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Ep #104 Vince Nakovics "The Blacksmith Murders" May 22, 2017

Show notes

Vince Nakovics is currently living in Shkoder, Albania, he and his wife moved there in 2012. You will hear what the blacksmith scene is like there in the interview. Prior to moving to Albania, he lived in Virginia Beach VA, which is where he began to blacksmith and eventually became the Tidewater Blacksmith's Guild's newsletter editor for 6 years. With his renewed interest in writing he ended up publishing 65 monthly newsletters (during his time as editor), conducted over 100 interviews of blacksmiths and has written and published 5 books about blacksmiths, 2 of them are suspenseful fiction books. In the interview you'll hear that I was awaiting the arrival of one of his books, the Blacksmith Murders, I have since read the book and it's a suspenseful, fast easy read, I recommend reading it, there's not a lot of books out there that are about fictional characters that are blacksmiths! It's a fun book.

Before I get to the interview I wanted to tell you who the guest will be for the next Blacksmith's Pub podcast, that's Eve McClanahan, I'm excited to hear this one, I know she studied dance at New York University and is a blacksmith as well, tune in this Friday, May 26th for Jesse Savage and Rick Barter's 9th episode with Eve.

What We Talked About

Vince was in the Navy for 24 years before retiring in Virginia Beach. The retirement didn't last long, in 1999 he was hired on with the National Park Service and he stayed there for 15 years.
The National Park Service hired him to do research and restoration projects on 1781 canon carriages. This is where he was introduced to blacksmithing, he was looking for a blacksmith to make the straight nails that are part of the wheels of the carriages. The prices Vince was getting from local blacksmiths for the work turned out to be too high for the restoration budget, so the Park Service decided it was less expensive to set Vince up with a blacksmith shop so he could make them on location.
He ended up getting a lot of help from Peter Ross who happened to be the master blacksmith at the historical site Colonial Williamsburg.
Vince became very involved with his local blacksmith guild, the Tidewater Blacksmith's Guild and eventually became the newsletter editor.
Due to the local guild moving its main gathering site farther away from Vince and a few other blacksmiths, Vince and a friend decided to start up another blacksmith guild called the Artist Blacksmiths Guild of Tidewater. Another major reason for doing this was to teach blacksmiths how to work with other blacksmiths on art projects.
Vince and his wife moved to Albania in 2012 and the blacksmith scene is "dismal at best". He ended up bringing his propane gas forge and had to find an anvil there.
When Vince became the editor for the Tidewater Blacksmith's Guild he started to include interviews with blacksmiths around the world as articles. This led him to publish two books of all the interviews called "American Blacksmiths" and "Horses Need Not Apply".
His latest book, "Rozafa's Secrets" is in its final editing phase. Here is the blurb about the story "American blacksmith John Reid is invited to be a guest demonstrator and speaker at the First Annual Rozafa Castle Ancient Skills Fair in Shkoder, Albania. While in route an Inspector Buchari of Interpol Albania requests his assistance in combating his country's international criminals. John's strong sense of justice will not allow him to turn his back. He agrees and confirms criminal involvement with the event. Unknown to John, Rozafa Castle has secrets of its own. Secrets capable of toppling corrupt members of the Albanian Parliament from their pedestals of power. When he is discovered by his host Victor Glasser and unable to escape his only hope lies with his Albanian friend and Victor's kept woman."

Guest Links

Vince Nakovic's Website for his books - https://vincenakovics.com/
Vince's blog - https://happyhavenforge.wordpress.com/
Amazon link to all of his books - https://www.amazon.com/Vince-Nakovics/e/B00J94J220
Rozafa's Secrets book - coming soon, still in the final editing process

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Ep #103 Stuart Shirley "CMA Internship" May 10, 2017

Show notes

Stuart Shirley is a college student at the Colorado School of Mines, he is obtaining a 4 year degree from the Colorado School of Mines in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. Currently, as part of pursuing his degree, he is completing an internship at the Center for Metal Arts in Florida New York.

