Fold Forming with Mr. West

This is Carl West and he's a blacksmith. Carl discovered his love of blacksmithing in college but only recently acted upon it. After what he calls pushes from fate, he started Prospect Hill Forge with a college friend, Michael. On the subject of blacksmithing and art in general he offered some wisdom: Any art has a language. Learn the language. Do not let the instructor set you free before you know what you're doing. Know sentence structure, where to place emphasis, how to bring together the verbs, nouns and modifiers. This is so when you have something to say, you can express your thoughts clearly and fluidly.

Last year a blacksmith by the name of Charles Lewton-Brain stopped by Prospect Hill Forge and taught Carl and Michael the techniques of fold-forming. Fold-forming works with the properties of the metal in order to create shapes. Fold forming is revolutionary primarily because it has greatly expedited the process of forming metals into certain shapes and textures.

Working off of Carl's in-class demonstrations I made the following practice pieces:

Cold Coffee and Cold Calls

Sat down this morning with somewhat of a finalized schedule in front of me, a phone in one hand and coffee in the other. 

In February I'm planning on swinging by the Ball and Chain Forge, Falling Hammer Productions LLC, Lightning Forge, Iron Fire Art and will be doing workshops at the New England School of Metalworking and the John C. Campbell Folk School. This first leg of the trip is going to take me from Auburn, Maine, to Brasstown, North Carolina

My basic plan is to attend blacksmithing workshops and meet blacksmiths to understand what they do and how they make a living.  For those of you who knew about this trip from its early stages you might know that I had planned to travel the country.  This fell through due to the lack of blacksmithing workshops available out west.  In my travels I will be scouring the east coast for all things blacksmith.  

I was a little shaky dialing the numbers for Ball and Chain Forge of Portland, ME, but I think that was either due to the caffeine or the thermostat being set at a temperature comfortable only to sherpas and yetis. Robert Menard, the owner picked up and gave me time to give my spiel.  When I told him my name he said that he had heard of it a few months back.  Beyond a small conversation over e-mail with the web-master of ABANA.org I had no idea how he might have heard of me.  Odd, but a good omen. He was open to the idea of my stopping by on the 5th.  Peter at the Falling Hammer Productions was also open to my coming by.  At the moment I'm still waiting to hear from Mr. Spademan at Iron Fire Art and Mr. Brown at Lightning Forge.

As for tonight I will be taking a class concerning Fold Forming with Carl West of Prospect Hill Forge..  

The Beginning

To stare into a fire burning white is one thing.  To forge with a fire burning white is another.  To be able to take iron, glowing, and shape it to whatever your will desires is a beautiful concept.  I'm a backyard blacksmith looking for more.

In a short time I'll be setting out to see if I can make this hobby into a career.  You can check up on my journey here.  I'll be updating this blog daily (or something like daily) from my house, on the road, and from the shops where I'll be taking lessons.

Until next time, stay warm!