jake pogrebinsky

Here's a photo of a sketch of a door-handle escutcheon (i found this fancy,expensive lock-set that i'll buy,and throw away the face-plate.It's a skoocum mechanism,a mortise lock). I designed it wrong for iron/my skill with iron,and have failed forging a few elements.Then,a few days ago,i got a hold of that copper bar. The second photo is an experiment with it,of an element.That worked a bit better(lord,the stuff's forgiving!).The object itself i gave to the man who brought me the copper,it's of no consequence,other than information to me. The information is all-important.It showed me what's what,how close can i come to my own design as drawn,and add to the constant study of plasticity of metals in general,of course. Anyway,my point is:I'm in training,as we all are.There's time to study,and to practice,and time to apply the aquired knowledge.Possibly,my time to apply it may never come...I don't know. ALL that i have is the affinity with the material,my love for it.This love being requited is the next hurdle,and it's still undecided.Then...We'll see... I've two close friends,both professional artists,both produce much work,and teach,as well.They're different as night and day:One is a post-modernist painter,who holds the Creativity as a main point(Danger-like,in a way),the other is a most traditional,hide-bound watercolorist,finished two schools,and worships Method as a deity,the skill of painting,colors,subtlties of technique. I love them both,and when we drink wiskey together,really enjoy the conversation!!! :ph34r:

You guys are great,i really enjoy listening to you and thinking,better then talking myself...Beth,much of the method becomes apparent from just the outside-cuts,some forging,weldments...These artists are just "rolling with it",obviously,and i believe that is what Danger means suggesting listening to material. Michael,great torso!As a smith,i really appreciate it,have no idea what impresion it would make on anyone not of the iron-deformation-minded,but i love it! There's a Cowardly Musk-Rat,Chuchundra,in the Just So Stories,who's afraid to come out to the center of the room,but only skulks around the edges,that's me! I'll post a project i'm working on in a sec,but it's worst then ever-Kitsch-with-Functional-Pretences! :P

Just in case,if anyone has any idea,would appreciate it.(Sparks very carbonaceously,cuts with mech.hack-saw some,slowly,and possibly airhardening in the process...). Thanks in advance.

Wonderful,Raymond,thanks.And yes,please post any photos of any axes, that you'll have the time for,welded or otherwise,but especially the ones that you yourself find interesting for any reason. I'm sorry,but i'm not familiar with the book series you mention,but,i can track it down,and learn what it would take to be Igor! And,when i do anything,it's strictly for the love of it,"work",and "money",are only some vague concepts to me,and that i seem to be allergic to,as well(very unfortunate condition). If you can really use help in some aspect of physical labor and/or forging practice,i'll try to find out if i could get someone else to pay for it(i've some very close friends in the Cultural Anthropology dept.at the local university,let me find out what they think,if some funding can be procured for something as cool as that!). Thank you for letting us read your thesis,as well,i'll look at it forthwith!(And thank you,Thomas,for thinking of a such a civilised request,where are my manners,i wonder,at times?) Best regards,Jake

Oh,Sister Beth!Repent,prithee,before it's too late!For the god of Fe is a jealous God! And the sinners are wretched for eternity,and their forge-welds don't stick,no matter how perfect be their Scarfs... Beth,somehow what you say hits right at the heart of it ALL,the use of iron in any at all manner/application.This i sense with my antennae,rather than the old pea-brain of mine,and i think can best put it forth by means of a serries of questions. Can iron be used for artistic expression without the regard,the homage to it's "iron-ness"?(Can other media?To a larger or a smaller degree?). Can the expression itself be disembodied,divorced from the physical media that manifests it? Wether,and to what degree,iron helps the expressing by the artist,by contributing of it's own crystalline plasticity/texture/the process of forging itself,vs the opposite,interfering with the freedom of one'e expression by it's physical qualities/limitations? And if one uses it's "help",even massively capitalising on it,making it the point or one of,is it then Art? One thing is obvious right away is that these choices are so personal that any judgement from without on that account would rate your slapping the profferer of such with the flat of your training sword! All i know is that i lack the talent to use iron in a "conventional" 3-D way.But occasionally(VERY rarely),i do come across those that do a mighty fine job of it.Among my favorite i'd definitely list Christopher T.Ray,here's a link to some of his dementia:http://www.chrisray.com/mansect/index.htm

WOW!

