This Month

Yes, before you ask, I have made more stuff.  Lots of people ask me to make things for them as soon as they find out my topic is blacksmithing. They ask me for things ranging from knives to bracelets, but this past month I have had to put them on the back burner. I am mentoring at the Kellogg house heritage museum in Santa Ana. Instead of working on metal this week we decided to work on with wood. We decided to extend the roof out over a platform right next to the shop. This area would be covered by a ceiling but still outdoors because there will be no walls so the roof is more like an awning. On this platform we plan to build a new forge. This new forge will still be coal fead but instead of being on a raised platform it will be on a brick forge. Too make this all possible we needed to have lots of wood for the ceiling, so this past month we have painted quite a bit of wood. I will post pictures below.

PS: I have also completed my square punch and leaf key chain.

Blog 6 - 2nd Interview Preparation

1. My mentor is Kathy. Not sure where she works, but she is a special education teacher.

2. The questions I am going ask are:

          1. Where did you learn to blacksmith?
          2. How long have you been blacksmithing?
          3. What made you become interested in blacksmithing?
          4. What was the most difficult thing you have ever made.
          5.  How much time have you detected to blacksmithing?

Blog 5 - Mentorship Reflection

1. For my senior project i am doing blacksmithing. when I was younger, almost 7 years ago I went to a blacksmithing forge and started smithing. I stopped going and then when senior projects started being announced I immediately thought of blacksmithing agin. I went to the forge a few times over the summer and found out that it was defiantly the right choice for my senior project. I ended up making a few things such as the staple or the spring fuller and had lots of fun with it. I do not have one mentor but a group. They each work at the forge and tell me what to do and what not to do. and when ever I need help with a project they always provide assistance. If I had to chose one to be a mentor it would probably be Kathy because she is the most helpful and forthcoming without asking.

2. The most important article I have read so far is probably the "Anvil fire" it has lots of good information and directions in various locations on the site and it references great books that are also important in my research. So it is the most important because not only is it a great sours but it also has other sources I can use reference and ever recommended.

Mentorship

Mentorship 

My senior project is blacksmithing so over the past few months I have made a variety of things. The best part about learning to become a blacksmith is that most of the basic projects you do at first lead into the next project. For example, I  had to make a chisel out of a spring from a car. The next project then required me to use the chisel to make indentations. It is all very structured and planed out because they have had thousands of years to teach people how to blacksmith so they teaching methods are very well rounded. Just recently I made a spring fuller, a tool which is used to pinch metal, and then used it to make a leaf key chain. I have not completed I yet but I have done the leaf portion. Below are some pictures of the forge and of the leaf.