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I Forge Iron

First time out in public


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Lots of folks in the community know me from my "real" job in the produce department of our local Food Lion supermarket and several know I'm a 'smith wannabe, but Saturday was my first time out in public with my forge and anvil. Two other local 'smiths worked with me, one with his gas forge, and my "mentor" working on my forge. It was a great day!

Several "I didn't know you did this too" comments and a good bit of interest in my camp iron pieces. Did make a few sales and some possible future "consignment' projects. Bottom line was I had a ball!!!

Beautiful mid-November day, high was in the 70's, slight variable breeze to keep the coal smoke moving.

Highlight of the day was the 8th grader who just would not leave.:) I finally let him take a turn at the anvil and walked him through how to make a twisted "S" hook from 1/4" square stock. Kid's a natural! First fishtail and taper was just about perfect, and the second was real close. He thought putting the twist in the middle was the neatest part.

Another 'smithing friend walked him through making a flint striker, then I showed him how to make a leaf key ring. With any luck he'll keep the interest and grow with it. Meanwhile I'll be looking for more local craft shows that don't mind a little smoke.

I forgot all about having my camera in the truck until I was packing up to leave so one of my produce customers provided me with this shot. (Thanks Michelle) Hope it works here.

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Edited by Yance
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welcome to the demoing blacksmith community!!! on doing craft shows ide reccomend getting a hood for the forge with about 8 ft of pipe to get the smoke up and out also check on picking up some coke (burns MUCH cleaner has some down sides but worth it for demos).also did you use a tent? a shade can really help it also makes your booth look better . looks like your off to a good start ! ive been demoing for over 25 years so if you have any questions feel free to ask away !

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I've started a whole bunch of kids, young adults and adults in smithing and have found that while many do not continue in it immediately a number of them will come back to it in the future. (And an ever widening pool of people are out there who don't think that blacksmithing is some odd dangerous thing that should be banned form the community!)

I'm taking a couple of forges to the Festival of the Cranes this weekend; never had problems even with the coal smoke, of course finding out that the Head Honcho's son is interesting in smithing and working him through a couple of projects may have helped!

Having been smithing over 28 years now I feel kind of like Johnny ForgeSeed. I move into an area where nobody is smithing and when I leave there is a bunch of smiths to inherit my scrap pile!

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I did have an E-Z Up 10'X10' borrowed in case of rain but didn't have it up. If there are two of us working together again we'll set up a little "tighter" so both can make use of the tent.

Smoke wasn't a problem as long as I added coal a little at a time and often, however my "Mentor" liked to "help" me out by pulling a good bit of green stuff in at a time.

While I like my 24"X36" forge, I'll probably wind up building a more portable one later on. Just gotta keep scrounging the scrapyards.

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My first public demo was in an old blacksmith shop with a leaky forge, the building filled up with coal smoke and it took a couple hours to clear out, it was dark and smoky, and the public loved it, I had a bunch of christpher crosses all cut and ready to fild out, it was a huge hit with the people, just making a nail is a big deal to most of em!! well done!!

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man im gonna have to get myself a portable setup as well lol! i guess it'd be the best way to advertise and the cheapest. congrats on the sales! thats always fun. is there any farmers markets up your way, that would be the best,a weekly show or by-weekly just to show new projects and give ppl an idea of the thing we can do.

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