What We Talked About

Stuart's interest in blacksmithing started in high school. His welding instructor offered to help Stuart build a forge of his own if Stuart agreed to build two forges, one for the school and one for him to keep.
Stuart's forge is called Great Owl Forge and he has both coal and gas forges there. He also has a treadle hammer (he built in high school), an anvil, horizontal bandsaw, oxy/acetylene set up and a utility pneumatic power hammer.
While he has been working at the Center for Metal Arts as an intern, Stuart has become familiar with the 4 power hammers CMA has in the shop. They have a Ritter, Falcon, Anyang and a Nazel.
Steel production and failure analysis is what interests Stuart the most and will continue to study that in his next internship with New Corp in their hot mill.
As an intern at CMA, Stuart started off cleaning and organizing the shop by building racks. Patrick Quinn (program developer and instructor at CMA) and Kyle Martin are teaching him how to use a mill, a lathe for machining and how to build jigs for production work.
In his second and third months, Stuart has made a total of 58 sets of tongs for the classes CMA holds every weekend. When Stuart makes 10 sets of tongs, Patrick had made a deal that Stuart keeps one pair, Patrick keeps a pair and 8 sets stay in the shop for class use.
Patrick and Stuart set aside Monday and Tuesday nights to have weekly meetings and focused forging sessions. Other than that, Stuart works from 9 am to 5 pm every day in the shop.
Stuart has been able to attend the weekend classes that CMA offers on the weekends. One of them being the Seth Gould Forge a Hacksaw class.
Stuart will be attending his next internship right after his CMA internship, it is with New Corp and he will be working in the hot mill steel production department.

Guest Links:

Center for Metal Arts website – www.centerformetalarts.com

Patrick's email for internship questions - info@centerformetalarts.com

Seth Gould Instagram - @sethgould

Thanks so much for your support!

**Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin** For the month of June 2017 May 01, 2017

Show notes

This is the Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin. Where you will get the low-down about upcoming current blacksmithing events happening around the world. The bulletins are released once a month and will announce events happening in the following month. If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to info@blacksmither.com and I will send you the details I need for the press release.

Ep #102 David Robertson "Art History in Iron from 3500 BC" Apr 17, 2017

Show notes

Welcome to episode #102 and I have David Robertson with us today, he's a professional artist blacksmith from Ontario Canada, in fact, he's been in business for 30 years as of this year… congratulations David! We talk about how he kept busy when starting out as a full time blacksmith and his latest Art History in Iron course he taught at the Halliburton School of Art and Design.

But first I'd like to thank our sponsor today and that's the Southern Blacksmith Association, they are hosting their 18th bi-annual Conference. The Philip Simmons Artist Blacksmith Guild is hosting this four-day conference at the Lion's Club Fair Grounds in Madison, Georgia, it's right around the corner on your calendars….Thursday through Sunday, May 18 - 21st, 2017.

Their demonstrator lineup is outstanding! You can see Zeevik Gottlieb, Shelton Browder, Gordon Williams, and Michael Saari!

Other conference events include Green Coal and Cold Coal classes, family programs, the Local Talent Forge, Iron in the Hat, forge and tool box raffles, a variety of vendors, a Friday night Banquet, Auction, and Forging Competition.

Head on over to their conference website, www.sbaconference.com for more details and the registration form, it's $55 in advance, $65 at the gate.

Thanks, SBA!

I also wanted to tell you about a new blacksmith podcast called The Blacksmith's Pub, I know I've mentioned this to you guys already, but their latest episode released last week is all about Damascus with Dave Kurdyla. You can listen to the episode in iTunes, and Stitcher or from their website, www.theblacksmithspub.com.

What We Talked About

He opened his blacksmith business in 1987, so this year, 2017, will be its 30th He went full time with the business in 1993.
While David was going to university in Canada for geological engineering he had a part-time job at a blacksmith shop. When David graduated, there were not any jobs in geological engineering so he decided to open his blacksmith business full time.
When he started his full-time business, he chose to make a line of wholesale products; hooks, candle holders, fireplace sets, etc. and sell them at wholesale shows to retailers. He said that was nice because the retailers are more educated about handmade items and they paid on time.
David explains how he comes up with his wholesale pricing.
He also says that making products for wholesaling makes you very efficient with your time and your forge work.
David eventually moved from wholesaling his product line to 2D and 3D sculptures. Mostly organic themes.
There is a free membership offered on David's website that has numerous blog articles about blacksmith techniques. He has just over 5000 members in his online community.
David was recently an instructor at the Haliburton School of Art and Design in Canada, he taught an art history class on ironwork from 3500 BC to current day.
While researching the different art periods in metal, David learned a lot. He started with the Celtic period, then Viking, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, then jumped into Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
David teaches 3-day weekend classes out of his shop every other weekend and the classes are booked for the next 7 months. To see his class schedule, go to his website.

Guest Links

David Robertson's Website – http://www.artistblacksmith.com/
Blue Moon Press for books on metalworking - http://bluemoonpress.org

A Big Thank You to today's sponsor – SBA Conference

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

telling your friends.
sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
subscribing to the show in Stitcher, http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=54499&refid=stpr

Thanks so much for your support!

