Burlington

I suppose I do have a minor form of the travel bug. I was sitting at home for the past week and when the opportunity to come up to Burlington for a few days arose, I leapt on it.

When the sun sets on the other side of Lake Champlain this town gets cold. This morning you couldn't see it rise; flake by giant flake snow floated to cover the ground in a thin coat that would survive in the shadows but slowly be swallowed by the sun as it moved in its usual way.

The last time that I was up here I came up on the first sunny/warm day since winter descended on Vermont. Turned out yesterday was also the first warm day of the year. When I stepped out of the car at UVM in my down jacket Mike Brandon met me in short sleeves.

Officially my road trip has ended, but my pursuit to blacksmith in the foreseeable future has not.

Stroudsburg and Worcester

I got into the forge Saturday. While visiting Andrew Molinaro he offered a forge, a hammer, an anvil and some time in the forge:

A Small Forged Knife

Andrew runs one of the premier blacksmithing shops on the east coast. Modern blacksmithing is a combination of fabrication and traditional methods. Where most shops probably do something like 50% traditional blacksmithing and 50% fabrication, Andrew's shop does something like 80% blacksmithing and 20% fabrication.

His work in blacksmithing has landed him one the largest iron work jobs ever funded by the government. He will be producing iron work in the style of Samuel Yellin for the federal reserve in Manhattan. Throughout his career Andrew has looked to Yellin and his workshop as a model to work towards. At the moment he employs two other smiths and says he has the space for several more if his shop were to expand..

For the moment I'm at Holy Cross and will be hitting up the homestead within the next 24 hours.

Friday

Jim Thorpe is an old coal town in the Lehigh valley, once called the Switzerland of the US for it's idyllic mountain setting. It turns out that it also has a sizeable St. Paddy's day parade. Standing in line at the atm in town, the person in front of me and behind me started talking in true Irish brogues. It was legitimate.


Out in Hamburg, David Fisher's propane forge was running hot and his apprentice was busy brushing up a piece by the time I walked in at 7:45. The pieces that David was working on today were actually for a show tomorrow at Cabelas in Hamburg, PA. The reason he was able to work on these pieces today was because work is slow. The economy is slowing down and this little shop has felt it. Well, the shop isn't little at all. It's actually one of the larger shops that I've seen.

In a stark comparison I also stopped by the stained glass shop of Nic East. Nic East worked as a blacksmith in a fully staffed shop for thirty some years and then called it quits to retire in historic downtown Jim Thorpe, PA. Even though he had a considerable background in metal-working, it was clear that he had moved on. When I brought up blacksmithing, he introduced me to his current work, glass jewelry...

This one's for Gaskin.

The Leaning Barn

It's true to its name.

Dan Alexander turned out to be much more than a blacksmith. And I'm not merely talking about how the modern blacksmith is versatile and will usually take on anything from a fabrication job to a hand forged trellis to a repair job on a cast iron bell (Tim Beachley did the last one). I'm talking about how Dan put together his own jet-engine, built his own solar heating system, is fabricating his own gun, and is now making a clock for the house he is building.

Coming from a scientific background even he said that there is no connection between what he did and what he has been doing for the past fourteen years. Working in shop today with Dan was Allan, a religious studies major in college turned sculptor. He was encouraging, saying that he's been through a few recessions and has found there will always be a market for custom iron work. I pray that he's right.

Within this leaning barn that used to house horses and hay was one piece of equipment that begged your attention, the giant blue plasma cutter sitting in the corner. It was a beast, and supposedly is as expensive as you might think. In other news I have started making my Christmas wish list.. In due time I'll be sending it north, first class on the Polar Express..


This train blocked the path to Reed's Market in Lehighton where I picked up some food for the morning. Dark and early tomorrow I'll be heading to Hamburg, PA to meet with David Fisher.

A Dragon's Head and Gettysburg

At 7: 40 I woke up and put a new ticket on my dashboard in the parking lot across from the apartment. From 8-10 I gained a new appreciation for the West Wing, then from 10 till 11 I cleaned up and packed up my side of the apartment and left for Frederick, Maryland.

In Frederick I met Tim Beachley. His shop, much like others I have seen, was well outfitted and relatively comfortable. By putting money that he has made from jobs over the past eight years to tools and equipment, he's been able to work around having to get a loan for equipment and then having to find work to supplement his payments.

Even though he's only been smithing for eight years, his work is off the charts. He got into blacksmithing after taking a welding class and wanting to do more than work with well polished and machined metal. One thing led to another and he started to attend his local blacksmithing guild meetings and started putting out well-crafted work in no time.

