[TheForge] UMBA - N.E.W. branch hammer-in (long winded)

[Dave Brown]

Well, Saturday has come and gone, and so has the little get-together that 
we had at Jeff Benson's shop (Benson Designs, Green Bay, WI).  It was a 
smashing (no pun intended) success.  There were about 16-18 people there, 
all metal manglers of one ilk or another and ranging in experience from "I 
really do try to make a living at this, don't ya know" to "Oh, so that's 
what a cross-pein hammer looks like".  It was great.

The two big disappointments that we had were:  1)  Mike "in Milwaukee" Graf 
couldn't make it.  He had some weak excuse like "obligatory family 
wedding".  Scheesh!!!  What's this world coming to?  And even worse than 
Mike's lame excuse, was:  2) Roger Degner didn't come to video tape the 
event.  Seems like he was thinking that a 5 minute walk out to his shop was 
easier than a 6+ hour drive (not to mention all the other shops he'd have 
to pass by to get here).  Imagine that?  A paltry 12+ hours traveling 
(round trip) for 2 or 3 hours of hanging out with us Wisconsin types and he 
debates whether it's worth it or not?  What's this guy 
thinking?  Thinking?  Heck, Roger what were you smoking?

Anyway, in spite of these two disappointments we all had a good time.  We 
had one Hossfeld #2 bender and one Harbor Freight compact bender in 
service, two propane forges (forced air design), one Sandia inspired forge 
(naturally aspirated Bunsen burner style) and one coal forge 
(rivet/farriers pan type, and outdoors), three anvils with a fourth 
available if needed), various and sundry vises, grinders, welders, layout 
table, etc...  Last but not least, Joe Baer brought down his plasma cutter 
(cuts 1/2" clean, well chew through 3/4" rough) and some heavy gauge sheets 
of steel.

While there were some who make their living or seriously supplement their 
incomes with blacksmithing, we did have two young men (18-20?) and one 
young lady (mid 20's?) who learned basic drawing and bending and twisting 
and proceeded to make some S-hooks and some other things.  I think all 
three are hooked because they all were asking "When are you going to do 
this again?  How often do you do this?" and other assorted questions and 
comments that tell you that they had gotten bitten by the bug, and bitten 
bad.  <smile>

Mark Mondloch was helping Gene Durben to use the Hossfeld to edge bend a 
length of 3/16"x3/4" flat bar into a circle to be used as a boarder on a 
round table that Gene is making for his wife.  Al and Wayne watched closely 
and then proceeded to bend their own ring that they used to make a 3 legged 
spider (for open hearth or campfire cooking).  We set up the HF clone and 
experimented with some edge bending with it .... it worked just 
fine.  Later I showed some of the guys how a Claydon Knot is 
built/assembled (using 1/4"rnd) and used the HF clone bender to make the 
necessary bends.  A bender even smaller than the HF clone is better for 
Claydon Knots, but the HF did make the bends tight enough that the 
principles behind making a Claydon Knot were easily seen and 
understood.  Several people took home samples to work on benders and jigs 
to make Claydon knots to be utilized in personal projects.

Joe's Plasma cutter got a lot of attention and was used to cut out a new 
grate/ashcover/tuyere for the coal forge.  We made up a pattern for an 
anvil silhouette and several were cut out.  Some to be put on walls of 
shops, and mine to become a new weather vane atop my shop's roof.

Jeff Benson made a dog head from some 3/4" sq stock, one of the John's (no 
smirks here, please) made tongs.  I don't know what the other John made, 
but he brought a box full of H13 pin cutoffs from an injection molding shop 
near where he lives.  Everyone who wanted some got to take a pretty good 
handful of pieces (mostly 1/2", a couple of 5/8") .... all free and 
compliments of John.  One guy, who is smithing almost every day when he 
gets home from his regular job, actually passed up taking any of the 
H13.  He's happy with his scrounged coil spring chisels and that's fine 
with me.  I may not understand why anybody would pass up some free H13, but 
that's his right to do so if he wants.

Other stuff was done, other stuff was made, some brought show-n-tell pieces 
that were all nice and an inspiration to all of us.

I think I've written enough.  Jeff Benson and somebody else took pictures 
and will be putting together an article for the UMBA newsletter ... I think.

Later,
Dave Brown