[TheForge] Age of Iron- what fun ;-)

Tue Jun 3 08:25:00 2003

Phlip,
Your SCA and mundane (hee hee) blacksmithing event narratives always make my
day.  In fact, I'd like to read more writing like that in blacksmithing
print publications.  Please keep posting them, with all the personal
details, weather, and more.  The titles are clear to me.

You know, I never had any desire to go to an SCA event until I read your
email about it.
-Kirsten
[email protected]
 http://home.centurytel.net/Fiorini_and_Skiles

----- Original Message -----
From: "Phlip" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>; "EKMetalsmiths"
<[email protected]>; "SCA-Cooks" <[email protected]>;
<[email protected]>
Cc: "Charlotte Limerick" <[email protected]>;
<[email protected]>; "SPCA" <[email protected]>; "Liz
Gerald" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 8:29 PM
Subject: [TheForge] Age of Iron- what fun ;-)

> Well, as some of you know, this weekend was the weekend I had planned for
a
> mundane event, a hammer-in.
>
> "Mundane" in this context means non-SCA- a "hammer-in" is a meeting of
> blacksmiths.
>
> The event was held at Hancock Shaker Village, in Massachusetts, a lovely,
> well-maintained historical village created by the religious sect known as
> the Shakers. If you don't know about the Shakers, they were wonderful
> people, very much responsible for shaping their segment of early American
> history. I don't know if there are any still alive, but back in the 60s, I
> went to school just up the road from the Canterbury Shaker Village in New
> Hampshire, and was taught to use a treadle sewing machine by Sister
> Marguerite Frost, so in a very real sense, spending the weekend at Hancock
> was like a homecoming- a very comfortable place to be, and I'm thinking
that
> Sister Marguerite is smiling too, at all the wonderful memories that were
> aroused.
>
> Rather than camp, I stayed with my dear friends, Aaron and Liz Silver, who
> live nearby. He's a blacksmith, active on TheForge, and she's a wonderful
> violinist. We're bringing them into the SCA- and a great contribution
> they'll be, as they learn their way around. They had gone on vacation to
> California during the previous week, and were due in about midnight Friday
> night. They had left me a key to the house, and I arrived Friday evening,
> bringing a roast chicken, thinking they'd be hungry after their air
travel,
> and was planning on waiting up to meet them. The best laid plans of mice
and
> blacksmiths go oft agley...
>
> At 10 PM, all the electricity went out. Unbeknownst to any of us, the
local
> power company had chosen that evening for a planned power outage. I waited
a
> bit for the power to come back on, then went out to my truck, read for a
> while, then got some candle lanterns out and set them up in the kitchen,
etc
> so they could at least get in the house without breaking their necks.
After
> 1 AM sometime, I went to bed, since I knew we had to be up very early the
> next morning to unload our vehicles and set up our forges- we had to have
> our vehicles off-site and in the parking lot by 9 AM. Apparently, the
> weather had caused their flights some delays, and they didn't get in until
> about 2:30. When they did, their first thought was, "Oh how nice, a
> candlelight welcome" until they flipped the light switch.....
>
> At any rate, they got to bed, and next morning, I got up about 6AM (had
been
> awakened at 5:30 by my cat) and discovered Liz already up and making
coffee.
> I rousted Aaron out, we blundered about getting ready, and off we went-
got
> to the site about 7:30, and got set up.
>
> We had a marvelous time. Since we were near the "green coal area", and I
had
> planned to be there, and consequently had chosen my equipment to help show
> how you could get set up inexpensively, we discussed how you could set up
> with a brake drum forge and a RR track anvil, and Aaron showed off his
> forge, made of a defunct gas grill. We talked to lots of people, including
a
> few SCAdians, and I mostly worked on building another US Civil War
> reproduction collapsible cooking grill, like the one I had given Lord Ras,
> and Aaron guided a young boy and his uncle through making a couple of
small
> projects. (I was mostly piddling around- it was pretty cold and wet, and
