

and Steve Barringer fabricated the head out plate stock. No question about the intended usage of this building.

Steve and John with their hammer

We are close to opening, and plan to start moving in starting on July 11th. The first class is tentatively Intergenerational Week with Judy Berger on the 18th.

Every time I come to Brasstown, I’m not sure what to expect.  So many things happen here, each studio existing as a world of it’s own, and there is always so much to see and be a part of.

This week the Blacksmiths are in the spotlight as they work day in and day out to get the new shop up and running.  The group of twenty-two have been divided into teams – installing equipment, assembling the custom railing on the mezzanine, building the new forges and hoods, finishing up the front entry and more.

Ted Thompson stands beside the anvil he fabricated for the entrance to the shop

This anvil was presented to resident blacksmith Paul Garrett during lunch on Tuesday.   It was wheeled into the dining hall and Folk School instructor and volunteer Julie Clark demonstrated how strong Folk School women are when she picked it up and handed to Paul.  The anvil is a fabricated replica of a 900lb one in Tim Cris’s nearby forge.  Ted did a great job — it will fool us all when we see it holding up the arch way to the entrance of the shop.

John Campbell chainsaw carving

Timber framer and woodworker, John Campbell stood high above the entrance shaping the front archway with a chainsaw.

Old meets new

The Clay Spencer Shop stands behind the Francis Whitaker Shop.  Together they will provide one of the finest Blacksmith Shops to work in.