Nothing but the code is showing so far-but i'm not worried,as i think of you as a "Woman of Infinite Resource and Sagasity",(having my youthful brain twisted by Kipling so thoroughly ) i know you'll figure something out!

Rusty,lots of great stuff on your site,thanks,really enjoyed looking at all the stuff.One does,somehow,get the feeling of an "Old World" ironwork from it,or "Older",anyway! As to your alone-ness,i can well relate.You know,a blacksmith,as a mythical figure,was always in the singular(even though in the past a bunch of people worked in the forge). But as a Myth,it was always "the Blacksmith and the Devil" type of a situation,which reflects the human condition in general...There's the tragedy,and the nobility of going it alone,all of it,in this,such a strange,Shamanic calling of ours! Beth,welcome back!!!Great to hear from you,and the MOST sincere thanks both for the Gloustershire photo and all that you can,possibly,post.Especially the stuff that appeals to you personally,as your comments on it are at least as important as the work in the pictures itself. It's all very special,for lack of more skill at expressing meself,and does things to one's head in terms of design. (I think that you may be posting some photos now,will try to see them,it's a PERFECT mindset to start a day forging-don't know how to thank you!

The way that you did it was simpler for one posessed of the right tools,but it is neat,secure,and very clever,in my opinion. To tell the truth,i've once held a what would amount to a conversation (had we had a language in common)with a German smith. He specialised in picture,and even window frames(not many standard size openings in Europe).They were very neat and rectilinear,but still managed to convey the strong IRON impression,if you know what i mean,even "hand-wrought iron". Well,he used them allen-recess cap screws,but countersunk.They looked really good,did not detract from the work at all,but somehow balanced right in there... (Maybe it was all the wiskey that we used to communicate that so disposed me toward his work,but it was the only tongue we shared,so in a line of duty,et c.,anyway,i really liked the stuff). Idle thoughts.

Thanks again,Rusty,and again,that is ever so cool that a guy can,this day and age,exist as a legit blacksmith-that really is heart-warming,hard to explain,but just is. By the way,you're in such a unique place,settled for so long,and with such strong Spanish and French influences,what do you see around for old work?And,does that colonial past affects ironwork around you,do you think,or you may as well be anywhere else in the US? And if it is present,some specific influences of the past,does it affect your own work,and/or the taste and mindset of your clients?(Sorry for so many questions,please feel free to disregard.BTW,i never managed to find any of your stuff in the galleries(i'm about worthless at comp.,plus the speed of the xxxxxx device),do you care to show something of yourn here,if i promised that i'll not interpret it as advertisement? ). I've nothing from the forge product-wise today,spent a scattered day making charcoal,and beating up the ram of my LG to make it give up the top bit(a friend's going to hardface/add to it to turn it from a fuller into a flat). Only banged out a quick copper imitation viking-period belt buckle.A friend dropped off this knife-switch blade out of the switch-box,it's 2"+ wide by 1/4",couple feet long.A hefty chunk of copper(would be perfect for a Tlingit-style cold-forged knife,them things are beautifull!But i don't cater to reproduction indian stuff much,the originators of design do plenty good job of it themselves ). Forged it at a low(3 psi)heat in the propane forge,forges like butter(literally ).I'd recommend it to beginners instead of Playdough(that i was always of two minds about anyway).Not sure that i needed to heat it at all,cold may've been just as good. Anyway,i've bootlegged these a few times before,a quick,easy,satisfying project(even done a few out of forge-welded motorcycle chain,and chainsaw chain,too,pretty cool spots...).AND,the silly things actually work,my buddy Drew wears his a few years now.