May 2017 Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin Apr 03, 2017

Show notes

This is the BlacksmitHER Buzz Bulletin. Where you will get the low-down about upcoming current blacksmithing events happening around the world. The bulletins are released once a month and will announce events happening in the following month. If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to info@blacksmither.com and I will send you the details I need for the press release.

Before we get to the bulletin I would like to mention in case you didn't know, there is another blacksmith podcast out there that you can listen to, it's called the Blacksmith's Pub with Jesse Savage and Rick Barter having conversations about specific blacksmith topics and techniques and sometimes they have guests on the show too, you can listen to the show in iTunes, Stitcher and from their website www.theblacksmithspub.com.

100th ep Final Mar 27, 2017

Show notes

Yup, this is my 100th episode. Bob Menard from the New England Blacksmiths just asked me the other day did you envision the 100th when you started? The answer is NO Way!

The reason I started this podcast 3 years ago was to help create a tighter knit blacksmith community around the world, to aid and encourage forging new connections by having casual conversations every week so we can learn a little something about our peers. I thought I would talk about a few of the connections I've made over the past 3 years and about some of the connections that a few listeners have made by listening to the podcast. Then I'll jump right into another JayBurn Journal (an article written by Jay Burnham Kidwell) about different kinds of forging connections such as riveting, hot metal wrapping, mortise and tenon and such.

Summary:

Hot Connections

Forge Welding

Arc Welding

MIG Welding

Tig Welding

Oxy/acetelyne, oxy/propane gas welding

Oxy/acetelyne, oxy/propane gas brazing and soldering

Forge brazing

Forge soldering

Mortise and Tenon

Hot Rivets

Cold Connections are:

Copper rivets

Collars and wraps

Claydon Connections

Tension connections

Nuts and bolts

Articulated connections

Socket bearing connections

Collaring – to determine the length of the collar material: measure around the pieces to be collared plus 2 ½ times the thickness of the collar material. This will be the cut length before beveling the ends.

Square Tenons – Upset the end of the bar a ½", then do another upset just under the first upset, use a side set or spring fuller to establish the tenon and the shoulder. Then draw out the tenon, even up the shoulder edges with a monkey tool and check fir size and fit with the mortise. The tenon should extend about 1 ½ times the diameter of the tenon through the mortise hole.

Pass- through connections – using a slitting chisel and a swage block that is a little bigger than the pass through stock.

Stuart Hill's connection using a square tube that is twice the thickness of the pieces to be joined.

Arno Muller's corner connection – forge a square corner with an upset at the 90 degree bend and then forge out a tongue from the outside corner. Repeat this with another piece of square stock and join the two tongues in an opposite fashion.

Oval Rivets by Mark Aspery – from his Volume III book titled, "Mastering the Fundamentals of Traditional Joinery" available at www.MarkAspery.com.

Episode #99 – Julida Alter "The Blacksmith's Daughters" Mar 14, 2017

Show notes

Julida Alter is the youngest of 6 in a strong Polish Catholic family where her father and two brothers are blacksmiths. Julida and her sister are part of a 4-person band called "The Blacksmith's Daughters", they are located outside of Minneapolis Minnesota. Recently formed in 2015, The Blacksmith's Daughters (a family folk/pop band) believe that music should inspire the best in each other. That is why they create music that makes people happy. Many times this happiness comes out through authentic love songs with soaring melodies, intense harmonies and intertwined guitar and ukulele.

What We Talked About

Julida comes from a family of blacksmiths, 4 generations in fact! Her father, Boleslaw Kochanowski, is a well-known blacksmith in the Wisconsin and Chicago area.
Her father has visited his native country, Poland, to research his genealogy and how it ties to the blacksmith craft. He has found business records from the early 1900's of family members running a blacksmith business.
Her grandfather was fighting in World War II and was captured by the Nazis, when he declared (he knew how to speak German) that he was a blacksmith the Nazis spared his life and put him to work on a farm in Germany.
The four pillars of the band are the two sisters, Annella Platta and Julida Alter, and their iron clad musicians (and also husbands), Brent Platta and Sean Alter.
Two other regulars in the band are Jeremy Swider on violin and Krista Swider on viola (who also happen to be married). Jeremy and Krista teach private violin and viola lessons and also perform in the ensemble Sonorous Strings.
Each of the band members have a background tied to music, A band teacher, a choir director, a piano teacher and professional viola and violin players.
Every member of the band writes their own lyrics and music and they like to use hand percussion instruments such as: hand shakers, Castanets, Cajon box drum and bass drums.
They are planning to release two albums in 2017, one in June and hopefully a Christmas album.

