John B

Judging is a most controversial area, here in the UK the National Blacksmiths Competition Committee hold regular seminars on judging for the shows to determine the UK national champions in both live forging competitions and static competitions for individual pieces. These seminars highlight the areas to be taken into consideration. Most who forge, know good ironwork and what it is composed of, and do not need to be advised of this, it is after all a personal judgement based on experience.
Basically be honest in your decision and be prepared to justify your decision, there are certain questions to ask yourself to reach that decision.
Briefly
Does it do the job it is supposed to do? That is is it Fit for purpose,
The number of skills used appropriate in producing the item.
The overall appearance and finish of the item
The suitability of the final treatment for where the item is to be used (indoor or outdoor)
The design, originality and artistic merits of the piece.

Make notes if necessary, if you are judging newcomers, be they young or old and wish to discuss any points, obviously point out the good bits, bits that could be improved and possibly why you chose the winning piece and what set it apart from the rest of the entries. Encouragement and praise for what they have presented also help to continue their interest in the craft.

Everyone has an opinion, and will let you know it, so, so long as you are fair to all, and able to justify your opinion if asked, all can learn and improve from the experience.

One incident that springs to mind was when a smith wasn't happy that he hadn't won the prize upon asking the judge why, the immediate response was "Its not good enough", this was then followed by a detailed account of what exactly was wrong (In the judges opinion) for the next ninety minutes. The smith got redder and redder, but listened, a few years down the line and he now regularly wins prizes and is an excellent smith. He obviosly listened and learnt from the experience.

Whatever you do Good Luck with it.

I use an old fire extinguisher canister with the top cut off (Which can be used as a funnel) and I have a lid to stop dust etc getting in when not in use, I can also put this on to extinguish any flames should I need to, it starves the flames of Oxygen.

Why does nobody appear to use bench shears anymore, I have one mounted on a plate which I place on the floor and park a wheel on and then just shear off the lengths you want, plenty of shears should cut 1/2" by 1 1/2" also will cut round stock an alternative is to use bolt croppers. No electric needed and little noise, a long tube for a handle makes easy work

Don't know wether your rebar is same spec as ours over here in Britain, but we use it to make round punches, slot punches and such, usually work quite well, especially using the larger diameter rebar and forging down the smaller required tool section

An old blacksmiths simple way to produce a case hardened type finish on steel without using toxic materials can be made as follows from Wheat flour, salt and water.

Mix two teaspoonfuls of water, half a teaspoonful of flour, and one teaspoonful of salt and make into a paste.

Heat the steel to be hardened enough to coat it with the paste by immersing it into the composition and it should adhere to the metal.

Then heat the paste covered area to a Cherry red and plunge it into cold soft water.

If done correctly the steel will come out with a white surface and be appreciably hard.

Posibly used to forge crankshafts for agricutural machinery, threshing machines, steam engines etc, used with crane at balance point to manipulate forging under possibly water powered trip or drop hammer

Or possibly not!

Generally speaking, brass is an alloy of copper and other additives, essentially a material used for casting, its grain structure does not easily lend itself to forging, There are I believe forging grade bronzes available commercially.
We have successfully cast objects from brass scrap and aluminium to replace motifs on old ironwork such as rosettes or leaves. sometimes additives are needed to help the brass flow smoother when casting.

thanks all for the welcome, hope to contributesoon when I get the hang of this internet thingy

we hold regular courses based on traditional blacksmith skills, all are welcome

For some time now I have visited and appreciated this site and all its useful information. Having been involved in blacksmithing for over forty years and still learning, I try to pass some of that experience on to others.
Currently I am proud and humbled to be the Master of the Blacksmiths Guild here in the UK where for many years the Craft has been kept alive by The Guild of Wrought Ironwork Craftsmen of Wessex, and after amalgamating with the Blacksmiths and Metalworkers Association of the South West, we now have our own training facilities at Westpoint Near Exeter in Devon in the UK.

For further information see Home Page Its not the best site on the web, but we are trying to build on it. If anyone is visiting Devon, check on the dates for courses and if you would like to call in and say Hi you will be very welcome. We also attend Craft Shows with open Blacksmithing competitions at various venues around the UK and you can also get these locations from the website, and you can also meet other like minded people.

Look forward to meeting you either on the web or in person.