Rusty,that's extremely kind,and generous of you.Spoken in the spirit of true comradeship of craftsmen and people with common sense in general.I thank you most humbly. It's true that i could never make ends meet here as a blacksmith.My buddy Hanna,while taking the pertinent art biz.classes at the U. has once made this very complex calculation for me:It seems,that to be a real member of society(afford health insurance,and other basics),i'd need to make $37.48 an hour,40 billable hours a week(meaning 60-80 actual time,more?).That simply could NEVER happen here.Period. Meanwhile,something in me says that i need to lay my bones down in this here country,when the time comes.I've done my walkabout,this is my last stand. If i do in any way ok in the next few here,i'd love to travel,to visit you and other shops,learn something new,work in the company with others.I'd LOVE that!But i won't pull up my stakes ever again,too many highways,sleeping in doorways/eating out of garbage cans,from Paris and Madrid to 40+ states down south...I'll only travel now knowing that i,too,belong somewhere,too many memories of dining in soup kitchens with grizzled old bums,thinking even then,that's me,man,few years down the road...I've a shred of dignity here that i just can't part with. BUT:I'm Extremely happy that the things for metalworkers are looking up your way!RIGHT ON!!! I love your part of the country,too,what i've seen of it.And had a few Cajun friends in the past that told of such wonderful life down there,we'd all sit around listening,it was neat...God,this country is so huge,and beautiful,in so many interesting ways-awsome,quite literally! Thanks again so much!

Johnny,years ago there was this snippet in the Hammer Blow(i think...).The gist of it was a pair of tongs,with loose,rotatong pads for gripping surface.The bitts were long and bow-shaped,and the idea was to reach across the frame with the bitts,on some angle,and grasping the screen from both sides to tension it by prying,using the inside of the tong hinge as a lever against the outside of frame as fulcrum.(Is that clear as mud?). To stretch a surface in general,an artist's canvas or vapor barrior on a wall.one starts from the middle of one side,them the same on the side across,then cross-wise.And so on,going toward all corners.Of course,one then needs a way to secure the gain locally,spot-tack it somehow,as with canvas and staples.Don't remember how that's supposed to work...

Ah,so that's what Thomas meant,i see now.Well,no worries,because i'm known(and feared)far and wide hereabouts by my indian name:Dances with Chainsaws(actually the full version continues:"...on top of log wall,with his fly open and shoelaces undone",and even that is a tame,English version,you should hear how it sounds in Athapaskan!). Anyway,where was I?Yes,that new pile of iron-good stuff.Very good,actually,what little of it i've tried today. It was one of the chains,about 1/2" round stock. It's time that i get more serious about forging,as my time's running out,and i still didn't really get any of the more complex work done,or even planned. So,to start on that,and yest the limits of plasticity of the new batch of iron,i decided to try a quatre-foil(sp.?). The stuff really took an incredible amount of abuse.At each corner i made a faggot weld,and immediately tortured the fresh weld severely-fullered it off,peened it,and upset the fullered part into a "penny"-type shape over the anvil-corner,like you do balls. This particular shape,having several welds on the same,spindly stalk,has a tendency to vibrate awfully,and till the very last,throughout the welding and the bending both,is under severe destructive stress.It held,and i've only had one weld failure in the whole process. The idea that i'm hoping to pursue is a table-top candleholder,using the design vaguely based on that marvelous photo of Gloustershire cathedral ceiling that Beth so kindly provided.I've been staring at the photo for long periods,hoping that at least something will absorb. Not capable of thorogh planning/working to plan,i figured i'll start by experimenting with separate elements,and will try to evolve the general plan relative to how well i can execute the diverse parts. So,this is the first in the series. It still will need much finish work,but it's something to look at,while pondering the overall design.Like i've mentioned before,it'll be along the lines of a fragment of a gothic grill-work,reduced to a table-top size object,and i'm hiding behind a concept of usefullness(candlestick)as usual,to conceal my subversive activity.

Raymond,thanks for checking in here.Personally,i couldn't possibly put it in strong enough terms just how INTERESTING all that you mention is.FASCINATING.CAPTIVATING.All that.More even... For many decades archeologists have roughly ascribed round,compression-hafted axes to military purposes,is there anything new on that front?I always found it very confusing,as some of these axes were so obviously shaped as woodworking tools,BUT,with a round haft,working would be so inconvenient(i don't know much about warring,mostly stick to woodwork ). Do you have any sexy photos of weld-seams,failed,or just visible?Were any non-round eyes also welded over mandrel,that you've seen?Especially ones with more weight in the poll? Have you come across welding technique that was used in a photo below,where a separate poll(like in many Nordhordland axes)is welded in,and the left-over "cheeks" are wrapped around it?(Photo is from the archeological research at the Kizhi monasteri in Karelia)? These,and a million more questions are what me and many other people are dying to find out!!!Can you answer them all,and in great detail? ( And,can you use a research assistant?I speak fluent russian,can pump bellows,sweep the floor,come on,every archeologist needs a Golem, )

