Senior Project Reflection

1. Positive Statement:

I am most proud of the props that I brought. The tools that where at each table showed the variety of tools as well as the depth of my subject. They also showed the things I made and gave a more concrete feel to my project. by bringing things I created the class could understand the amount of time and effort spent on my project even without the presentation. The props where also very useful when completing my activity because they served as examples

2. What assessment

a. AE

b. AE

3. The fact that my mentor as well as the forge was open ever other Saturday made completing the hours required very easy to complete. The more time you spend working on your project the more understanding you become. With this understanding comes clarification and the ability to teach a lesson comes easier and easier. So the amount of time I spent working on my project really prepared me for this presentation.

4. I would change the amount of time spent working on my presentation. I worked on it a lot but with a little more time I could have chosen better portions to cut out because mine was so long most of it had to be left out and the important portions talked about. While i covered the necessary information, it might have been even better if I had talked more about one thing and less on another.

5. While I do not plan on perusing this as a career, I do plan to continue this as a hobby. What this has shown me is that there is merit to the saying: Do what you love to do and it will be easy. I would have never gotten up on a Saturday morning for anything but once i relied how much fun blacksmiths is I don't mind it. So in my future endeavors i plan on perusing a career path that I find enjoyable, not what my test say I should do. This I believe will make my entire career if not the rest of my life better.

Blog 22 Mentorship

Literal:

Hours updated.

Caroline Smith, at the Kellogg Heritage museum.
Address: 3101 West Harvard St. Santa Ana, CA.

Interpretive:

The most important thing I have learned while going to my mentorship is perseverance and dedication. Through my project I have created a multitude of beautiful items. These  items take days or weeks to complete and each require perseverance to get through. One of my most memorable experiences and most likely, the best example of this is the spring fuller. I wont go into detail about what it is but what truly shows perseverance is the fact that I had to make the fuller 5 time. I made plenty of other items but if I successfully completed them on the first try I hardly remembered them. Its the many items that I messed up on that I remember the most vividly and thus, learn the most from. The spring fuller is ironically the 5th item I was required to make. The first try I chose the wrong size stock. This means that the diameter of the metal I was working with was too small so I had to start over. My next try I was all but done when I went to pull it out of the fire and only pulled out half. After closer inspection, we found that the metal had a fault in it so when that portion reached extreme heat it simply burned away. The third and fourth attempts failed simply because of my frustration. I ended up melting the same portion away on both of them. But, while I became increasingly frustrated, I never once didn't enjoy it. through my perseverance I succeeded in completing the spring fuller and the rest of the items without ever losing hope. I have then applied this to my every day life. I am not known for giving up, but I can become easily frustrated when having to redo a task. After blacksmithing for so long I have been able to complete task more efficiently and much more reliably because I have built up a tolerance for my frustration. This has proved and will continue to prove a valuable skill both in school and in my everyday life. One more thing that I have found to be very helpful when blacksmithing is how something enjoyable can be worth it. before this project I would have never gotten up happily on a Saturday morning to do anything. But after this project I realize the willingness I have to do things that I enjoy and will forever try to find a job that I genuinely enjoy doing.

Applied:

My projects keep requiring me to create new items and tools. This answers my Essential Question very clearly. My essential question is: what is the most effective way to efficiently manipulate metal into a desired shape? By persevering though project I have learned how useful the tools I created are. I realize how they can help shape a piece much easier by applying force in a specific direction or simply holding the piece down.  The projects require you to do this and the first project show what a great asset this is. So by continuing to apply myself and work I have learned that the better the tools, the better the final product. This is how persevering though each step of my project has crafted my answer.

Exit Interview

1. My essential question is: what is the most most important factor in effectually manipulating metal into a desired shape?    My first answer is: a hammer and coal forge. My second answer is: by creating tools to assist in the forging possess. My third and final answer is: By knowing every aspect of the metal.

My best answer is my second. By creating tools to assist in the forging prossess. This is my best answer is for a multitude of reasons. One of the first reasons is slightly philosophical. When every we encounter problems we try and over come them by making tools. This applies to everything not just in blacksmithing. my essential question also inquires about efficacy. By creating tools that are for a specific purpose the prossess of making the item or simply completing that step becomes very quick and very efficient. This is also something they teach in the shop. Before you start a project you must make every tool needed for that project whether it be a new type of hammer, a specific pair of tongs, a fuller, even a scribing tool. otherwise the project will take far longer than it would to make the tool and the piece as well. Some task are so complex that they cannot be completed without a specific tool. This is why this is my second answer is by best.


2. By asking my mentor questions about tools that she made I quickly learned the importance of them. Even though most tools are for a far too specif task. Most tools are only used once before they are thrown in a drawer while other are used until they break beyond repair.  Noticing how efficiently my mentor worked at the forge using tools that she herself made, it is not that far a jump to conclude that the tools aid in making the forging process more efficient and much easier.

3. I encountered few problems when trying to find my answers. This one in fact came to me in a epiphany while driving home from mentorship. Most of the answers came in the same way. The only problem I found was wording the answers and with a little help from my mentor quickly solved that problem. So if I did find a problem I solved them simply by asking for assistance.

4. My best two sources.

Dempsy, Jock. "Anvilfire FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)." Anvilfire FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). N.p., 2002. Web. 27 Feb. 2015.

Bush, Darren. "Working Iron: A Primer on Blacksmithing." The Art of Manliness. N.p., 2008. Web. 22 Aug. 2014.