One of the things that he has excelled at is creating dragon's heads. He's put them on the ends of fire pokers, fire-place brooms and shovels, bottle openers, door handles and now he has created a smoke stack for a grill that will be auctioned off at the next meeting of his local ABANA affiliate.



He started out with pipe, narrowed it at one end for the head and then started forging. His piece probably includes just as much welding as it does forged work. I believe he said that he had to punch out two hundred scales, which were eventually welded on. For the eyes of the dragon he used ball bearings inside of a few sheets of welded metal. He explained to me the way he created the definition on the lower jaw, but it is escaping me at the moment.

After talking for a long while and looking over his portfolio, we parted and I set on my way. My next destination was a hostel, but on the way a sign displaying, "Gettysburg 8 Miles" ultimately changed my course.

After parking at the old visitor's center I walked over a knoll and looked over the battlefield. The sun, low in the sky behind a curtain of clouds, managed to break through, illuminating the fields of Gettysburg in a lighting befitting of pastures where our ancestors fought and fell to one anothers' gun and sword. Walking over the cold, crunching grass of Cemetery Ridge I could only think of the lives of the Union men who were once there. Where I walked men fought; where I walked men died; where I walked men bled into the ground and grass, the same grass that grows today.




The wind was strong in the valley and as you looked out towards the mountains it would hit you like a wall of rushing soldiers. The magnitude of the thoughts and feelings I had was equalled by the breadth and depth of the landscape, the wind and monuments standing at once together and totally alone.

I left the fields of Gettysburg, wound my way through the Pine Grove Furnace State Park to where I find myself tonight.

Daniel Boone and Art Deco

Today I went to see Bill Allen, a blacksmith out in Clarksburg, Maryland. Wedged in between a few hills his red barn and smith shop prominently stuck out. As he came out to greet me he was looking around the car as if he was expecting another person. It's because he was; he was expecting my daughter. Somewhere in my phone call from Starbucks yesterday, over the sounds of blenders and GW students chatting, I guess it sounded like I wanted to bring my daughter.

Instead, I showed him my baby, my new 50$ pole vise. He said it looked good, with a little bit of love and care it could be restored to something like new.

Bill has been blacksmithing for fourteen years. He was first introduced to blacksmithing at a crafts fair where Dan Boone (a descendant of the Daniel Boone) had set up a portable smithy and was demonstrating how to create a dragon's head out of metal. Bill began asking questions and Dan eventually pointed him in the direction of his local chapter of ABANA. From there on out Bill took some classes and taught himself.

What I have found is that a basic knowledge in all things welding proves to be an invaluable skill. Most of Bill's joinery is done through welding. He has been welding since 1970, at least that is the date he purchased the oxyacetylene torch now sitting in his shop.

Tomorrow I'll be visiting Tim Beachley in Fredrick, Maryland. According to Bill, Tim is relatively young but really growing as a blacksmith.

Because I don't have any new pictures, here are some pictures of ironwork in Savannah that I never got to share:


I believe it fitting that SCAD building have a hand forged railing. One is able to tell that the railing was made by forge and hammer because the scrolls aren't symmetrical.

This picture is a little bit blurry but you are still able to see the detail that fascinated me. The fact is that in a city where all the architecture is stuck in the 19th century, this home-owner was able to install Art Deco inspired iron work.

Savannah to DC

Last Saturday, after a presentation by the SCAD admissions staff on how to create a portfolio I had the option of staying in Savannah for one more night. In fact, at the Savannah Pension, I had pre-paid to stay another night. I chose to leave.

Not only was I the only one staying in the Savannah Pension, but I started to realize that for forty dollars (or even ten more) I could have been staying in a place where the beds had sheets and the the owner didn't make it seem as if I was inconveniencing him by staying there. There was also the thing where he wouldn't refund me the money for Saturday night. Out of the forty I paid to stay in the "hostel," he gave me ten dollars back for "lunch." (Lunch would actually run me 11.80.) After the presentation I took off for familiar ground at the NotSo Hostel in Charleston, South Carolina.

The next day I drove for Virginia Beach. The picture I saw of Angie's Sea Side Hostel made it look as if it was set against the ocean in a sea of other small cottages. I expected something like a respite, a place that would help one find center and restore the creative juices. Little did I know that Virginia Beach is the self-proclaimed "largest resort-city in the world," and Angie's place was smack dab in the middle of it.



Sitting on a bench along the sea-sidewalk, I watched what seemed like hundreds of people walk by. I don't think I've ever been to a place so ripe for people watching, not even New York. In a few weeks I can see this place being flooded with kids indulging in the MTV spring break experience.

At the moment I am residing in Crystal City, Arlington, and after watching the season premier of Breaking Bad last night, all I can wonder about is if this city's name represents its drug of choice.