Harold,that's great,but i'm sure that i don't need to state(i will,though:)),again,about the treacherous nature of all the antiquities...Between the slag inclusions,chemistry varying inch by inch,and the micro-damage from past service(not even mentioning macro-,),it'll all break your heart,at times,when the piece falls apart on you during the very last stage of working it! Thomas,right on!But,what do you have against the inter-special sex?And at our,this all-permissive age that we live in?The birch was a powerful symbol in the Old Country,maybe hugging it,and kissing it,et c.,is just the thing!

Wonderful stuff,Johnny,thanks for showing it!I love how whimsical the bolt-handles are,and those tongs on the hood look great! Right on!

Thanks,Jeremy,seems like an interesting site.Among the "buttons" at the top there's one named "Галерея",that's Gallery(and that's the extent of my Ukranian,about,for Russian is a kind of a bastard-cousin to the other Slavic languages,and serbs,ukranians,poles,et c.,can all understand each other,but i'm out of the loop).But there's some English in the photo captions,all that i've seen just refer to a particular festival location. Haven't had much time to look there yet,as i forgot that today was my day for shopping for materials. A very good friend provided the four-wheelers and a couple of burly grandsons,and off we went into the taiga north of town,where the military in the 40-ies/50-ies used to play with ordnance,and other such unsafe but fun things. We were following up on the intillegence report that purported a discovery of an old bob-sled,used by the military to skid whatever it was that needed skidding... It wasn't all that far where we ran our prey to ground,and butchered it using a cordless sawzall and a ditto porta-band,and hauled the loot back home. Nice haul,300-400 lbs of WI and some assorted shear steel type junk.Bunch of WI chain for that smaller round stock that i so sorely lacked.One neat pelikan hook,all nastily forge-welded,and a cool heart-shaped spreader for chain.Some of the bolts have an interesting structure inside.And some big stuff for drifts,i'm very glad of, too,as have some more axe design ideas. I'm set with material for a good while now...

Mark,wonderful,very happy to've done anything at all to encourage you.It is all very simple,just a succession of very simple individual moves.And the design is very flexible as well.Let us all know if you run into any trouble,everyone here,i'm more than sure, would be happy to help you figure it out. Great day's forging to you,and everyone.

Harold,i can very easily relate,sir,to an inability to just forge away,drawn by some inner vision...You can see how most of what i do is reproduction of old work.And much of that is the work that was far from spontaneously forged in it's day,but was bound both by the function,the tradition,and the constrains of the economy of the times(done fast,with least thrills). I guess that the one thing that i'm guided by is simply noticing what elements i like in forged work(anyone's that i can find),and forcing my worthless brain to pursue it further than it'd normally tend to do.really try to stare at it,and try to understand why is it that i find that particular part appealing. That's how i came to realise that the constant change of volume(taper,say),is way better looking than the parallel lines,that rarely look good in a forging. Also that i like the many other kinds of the ways that people forge a transition(the whole of a forging is really a continued transition of changing mass,that's why stock size/shape/even texture(mill scale)are so jarring-it's an interruption).As you examine some work you start noticing,this is what that smith done here-reduced that dia.over the anvil's edge before bending,so THAT's why it looks like it does... Often,i've forged something small/easy just to try that out,to see how well i can do it,and how it will look(and many a time quit in disgust-was either wrong about the way it was done,or utterly lacked the skill to execute that particular move). So that brings me to basically the reverse-engineering,very educational pursuit,i find.How was that particular transition achieved?Even in an unsuccessful attemptone can learn a lot. Old-and-Rusty(Russel,is that right?)asked to post some process stuff.I happened to photograph my attempt to re-create that rooster-looking critter from that old trammel out of D.P.'s book,will post a few below.(Russel,if you can be more specific about what'd interest you more...). But,Harold,the machinery,and being good with it, is it's own fantastic gift(i'm too worthless to even MAINTAIN my little L.G,watch it go down on me right when i need it most),incredible that you can actually build a hammer...Hand work teaches one a lot,but you do need power tools to simply not kill yourself with the sheer amount of labor that it all involves. So,i'd say that the hand-hammer is best for exploration,to understend why,and how,and the power-hammer for actual production.To speed things along,so that we can at least not forget where was it that we're going with that piece... :blink:

