[TheForge] Power Hammer for Nicaragua

[Dave Mudge]

Dave,

I'm not an ABANA member, I'm an ABS mastersmith, but I have something
that might be near and dear to a lot of ABANA folks.  I want to know
if you'd be willing to post the following thread on the ABANA forum.
If not, that's cool.  I just thought that North American blacksmiths
would probably be in a position to help out a good cause in a
not-so-great part of the world.  Thanks, Burt Foster



Hey guys,

I need some help with something. Anyone who's an ABS member saw the
story about Jason Knight going to Nicaragua last year to work with a
guy named Mike Diebert who's an American missionary running a
blacksmithing trade school in Nicaragua to teach a valuable trade to
men who have very little options when it comes to supporting their
families.

After Jason got back, he and I talked several times about returning
together to work more with Mike and his students on different aspects
of making knives. A big part of our reason to return was the idea of
building a power hammer for the school (specifically a Clay
Spencer-style spare tire hammer). These guys do a ton of forging and
it's all done by hand. Large work is done by gang hammering with 2 or
3 strikers and one man holding the steel. It works but it's not
efficient and it takes a lot of time. Another problem is that Mike is
training these guys so they can return to their home towns, open up
shop for themselves and become self-sufficient. This is hard when they
face the possibility of going home and having to figure out how to do
the work of several men alone.

However, the more we thought about, it, Jason and I weren't sure we
could find what we would need and build the whole hammer in the week
we were there. I've committed to Mike that I'll get him a hammer one
way or the other, and the best option as I see it is to buy one here
and have it sent down on a container. One obvious benefit of this
style of hammer is that once these guys get a hammer down there and
start using it, along with a set of Clay's plans, they can figure out
how it works and begin to build others. This way, when a guy returns
home, he can take with him a tool that he can use by himself to run
his own shop and support his family.

What we'd like to do is to raise $3000 for this project so that we can
buy a hammer in nice condition and have enough left over to send him
some grinding belts and other things they very much need. (And Mike
has connections that will allow us to ship the hammer for no cost to
either him or us).

I think we can send money through his parent organization so I don't
have to personally take the money, and you can use it as a tax
write-off if you're so inclined.

For those interested, Mike's web site is:http://www.esvoministries.com

If you can give anything at all, please do. $20, $100, whatever. This
is a great cause, this guy has a big heart for God and wants to show
the love of God to these people in a very tangible way.

Contact me at burt at burtfoster.com and we'll nail down all the donation
information.

Thanks Guys,
Burt

P.S. If anyone has a line on a hammer, please let me know.