Frank Turley

I'm the same age as Uri Hofi, but I started forging much earlier, beginning in 1963. I was presenter of a smithing workshop at Haystack School in 1981, and one of the students, Mary Greene, showed us a ChengManChing tai chi chuan short-form, and said that anyone interested could meet daily before breakfast for an introduction. When I returned home, I found a teacher who worked with the same form. I have been doing it ever since. It has to do with deep breathing and relaxation. It's good to do before breakfast. Much later, I learned a related method called Chi Kung (Qi Gong). Now I do both. I think it has helped keep me going. I will be demonstrating some of it and talking about it at a St. Louis workshop for BAM, November 21-22.

Peacock has got the idea. Don't try to save coal; cone it up around the fire. An old blacksmithing text says that the fire should be 1) DEEP; 2)clean; and 3)compact. Deep means that the coke bed should be about a 6" or 7" column in an ordinary firepot. If you're a skilled smith, you'll have your piece in the fire horizontally, unless it has an odd shape that won't allow it. You will not be able to see your workpiece, as it will be covered with an inch or so of hot coke. The coke on top acts as a refractory giving you a much quicker heat than if you just lay your work on top of a flat, lowdown, crappy fire. Beginners wonder how they can see the heat, if the work is hidden. You can occasionally draw it back to take a quick peek. Sometimes, you can make a peep hole in the top of the surrounding coke. With experience, you'll get a mental alarm set.

Those are ox shoes, two per cloven foot. The tenon-like, central projection on the one is a new one on me, perhaps a calk for traction. The nail crease was done with the striker. The nail holes were punched with the machine. It's really nice to see the old footage (pun intended).

What's the scale? Size of leaves?

I attended that Iowa workshop in '93 for six days which was all I had time for. Three fellow smiths were with me. I made a saw tensioning hammer under Yataiki's direction. I took lots of notes and made sketches of tools, etc. The workshop was set up primarily for woodworkers, so I don't think too many ironworkers found out about it.