Thanks,Clay,you know,actually it was very easy(one of those "lots of visual bang for your buck" projects).I'd recommend it to anyone,as there was no complicated tricks that came up.I've a suspicion that this design,like a river rock,was polished by countless generations of craftsmen... Something that i had in mind lately but was too tired to bring up:In a beginning of this thread there was a slight hitch,of sorts,with Mark.He was offended by how intemperately and categorically i've stated my own standards for "good"(?) ironwork,and felt that i've slighted those that are less experienced... It saddens me,as it couldn't be further from my thoughts to look down in any way,upon anyone's efforts.Every time that i come across a question that i may know anything helpful about,i try to do my best to share what info i've scraped up over the years.(In many cases i'm stumped,and in many more my advice is actually flawed,as i'm largely self-taught,and always was slow to learn myself). Anyway,i'd just hate to have anyone think that in this thread there'll be any self-satisfied strutting of some supposed prowess or anything the like. With that in mind i've taken quite a few process photos,and if anyone is ever interested in the nuts and bolts of how i've achieved whatever shape,i'd most gladly rattle on about it,and may even be able to illustrate with some photos...

Jeremy,i can really relate to most things that you're saying.I,too,am flying on instruments too often,and afterwards wish that i'd have formulated a plan,sketched,measured,stopped to think,et c. I think that generally what you're describing is "impulsiveness",and everyone,i suppose,has that to whatever degree. Like everything else in the universe,impulsiveness extends to both poles:On the positive one,i suppose it leads to following where the material itself leads,as per Danger's suggestion.On the other,that i'm personally more familiar with,it leads to making spur of the moment decisions that could have been thought-out better,on sober reflection.Impatience,i suppose is what borders impulse on that side,and the Zen of forging on the other. So,it probably is worth the gamble.Especially as you've specified the non-commission/non-critical nature of the situation. And even if one looses by it,still,chess-like,losses in forging are often very educational,the pain of disappointment helping the lesson to sink in,branding it upon our tortured brain. So,i'm all for it,it's in my nature to begin with.But i do know people that not only sketch,and diagram,but make a most detailed scale drawing.One friend in Tula,Russia,on top of all that sketches a pen and ink drawing,treating the planned object as a still-life,then goes over it with watercolors.In the end he has a VERY serious idea of the impression that the future object will project. There can be Zen in the extreme deliberation as well,it seems,and stands to reason,too. And,speaking of forging in different countries.Somehow,i find it less than productive to compare it in General terms.I know exactly what you mean,Jeremy,i also keep track of collegues in Ukraine and Russia,but have a hard time drawing,again,GENERAL paralells or conclusions. As far as the legacy of smiths gone before,well,like Thomas points out,we ALL are descended from those forging styles,all have been exposed to the marvelous old work,and are very much on equal footing with our european brethren of the Black Booger. In details,however,i too have some very great admiration for the creativity of certain individuals there(and would like to post some links to their work,sometime.Jeremy,can you tell us about any particular smiths there that you like?Do you have any pointers as to where their work can be viewed?). I've just finished an 8-hour stint at the anvil,and feel my brain being limited by tiredness.I'll take a few here,start my charcoaling process,and will try to check in later(there are so many cool things to read here already,and i'd love to reply to some,if i can,too.) In any case,this is what i've done today(impulsiveness all the way,and not necessarily of a very constructive kind). Design from D.Plummer's book,material-mixed,mild,WI,snowmachine coil-spring...As usual,crap off the floor. I cut the horiz.part of the teeth with a hack-saw,then hot-cut to the base of that cut.Worked out great-didn't even clean up with a file or anything. The sill thing actually works GREAT,i'm very surprised.

James,sorry,but would slitter,handled or not,"work..." for what,exactly?Didn't quite get that,can you specify?

