[TheForge] Pennsic survived ;-)

[Saint Phlip]

So, I'm back from Pennsic. Usually takes me about a week to recover
sufficiently to converse coherently. Had some right interesting
doings, that I'll share with you ;-)

First, my student, Ben. Last year, he had never been on a forge at
all. In the intervening year, he has acquired equipment, and started
playing, and he's doing quite well. I'm very pleased- I think any of
you would be proud to have him for a student. I'm really looking
forward to seeing the trellis he's making as a gift for some friends
who are getting married. As soon as I get pictures, I'll share them
;-)

One of the things we've been doing every Pennsic, is having a cook-in,
basicly experimenting with period style pottery, cooking period-style
foods over an open fire. I'll send you guys a URL as soon as I get
one- I think you'll be interested ;-) One of the participants is a
professor of archaeology, who recently went on a dig over in Russia.
While there, he acquired a book, in Russian, showing a number of
artifacts they'd found, and we spent a fair amount of time looking
them over and discussing them- I was able to tell him what several
items were in reality, as opposed to what academics ignorant of
practical matters had chosen to identify them as- always amusing ;-) I
now have a copy of these pages- only the 3rd or 4th copy in the US ;-)

But, as we cook, I usually have someone working on my forge. In this
case, Ben was making the professor a trivet, to use under a particular
pot that he wanted to cook out of. The trivet was the simple "V" type,
with a leg at the bend, and legs at the ends of the bars.

When he saw it, the prof got very excited. It seems that there is a
whole slew of metal artifacts out there, that had been tentatively
identified as some sort of staple, to hold wood together, although
there was some question as to why they tended to be found amongst
cooking gear. As it happens, with this trivet, if it were to break at
the point of the V, it would produce two "staples" exactly like the
ones that there had been the many discussions about. It seems we're
making history, one trivet at a time ;-)

And, aside from the tremendous fun that I have at Pennsic, I, too, had
what I feel is a great personal triumph ;-) As some of you know, I
have a strong interest in disabled folks, it being my belief that
able-bodied people too often sell them short, in terms of what we
believe they can do. I had always been willing to teach anyone to
smith, having met crippled smiths, deaf smiths, one VERY fine smith
who only had one arm to use, etc, but in all my thinking, I had not
been able to figure out how to teach a blind person to smith- I mean,
really, Braille and Red Hot (or even black hot) metal do not seem to
go together safely.

So, this Pennsic, I met a blind gentleman, who was motivated to learn-
and I managed to teach him, with the help of some very good students I
had the privilege of working with. Not only did he learn and help my
other students in cutting off lengths from my bar stock, but he was
able to learn how to place the metal in the heart of the (charcoal)
fire, draw a point, and bend a circle, in order to make himself a
simple portable hole. Yes, he did all the hammering himself.

Now, I don't think he'll ever be able to smith safely and artisticly
without a sighted person to help him adjust angles and the like, but
I'm pretty sure that, with a few more lessons, he will be able to
teach a sighted, but smithing-ignorant person to assist him. I'm very
proud of him ;-)

So, guys, how was YOUR summer?

-- 
Saint Phlip

Heat it up
Hit it hard
Repent as necessary.

Priorities:

It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools which make the smith.

.I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary
notices I have read with pleasure. -Clarence Darrow