Archie Zietman

Hello. My brother and I are considering opening up a stall for glass and ironware at a summer craft fair this summer. I'm just opening the floor to discussion about blacksmithing for crowds, what things sell well, stall setups etc. Thanks eversomuch, Merry being, Archie

I pronounce it tweer, always heard it called tweer.

some major things to keep in mind: Keep It Simple. I wasted a lot of time, designing my second forge to be all fancy and complicated, and then it didn't work great, so I wasted a year when I could have been smithing. Start off with a 55 forge, or a 3 foot to a side wooden box filled with dirt and rocks, dig a fire pot sized hole in it before each fire and have a pipe sticking down to the bottom of the hole. Whatever you do, keep it simple. Always know what you are making: My first summer of smithing, I never had a clear idea of what I was making, so, forging for 3 hours a day for several weeks, I ended up with zip to show for it. Think while your metal is in the fire, and when you pull it out of the fire, you go straight to the anvil or vice and do what you figured out to do at the forge.

If making a lively forge, make sure to have both ends of the pipe openable for cleaning ash out of the tuyere, my first forge only had one pipe end openable, and got very clogged with ash.

Great post, thanks a lot.

Hello. I took a mental health day off of school to work on my humanities research project. It's a mishmash of different pieces by Samuel Yellin, and I got it about 70% done, woohoo! I ran out of oil though, so I'll have to go to some local frying joints. Merry being, pics once it's done, Archie

what campus? looks cool. now use it.

Jungle book

Hello. This is a rant about people's perceptions of blacksmiths. I had a usual experience the other day: I was steaching my art class, and one of the students had learned that I am a blacksmith so he asked me, "You're blacksmith, so you make swords right?" To which I replied "No." and explained how I make functional items like door knockers and wall hooks, but they do look cool and people can actually have them in their lives. He then went down a list of weapons to see if I make those. I would consider the child pathetic and an idiot, but it has happened to me a ton recently. Why do people love or at least go immediately to the idea that blacksmiths make only things that kill people or have limited uses today? Once I made a 17th century floral wall-hook at a demo and people started assuming I was making a throwing knife, what's up with that?????? How do we cope with the image of blacksmith as maker of death and horseshoes? Merry being, a pensive Archie Zietman

Hello, I just went to get steel for a bunch of projects, and I was kind of put off by the price of steel (18 dollars for 6 feet of 1/2 inch square) so I took a trot around the garden center to get some plants and tools for the summer (post-holer, digging holes for posts) I saw some big plant hangers which were made out of 1/2 inch square, about eight feet of it, and they cost 10 dollars only. Needless to say I got these instead of the plain barstock. The point of this little story is that it came as a shock to me that it is often cheaper to buy and chop up ready made products rather than buy raw materials. Have you guys'n gals noticed this too? That's all. Merry being, Archie

Hello. I'd just like to open up a discussion about blacksmithing and how it relates to art. Would you consider every blacksmith an artist? A craftsman? Is anything well made art? What is the role of practicality in artist blacksmithing? Those are just a few questions I've been thinking about lately, feel free to add some. Merry being, Archie

My name is Archie Zietman, simple as that .

Hopefully since I've got everything portable-ized, I can shift stuff back in, work on it, then shift it out again, and it'll be okay.

Hello. It has taken me four years to get my forge setup good, sheltered and stationary. Today some builders insisted that I move everything so that they can have an easier time of shifting rocks. I got very annoyed, (a man gets very protective about his workshop, expecially when his garage is being turned into a parlor-thing, so he has nowhere to put everything) but the parents overruled me. I guess it was okay because I got rid of several tons of unnecessary stuff, and I now know exactly what I have toolwise and stockwise, but even so... I now have to find a new place for a workshop, right in the middle of filling two large deadline commissions. Thanks for hearing me rant angrily. Merry being, Archie

Up here in MA I think it's about $170 a ton (Peabody-Salem area).

Hello. I have been researching Samuel yellin's work recently, and I was wondering whether he worked with a purely traditional european style, or whether he innovated in some way. If he did innovate, in what ways? (for instance, were there certain piece of ornamentation he invented) Thank eversomuch, Archie

Hello! 2 years ago I went with a few artist-types from my school to Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. I studied ironwork a bit when there, with Chris Winterstien. Absolutely loved it. Now, my teachers are going to do another Penland trip, and they asked me to be a shaperone, so I get to go again! Woohoo! Should be muchly fun! Merry being, Archie

Hello. I just got and started my first comission. It's for my Synagogue, we're funraising for our former Rabbi who got injured, and has to retire. My part of the job is to design and fabricate 30 steel table decorations, which can be sold afterwards. Basically what I've come up with is a Hamsa, the Rabbi's favorite symbol (it's good luck for both jews and muslims, which is a nice symbolism) made out of quarter inch hexagonal stock, on a spiral base. It's gonna have an eye in the middle, and a forged fish in each of the two thumbs (fish are symbolic for both jews and christians, which is also nice). I've made one already, and yesterday made scrolling hardies for the different pieces which will be welded together. For the Rabbi's table, I'm doing a larger one out of hexagonal brass, with lots of ornate scrolling in it, with the eye and fishes, and also 2 long birds inspired by Uri Hofi's work. Merry Being, Archie

look at japanese charcoal forges. simple to build (you could make it adjustable by having the wall without the tuyere in it be firebricks or cement blocks) I used a forge like that when using solid fuel and it was great. For coking fuels...I used a firepot made of a brake rotor with a thin sheetmetal shelf to hold the coking fuels around it. hope this helps, Merry Being, Archie

You could use satanite or somesuch, or make a slurry with castable refractory and paint that on. Merry being, Archie

Hello. So, basically the science department at my school is gathering scrap everything copper and melting down two copper ingots for looking at eddy currents and magnetism in the physics dept. The head knows I'm a blacksmith and I've been enlisted to help with the planning. So here's the setup Does this seem like a good plan? We're not pouring. The art dept is building molds the right size out of the hottest firing clay we can buy. It's just two ingot shaped molds we'll melt everything into, so we don't have to deal with the xxxxxx casting properties of pure copper. We're using the electric kiln of a parent at the school. Not a reducing atmosphere in there, so we have a problem. How shall we minimize oxidation? I'm thinking cut everything up as dang small as we possibly can, pile it in the molds, and, during the melt, keep a few pieces of charcoal in the kiln to use up any O2 there is. Then, when we get a-melting put on some kind of flux. It's crude but seems like a good method to me. Hot air in between the pieces will rise up right? So we shouldn't have to worry about gassy casts, we're not pouring it out, which helps. Thanks eversomuch, Merry Being, Archie

Hello. Pretty much the only hammer I use is a 2.5 pound Home Depot "Blacksmith hammer" but last summer I realized that I was gripping the handle very hard and straining my arm. So I took a tip from Mr Hofi's Hammers and shortened the hammer's handle to about 5 and a half inches. I'm much more comfortable now, I cannot physically grasp it hard, and so can hammer for much longer periods with pretty much no strain, and I have more coordination, the hammer head being closer to my hand.

wait...I thought this was about forge flues, not ecology... I'm confused! I've only worked with hoods, it seemed that once the pipe got hot, it just sucked all the smoke and ahot air and sparks upwards and away. Straight pipe right up.

Could one take some inspiration from a Japanese forge, where the smith is always seated, with the anvil right in front of him/her, and the forge right there to the left?

Brush your piece w/ a wire brush before and after putting it in the forge, and always wipe off you anvil face before hammering. and don't stick your piece too low in the fire, too close to the tuyere.