Wonderful,friends,Beth,Jeremy,Scott,everyone,we just may be onto something here,please lets continue the discussion,the annoying rabbit-trails nonwithstanding! VERY briefly about filthy lucre.It would be hard to explain in detail,but i live in an absolutely weirdest place economy-wise(white man's e.,i mean here,subsistence aside).I'd not be surprised if the cost of living in Galena did not exceed that of London-town,seriously.N.Y.Times wrote an article a while back claiming that Galena,Alaska,has THE highest food prices in the USA(?!). Gasoline,right now,is $7 a gallon(one can't any longer use a boat to go,say,berry-picking;gas will cost more than the canned/frozen/whatever berries imported from wherever,in the store.Fur prices,though not at all bad the last couple of years,do not pay for snowmachine gas ). I've just done a simple carpentry job,some stairs,a deck,easy and conventional.My friend paid me $46 an hour.(He's an old union operator,and knows what it takes to survive here).If it sounds exhorbitant(as it does to me,though i realise why,et c),i'll tell you-HERE,it's chum-change.You'd have to be making that wage working full time to just stay afloat.It saves my sorry a.. right now because it(almost)covers the fee for that museum gig and the plane ticket to town to get there.I'll continue to use the phone book pages to roll up butts that i pick up off the street. There's simply NO hope to survive financially forging.None.That's why i can so smugly say "to hell with it".Not because i've done something,or found some way,i'm simply out of the running.That's that,now,to the important stuff. Beth,i'd like to address the plastic issue here in a short while,i'm brain-dead right now,after a day at construction,and won't do that issue justice. Jeremy,likewise:What you bring up is VITALLY important,that's exactly the issues that i was hoping to discuss,the entire reason for this thread. I'd like to throw just one thing out there,briefly.Sam Yellin,among other deceptively simple-sounding things that he said,put it this way(in my re-telling): "The size,the scope,the complexity,the budget,et c.,of a given job,do not matter AT ALL.What matters is the QUALITY.And IT can be present in the smallest,simplest forging imaginable." Something to that effect.What it means to me(i think),is that IF one has the talent,the taste,the...whatever it takes to produce such work,then we'll all,literally,live happily ever after.Because WE,as artists,will be happy to've produced something good,and that whole compensation issue resolves itself-the labor becomes commesurate with the compensation....Is that absolutely inane?(Maybe i shouldn't have even tried to write now at all,it's just that it's far from a new thought,and didn't require thinking on my part now,just writing it down...).

Michael,you DO have some very decent results,i hear you,and take your advice very seriously,and don't see it as "out there" at all. No,of course i've never allowed the work to develop in and of itself(otherwise,why would i invoke the Zen of it so often,and in vain?). I'm too chickensh...t to go there,plain and simple. I thought i'd forge for a while,get good at it,and one day,when my evil ego is asleep,i'd...make a run for it And i don't mean to drag politics into any iron or art related discussion at all,sorry for whatever did sneak in,it,of course,is neither here nor there. Beth,likewise,i hear you and take what you took the trouble to write very much to heart,thank you,in case i don't express my gratitude enough.Any amount of time,connectedness,and space that i could possibly telegraph you,is yours I hear you on the cost and difficulty of surviving in England,especially in some nice,non-industrial part of it,it must be outrageously complex!I can't ever even imagine it!(Everyone remembers George Orwell as a political writer,meanwhile,some of his least-known,(and my favorite books)are "Keep the Aspidistra Flying",and,of course,"Down and out in Paris and London" I guesss it must've been a mistake to read all these British novels,as afterwards,ALL i ever wanted was to be a Remittance Man!!! Seriously,i really don't want to ever deal with money at all.Sell,buy,any of it,distressess and distracts me from forging and other necessary and valid things... I've got to buzz off to work,the carpentry project is going swimmingly,should finish it out today.Tomorrow i'll be my own dog again,at the forge-fire,making more sense,hopefully! Happy,creative forging to everyone!

And i was already out the door to go to work,when ran into the herd of snowshoe hares...Couldn't resist taking this picture,and of course have to accompany it with the usual bratty quote:"Me and Boris are living at the Villa Borghese.Yesterday,Boris told me that he has crabs.How can anyone get lice,living in a beautiful place like this?!",Henry Miller,"Tropic of Cancer"(quoting from memory,approx.)