brianbrazealblacksmith

I would like to explain the idea behind International Young Smiths. You do not have to be young to be a young smith. I have been giving classes here in Brandon, Mississippi for the past three years. We start with forging a hot cut hardy then forge a rounding hammer before lunch. Then we forge the tools that it took to make those tools over the course of the class. We get on both sides of the anvil, directing and striking. After three to five days, the basic tools are forged depending on the individual. Within a week most get a pretty good grasp on the elements of forging with hand hammer and with a striker. The idea is to get an understanding of the process and have the tools to go and do the same with others and share the information. The sharing is where you really start to learn more! Over these last three years it is mostly the youth that went back and actually continued to share and learn more on their own with their own initiative. Alec Steele is one of the best examples of this, but others like Daniel Riffe, Arron Cergol, Kainon Baumer, Dave Custer, and Steven Bailey have also gone back and continued. There have also been other older individuals that have done the same like Lyle Wynn,Russel Colvin, Philip Box, Laurie Wicker, Jullian Puy, Mark Milster, Raleigh Desiato, and Mark Hemmer. There may be others also, and there are those that tried a lot of this from the posts and the pictures that Lyle Wynn, LDW, has taken and posted in his Picasso album. This curriculum has proven itself with the evidence all around the world, and we hope to compose a textbook of the course at this next event at Tannehill by documenting it. You do not have to be young to be a Young Smith. We hope to continue this program and take it to Europe next year and to the high schools and colleges somewhere along the way, because the young people will inspire the young and young at heart to bring blacksmithing back to the world and into the future. Brian

The IYS team would like to encourage everyone to attend and ask any and all forging groups - blacksmiths, farriers or knife makers to sponsor one or more car load to attend this free event. (contact Lee McKee- mckeemetalarts@yahoo.com for the camping information and costs, park entrance is $3.) So much important blacksmithing information will be revealed publicly while you watch the IYS team work on Brian Brazeal's, "tools to make tools" curriculum. Again, free. This truly is an opportunity like no other and not to be missed! Each one of the IYS team members are coming great distances either at their own expense or sponsorship. Raleigh is putting her business on hold for 2 weeks, OABA is sponsoring Josh, Daniel and Alec are coming from another continent. Each is willing to take a class and forge for 16 days straight while a scrutinizing public observes. They are putting themselves out there as a community service to promote good forging techniques that move metal and prove anyone can do it, it is not magic! Please! Let's all support them! Come to the event and cheer them on!…Karen

Lyle,LDW, you should show some pics of the feathers you are doing these days.

Square bent on the diagonal.

Nicely done, good job!

Alec will be demonstrating at the NWBA conference this weekend. This is history in the making! Alec is 15 years old from the UK. He is a talented young man with a very good understanding of forging. He was the inspiration for last years Young Smiths program and he will also be back this summer to head up this years International Young Smiths team. If you can get to the conference, you should not miss his demonstrations. I am unable to attend, so I hope someone can report on this and share some pics of this event.

I've had and used both when I was a farrier, and I would not recommend either for two main reasons. First they are too light. I would recommend a three pound or larger hammer if you want to move metal 3/8 inches and up if you are an adolescent or older without physical problems. Light hammers will wear you out trying to move metal. Secondly, they are not ground very well for forging. A properly ground rounding hammer will afford you more surfaces to forge with. Hofi, Nathan Robertson, Big Blue, Aaron Cergol, Dave Custer and Chase Saxton forge larger rounding hammers that come with good edges for forging. They are a little more costly, but they are forged by individuals instead of drop forged.

Those are really nicely made!

Nice job Daniel and Alec! We're gearing up for this years International Young Smiths and looking forward to you, Alec, and Josh coming!

Snakeriveridaho just got here to take a class. It's a small world. I just talked to Alec yesterday about the NWBA Conference. He is planning on forging the cupping tool, a hot cut hardy, a rounding hammer, and then maybe a hammer eye punch and a hammer drift for his first 3 hour demo. They are going to furnish him with a striking anvil, and he will be forging those things with a striker that he has never worked with before. He will also be doing some hand hammer techniques in his next demo. If you can get there, you should not miss this. This will be history in the making, a 15 year old Young Smith demonstrating for one of the best associations in North America. I wish Grant SARVER could have seen this one.

Nice job, Charles! When you run out of material, 1045 is less expensive to buy and easier to work especially in those larger sizes.

Light sprinkling of water with a can with holes or better yet a mop made with shredded towel material will help get rid of the ash and control you fire. Have you ever noticed the ash that flies up if you have evere tried to pu a camp fire out with water?

I thought Rich Hale's response was the best advice. Learning how to forge will help more than anything.

Nice job! The only suggestions I have are do more and radius the hole where the handle goes in so it compresses the wood instead of shearing the wood.

"Deliberate and perfect practice" like Ted said is the key. Being aware and alert like Nohone said, will help, and rehearsing in clay like Stephen Olivo suggested will also save time. I have put a few videos on you tube that show different techniques that are good to practice.

I've started a collection of hammers made by people I've shown how to forge hammers. Here are four that I have so far. Do any of you recognize who made these?

I buy boards of hickory from the hardwood store and we make our own handles. I just got two boards the other day for $67.00, and that made 100 handles.

I know the spring tools are commonly sold out there with welded on springs, and people that have made and used spring tools with welded on springs know they break right next to the weld. I saw it the first time I got around the power hammer spring tooling. The answer to the problem was not to forge a spring and tool from one piece because the same thing can happen. Any transition from the spring to the tool that can take on more stresses than any other part along its length will bear those stresses and weaken. With rivets the stresses are bore on the rivets which can be tightened or replaced when needed. The top rivet farthest from the tool takes most the stress and gives the play that prevents the spring from bearing the lode. I don't harden my hot cut hardies unless I want to cut something cold.

The H stands for heat resistant. It was not formulated to be forged. Welding spring tools doesn't work too well either. It would be better to rivet your springs on spring tools. Think about suspension parts on cars, trucks, trains, ect..., they are not welded on.

I've had a lot of people ask me how they should make a hammer if they do not have a striker. I usually tell them to get a punch press and a utility hammer or do something else.

I believe Alec will be the demonstrator at the NWBA spring conference this year. You may want to wait a bit to see these things done in person. The cupping tool only takes 15 minutes or 5 heats to do once you understand it and do it a few times. The hammer can be forged in a half hour to an hour after you understand it.

Correct Tubbe. You actually have to try it out before you can know this.

Nice job!

Hey, Old and Rusty, will you will it to me? I'm trying to amass a collection of these young smith's hammers for the future.

Nice job you two! Spread the knowledge!