I'm
> not a smith and a cook because I dislike heat- think Trimaris could use a
> smithing demo, in, say, July?) (Trimaris is the Kingdom in Florida, for my
> non-SCA friends.)
>
> Next day, the same sort of thing, although we had fewer "guests" because
of
> the storm warnings and cold weather. Those we had, however, were very
aware
> and interested in what we were doing- very much a pleasant group ;-)
>
> There were lots of good things happening, both at the hammer-in, and
around
> and about. Lest I forget, I want to give Hancock Shaker Village my deepest
> thanks for making this a very pleasant experience for we demonstrators.
> There wasn't much you could do about the weather, but the lovely lunches
> y'all set up for the demonstrators were very much appreciated. I hear the
> cook-out Saturday night was very good too, but as cold and wet as Aaron
and
> I were, the thought of a hot shower only 15 minutes away won- it took me 5
> minutes under the shower at full blast for the goosebumps to subside. Liz
> had cooked us a lovely dinner, too, including a "traditional" dish of
> chickpeas and spices. It feels very Mediaval Arabic- Aaron, please send
the
> recipe, so I can check it against the corpus. Very tasty ;-)
>
> As to the demo itself, while I spent most of my time at my forge, I did
have
> some time to wander around and meet some people, and discuss some
> techniques.
>
> Bill Clemens- very much a pleasure to meet you, and see the Mastermys
> collection, as it stands. Also, I very much enjoyed your little guidance
> demo, about making the frog on the end of the bar of pure iron- and the
> hand-out sheet that went with it. Think I'll be doing something similar
> soon. April, if you ever want to get rid of him, let me know- He's a big
> boy- bet he keeps you warm at night ;-) In fact, if I could just have
> convinced him to stand upwind of me all day, I bet I'd have been 10
degrees
> warmer ;-)
>
> Mastermyr collection, btw, is a reproduction of artifacts from the
Mastermyr
> find from about the year 1000, done by a combination of modern and SCA
> blacksmiths from TheForge mailing List- and we're still working on it.
Steve
> Smith, that tool chest you made is every bit as wonderful in person, as
the
> pix you sent- didja know Bill has put a mirror inside it, so we can watch
> the locks you made work? The grill is great too, Bill, and the loving
detail
> in every one of those other pieces makes me proud to know such fine
> craftsmen ;-)
>
> We had a beautiful set up by a couple of guys doing an historical
> reproduction of a Viking forge. They aren't SCA (yet ;-), but their set up
> was positively inspiring ;-) I WILL have a set up like that soon, from
> paired single lung bellows, to "sand pit" forge, to stake anvils. Dale
Wood,
> your award for the most historical set up was very justly deserved ;-)
> Thank-you for bringing it, and I hope to see you guys soon ;-)
>
> The musicians in the shelter, the different tools I'm coveting and will be
> making, the genuine niceness and willingness to inform of everyone I met
was
> just AWESOME ;-) I got a lot from this weekend, and I'm going to be doing
> everything in my power to share it with my beloved SCA. Thank you so much,
> one and all ;-)
>
> And, for the denouement.... I spent Sunday night again with Aaron and Liz,
> and took off for home about 11 AM, trailer in tow, having fixed the lights
> (a wire popped) before I left Hancock Village. Now, you gotta understand
> about me, that trailer, and those lights. When I left for the demo/event,
I
> was on my 4th set, having finally broken one myself the previous weekend-
> all the others I'd replaced had been broken by other people in parking
lots,
> and I'd carefully moved them inboard.
>
> Pulled up to pay at the the tollbooth at the Massachusetts Turnpike, and
got
> rear-ended by a semi....sigh. Another set of lights- makes my 5th....told
me
> roommate, Rob, to get me two sets- figure I might as well have a spare,
the
> way I'm going through threm....
>
>
> Phlip, NOT frigid, by choice....
>
>  If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
> cat.
>
> Never a horse that cain't be rode,
> And never a rider who cain't be throwed....
>
>
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