Let start traditionally: a route update. I'm almost, almost in San Francisco. There I'm gonna meet up with Remco, once Hardboard chairman, now entrepreneur in San Fransisco, working for the SF branch of Distimo. But first, let's get back to the smithing.
So I found Harry Black in Boise, Idaho (http://www.boiseblacksmith.com) and met up with him on thursday evening. After a short introductory chat Harry and I immediately hit the workshop. He showed me around and showed me some of his work: he's mainly a bladesmith and has made some beautiful damascus blades. He has the habit of keeping the scrap material of damascus blanks he cuts, so his first question was what I wanted to make out of such a little piece of scrap material.
The shape of the piece of scrap somewhat reminded me of the Maori Adze we had seen in New Zealand. So I made a rough sketch for Harry and we both started making one. Steps: forging the piece to shape (gas forge, hammer and anvil), rough surface finish and edge shaping using belt grinder with grit belts and high quality surface finish using neoprene belt. This last step took a lot of time, so by 22:00 we were still in the shop, and since Harry would have another working day the next day we called it quits.
I could stay in the guest room for the night, which was very nice. His wife needed to do some work in the morning, so I planned to go get my supplies in the city. Harry gets up at around 06:00 to drive the school bus, and on this friday he would get home at around 14:00 to get ready for the scouting event. He generously offered me access to his workshop from around noon, while he and his wife were out, so that I could finish the adze. This I did, and Harry joined me to finish his on the last steps: polishing on the buffing wheel and etching.
Finished piece
Rough shape I wanted to achieve
With this nice piece of work done it was time to pack up the cart: we would have to bring a complete mobile workshop over to a muddy field, prepared for bad weather. Predictions for the weekend in Boise were really really bad: lots of rain and lots of cold, Harry especially was dreading the conditions as this would mean lots of mud and cold and everything getting dirty. I was looking forward to an adventure, but well, rain and mud are also not very high on the list of must-haves.
Harry has been at this event for some 23 years, so he had a good plan prepared, loading the cart went smoothly and by the end of the afternoon we were ready to drive up to Willow creek. Harry had told me it would be in the middle of nowhere, north of Emmett, and boy was that true. We ate a burger at the last highway stop and then it was dirt road time...
driving into nowhere
still driving into nowhere
Finally, we have arrived!
The camp was split in three parts: on top of the hill was a communications division with some military kind of kids. In the valley the camp was split in two by the creek: on one side the scouts (about 300 of 'em), and on the other side the demo people and some organisation members. Besides us blacksmiths (Harry Black and Wade Smith), there was a group of civil war re-enacters and a group of 'mountain men'. The plan was to set up shop in the valley, and keep my van on the hill, with all the mud we didn't trust it getting up the hill again if moved into the valley. We tried getting it onto the field on top of the hill with the other vehicles, but this wasn't too successful, so I parked on the side of the road instead.
Guess how much traction you get with this?
Friday evening was spent getting the whole shop set up in the valley, and having a well deserved beer afterwards, getting acquainted with the various people in the camp around the campfire. On saturday it was smithing and demonstration time. The scout groups all have to visit our demo station and have a look at what we're doing. This goes accompanied by a group call or yell, some jabs from Harry, and the transmission of a bead to the group leader. Harry raffles of some folding knives each year, so scouts would buy tickets for the raffle, and he was also selling some small stuff that also moved pretty well. For instance miniature tomahawks, flint and steel kits and more decorative items.
On saturday morning we got an order to make four flower pot wall hangers from a lady, so this is what we spent making mostly during the day. I was also working on another leaf, and Harry showed me how to make a horse's head at the end of a horse shoe. An impression in this video.
Youtube: http://youtu.be/CIOJ1LF4h5M
The finished wall hangers
Basically it was a fun day of work, while learning all the while too! It felt good making my first useful products as well, besides the wall hook I also made an enlarged fish hook for the mountain men, so that they could better teach the scouts the correct knots for fish hooks. While the weather predictions had been aweful, the actual weather on the day was perfect! We had sunshine all day and a lot of the mud dried up. I drove my van down onto the field next to the shop to save me a walk up the hill each time I had forgotten something.
By the end of the day I also did a little 'touristin' round to see what the others were up too, and ofcourse to see the cannon be fired from up close:
Youtube: http://youtu.be/yWcL6sf8ork
We ended the day in the same note as the previous: beer at the campfire, not too bad altogether! I woke up the next day seeing Harry surrounded by some 30 scouts at the shop. He was working them and drawing regular laughs.... By the time I got up however the show was pretty much over. After teaching me how to make a ring out of a horse shoe nail it was time to start packing up the shop. By the time we were nearly done the sky turned and a few drops fell. I quickly moved the van up to the road, so that if I would rain I would not get stuck in the mud.
When we finished up it was waiting time until the scouts would also finish their program and Harry could raffle off the knives. Lunch was served by the scouts this time: a nice hamburger! Lunch was disturbed by a hailstorm however. We had just finished our burger and looking at the sky I was already heading for the van when all hell broke loose: with some 300 scouts queuing to get their burgers some ended up with a little too much crunchy stuff than they asked for.
Hailstorm!
The day ended with a ceremony. First of all it was time to do the lost and found: about 15 minutes later there were some 20 kids in front who had to sing a song, but were happy that they had recovered their lost stuff. Afterwards Harry got to raffle off his knives and made two scouts very, very happy. The day ended on a very positive note, when one of the people who had been helping organize this event for some 25 years received a honorary medal, the first of its kind to be given out in the state of Idaho.
Anxious audience while Harry explains about the knives
One very happy kid with a very nice pocket knive
The day ended the same way as the weekend had begun: driving back out of nowhere and unpacking the cart. We had dinner with Harry's wife, and afterwards watched some blacksmithing videos from which we (actually both) learned some new tricks. All in all a very rewarding and fun weekend!
Picasa pictures:
Days 35,36,37,38,39: Blacksmithing in Boise and surroundings
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