Guest Links

The Blacksmith's Daughters website - http://www.theblacksmithsdaughters.com/
Band's YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPfufg98AbRBicWU8wojXdw
Boleslaw Kochowski - http://www.boleslawkochanowski.com/

A Big Thank You to today's sponsor – Southern Blacksmith Association, Their bi-annual conference May 18th - 21st.

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

telling your friends.
sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
subscribing to the show in Stitcher, http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=54499&refid=stpr

Thanks so much for your support!

Ep #98 – James Garvey "The Statue of Liberty and Clark bar" Feb 27, 2017

Show notes

Welcome to episode number 98 with James Garvey. He is an artist blacksmith just outside of New York City in Piermont NY. His training includes 6 years at the Art Department of Colorado State University and 10 years as head of Blacksmithing at the Rochester Folk Art Guild. He has designed and built public commissions in Manhattan including works at two subway stations, The School of Spirits Doors at the Dwight School in Manhattan, The Lariat Rustic Rail in Central Park, and a restoration project on the Statue of Liberty.

But before we get into the interview I wanted to tell you guys about the Hammer making online class with Patrick Quinn. It's going to be an online course where Patrick is walking you through the steps of forging a 2.25lb straight peen hammer with a striker. You will learn how to measure, punch and drift the hole, forge the cheeks, forge the peen and fuller around the face and peen. The majority of the work will be done with sledge- hammers and a striker; focus will be placed on proper striking technique. All heat-treating steps will be covered, including hardening, tempering, and finishing (polishing the faces). Handle making will also be covered so you will have the knowledge to make a handled straight peen hammer ready to use!

I know a bunch of you have been waiting a long time for this class to release and it will be available for purchase on March 9th. I have to tell you this was an epic project for me, because it included

a 10 hour day of filming Patrick and Kyle with 3 cameras for different angles and close-ups
a little over 100 hours of editing/producing and developing the education content

I learned a lot about filming techniques, course development, instructional design, instructor voice over recording and of course lots and lots of video editing. And the course came out really nice, rich with information, has a good flow from module to module and clear close-up video shots of the techniques I'm really proud of the course content, how Patrick seamlessly teaches each step of the process of forging a 2.25 lb straight peen hammer. I think you guys are really going to like it and we have a fun blooper reel from filming day and voice over recording day. So keep March 9th in your mind for you to visit www.blacksmitheracademy.com to find out more details on the course and to purchase it. The price is $35 for the online course and once you sign up for it you will have access to the course forever.

What We Talked About

James talks about how he has moved his blacksmith shop 5 times and the benefits that come from moving.
Currently James is teaching his artistic blacksmith class every Saturday and forging sculptures that he wants to make.
James uses his hydraulic 75 ton press for a lot of his forging. Though on the Statue of Liberty project he used their 120 ton press.
He tells us about how intense the project was to restore the armature on the inside of the Statue of Liberty. He and a crew of 40 guys forged and replaced 1600 bars for the job.
While he was the head blacksmith for the Rochester Folk Art Guild they went to 12 festivals a year and sold their craft work, it made for a very busy schedule.
He explains how his BFA has helped him with his artist blacksmith career, mainly for writing his syllabus for his forging class he teaches at the Arts Students League of New York.
Within his syllabus, James has come up with his own glossary of terms; Form idea, Visual forensics and Visceral cognition.
When asked what blacksmith James would like to learn from he mentioned Alessandro Mazzucotelli, the Italian blacksmith in the early 1900's.

Guest Links

James' website: http://www.jamesgarvey.net/
The Arts Student League of New York - https://www.theartstudentsleague.org/classes/

Ep 97 JayBurn Journal on Punches, Drifts and Top tools Feb 13, 2017

Show notes

It's episode #97 and I've got another JayBurn Journal for you. A technical article written by Jay Burnham-Kidwell. He's a longtime blacksmith residing in Arizona, Since 1974, he has worked in various mediums and exhibited his work throughout the world. He works as a studio artist, lecturer, and demonstrator in all kinds of metalsmithing including jewelry, copper hollow forms, and blacksmithing. He's written more than 40 technical articles for various magazines such as the Anvils Ring and Anvil Magazine. So a JayBurn Journal titled "Punches, Drifts, Hammers and Top tools".

Show Notes:

To produce a tool of quality the smith should use tool or alloy steels.
Tool steels can be bought new or as a drop or discontinued stock or as "road kill" recycled steel scraps.
The average blacksmith shop has adequate resources to forge, normalize, anneal and heat treat many tool steels safely and most available tools steels can be forged and heat treated by using modified methods of the manufacturers recommended procedures.
Steel is a body-centered cubic crystal at room temperature. When heated to critical temperature, iron and steel undergo a phase change and become a face-centered cubic crystal structure. The hardening process changes the internal structure of the steel to form austenite. When quenched, the austenite is transformed into martensite, the hardest constituent in steel.
Most tool steels generally trade one quality for another: wear resistance vs. toughness and accuracy vs. red hardness. Wear resistance is preferable when the tool must hold an edge or stand up to continued service. Toughness is needed for tools that are used under stress that may cause breakage. Accuracy addresses machining after forging and the ability to retain shape after heat treating. Red Hardness is the ability to retain shape and hardness when used at high temperatures (punching, chiseling, drifting).
Normalizing – most, but not all, tool and alloy steels are normalized after forging by air cooling to remove most of the stress introduced by the forging process.
Annealing – heating to critical temperature (nonmagnetic) and slowly cooling will restore varying degrees of softness in tools steels. This requires burying the steel in wood ash, lime, dry dirt or sand. You can use vermiculite, but know that you should wear a respirator because it contains asbestos.
Machining – Most, if not all, tools require some grinding, filing or sanding after forging and before heat treating, as annealed steel is in a softer state and is obviously easier to grind or sand.
Hardening – tool steels are heated to a specified critical temperature and quenched in the correct medium for optimum hardening. Tools steels are usually classified as air, water or oil hardening. Air hardening is accomplished by heating to critical temperature and cooling in still air. Water hardening is usually done in a 5 – 10% brine solution. Oil hardening is accomplished in commercial heat treating oils or vegetable oils.
Tempering – hardening will produce maximum hardness and must be softened or tempered because the steel is too brittle at this point. The tool should be tempered as soon as possible after hardening. Tempering temperatures usually run between 300 – 600 f.
W-1 tool steel – a straight carbon, water hardening tool steel that tends to chip or break. Old files were made from W-1
O -1 tool steel – a straight carbon, oil hardening steel classified for coldwork, chasing and repousse.
S series tool steel – very tough and exhibit very good red hardness. Due to varying amounts of tungsten and chromium, it can be a bit tough to forge.
4140 – a chromium molybdenum alloy steel that has great toughness, resists torque and can be used as punches, hammers and top tools.
4340 tool steel – a close relative to 4140 but with some added nickel. NEVER quench or cool in water, use only oil.

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

telling your friends.
sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
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Thanks so much for your support!

Episode #96 – Caitlin Morris "Blacksmith Classes – take and teach" Jan 31, 2017

Show notes

It's episode number 96 and I have Caitlin Morris from Frederick, Maryland. Let me introduce her by reading her "about" web page from her http://www.mscaitlinsschool.com/ .

"Ms. Caitlin hangs out with the misfits and scallywags. She sings loudly and out of tune. She is partial to walks in the rain. But the most important thing is this: Caitlin loves blacksmithing. The Vermont native runs Ms. Caitlin's School of Blacksmithing in Maryland, which is dedicated to sharing the craft with as many unsuspecting people as possible. She also teaches at other schools up and down the east coast."

We had a great interview discussing her background and some great info on scholarships, how she has secured a few and some tips on how you can.

What We Talked About

Caitlin teaches blacksmithing at her own business "Miss Caitlin's School of Blacksmithing" and at other educational institutions along the East coast of the US.
Caitlin opened her school of blacksmithing in Frederick Maryland in 2015.
Her blacksmith background began at the John C Campbell Folk School in 2009, her first class was taught by Matt Jenkins. She took a week's vacation off from her day job to travel to the school for the week-long class.
Soon after learning how to blacksmith Caitlin immediately started sharing her experience and teaching the craft to her friends. And so the journey of becoming a better teacher began then.
Caitlin talks about the scholarships she has been granted to help with the financial aspects of taking a week-long blacksmith class.
Her scholarship advice is to apply to as many as you can because this gives you the practice of writing about yourself and why you deserve a scholarship. Your verbiage will become refined through the process.
One of her suggestions for metal sculpture inspiration is to look at the yearly "Metal Design International" books, they feature around 8 blacksmiths around the world.

Guest Links

Her business website: http://www.mscaitlinsschool.com/
Her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/caitlinsmorris

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

telling your friends.
sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
subscribing to the show in Stitcher, http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=54499&refid=stpr

Thanks so much for your support!

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