LDW Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Aaron got hear yesterday and Brian had him strike to make a hot cut. He did great, today he struck for a hammer and has been doing the two sided taper as well as tongs, and even was practicing the horse head. Heres the pics. https://picasaweb.google.com/LDWynn/AaronsClassWithBrianDay1# Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec.S Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 Looks Like fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDW Posted March 19, 2011 Author Share Posted March 19, 2011 Here is day 2, Aaron made punches with Brian, then made hardy tools after I got a stand made for his anvil. https://picasaweb.google.com/LDWynn/AaronsSecondDay# On the third day Aaron and I made a handled hot cut and a rounding hammer. He did great, he wanted to direct it so Brian even took a few pictures and I got in a photo for a change. Brian grinded Aarons hammer and now its ready to be hardened and tempered. The hammer started with 2" round steel. These last two days have been very productive. https://picasaweb.google.com/LDWynn/AaronsThirdDay# Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironsmith Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 looks like Aaron's getting some great training, good to see you in picture for a change To LDW! :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhrocker Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Great shots Lyle! Great work Brian! Aaron, you must be having the time of your life! Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbob Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 really good pictures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clinton Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Nice work guys, great pictures. You really drew the cheeks out on that last hammer. It is nice to see Lyle in some of the shots ( he probably needed a break from all the camera work and swinging his arms back and forth) insert smilley face Looks like ya-all are getting some nice weather over there- rain wind and cold here now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDW Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 Had a great day today. made tools and Brian heat treated Aarons hammer, and he got to use it. He made a bangle without any problems, and made mushrooms. Tomorrow, will be a tool making day again. https://picasaweb.google.com/LDWynn/Aarons4thDay# Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clinton Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 best shot # 62 Aarons grill- priceless I have to save that one. Good shots on the mushrooms= perfect how to demo, and great job on the bangle it came out sweet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 nice job slitting and drifting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec.S Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 I am loving that hammer with the eccentric cheeks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhrocker Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 That hammer does have big cheeks Judging from the way Aaron is doing the slitting and drifting, I'd say that he has a good eye for this. Spacing seems right on. Now about that bird sitting in the gravel, and Aarons bird-eating smile in the next picture, he must have eaten that thing for dinner! You guys are having way to much fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDW Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 Aaron started the day out finishing up a fire rake he started last night after we got home. Then he asked Brian about the forge welded bundle. Brian prepared a sea anemone while Aaron kept it simple with 4 pieces of 3/8 inch square with 4 one heat tapers on the ends. At first Aarons bundle got a little out of square but he was able to correct it and made a successful forge welded bundle, then drew it out and put a hook on the end. Aaron asked Brian to make a fish like one he had seen before that Brian had made. I was glad to see that, I had never seen it. Brian is going to bring a curved chisel to form the mouth with tomorrow. That hammer Aaron made has extremely large cheeks. He did a great job making that. Hes a lot of fun to work with, and has a good sense of humor. Heres the pics from today. https://picasaweb.google.com/LDWynn/Aarons5thDay# Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDW Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 We started out the day making pick up tongs. This was the first time for me to make these also, Brian always says they are simple to make, (simple does not mean easy) I may have to do some more adjusting on mine but I think they will work. I will get pictures of all Aarons tools tomorrow. Brian made a drift and Aaron did to. This is some heavy forging but Aaron stepped right up and attacked it. I got my touch mark in from Grant, it looks great, thanks Grant. Had to make something to give to the wife with the first touch mark on it. Heres the pics. https://picasaweb.google.com/LDWynn/Aarons6thDay# Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evfreek Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 We started out the day making pick up tongs. This was the first time for me to make these also, Brian always says they are simple to make, (simple does not mean easy) I may have to do some more adjusting on mine but I think they will work. I will get pictures of all Aarons tools tomorrow. Brian made a drift and Aaron did to. This is some heavy forging but Aaron stepped right up and attacked it. I got my touch mark in from Grant, it looks great, thanks Grant. Had to make something to give to the wife with the first touch mark on it. Heres the pics. https://picasaweb.google.com/LDWynn/Aarons6thDay# The drift was drawn out as a hexagon? Was this only on the struck end which had to finish up round? It said on the comment that a hexagonal cross section is easier to round. So, I would guess that the business end will be still drawn out square. Really nice sequence of pictures. I liked the one with the grease on the 5th day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDW Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 Hey evfreek that was not grease, that was pine tar. After Aaron had made the collar, he then closed the collar on the end of the driver because that was the only piece of 3/4 we had. This made the handle end of the driver hot. He picked it up by the handle then dropped it real fast. It burned his fingers pretty good. Brian always has pine tar so Aaron put it on, and about an hour later I asked him how his hand was and he had no pain. The next day he had forgotten about getting burned, but when I saw his fingers that got burned they looked slick, no fingerprints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clinton Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Wow- great looking touch mark. The pine tar is amazing stuff messy but it works good. Nice pair of tongs there Lyle for your "first " pair, also the drift turned out real nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDW Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 Well, Aaron forged with us for his last day today, he did a great job and is going away with a bunch of tools to prove it. This afternoon he wanted to make another hot cut so I struck for him and he made one himself. He forge welded some cable today and made a screwdriver, thats to the left in the picture, below that is his punches. He made fullers, (round, and ball) punches (round and square) slot punches (thick and thin) he made a big haul. https://picasaweb.google.com/LDWynn/AaronsLastDay# Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironstein Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Very nice haul indeed! Good job Aaron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec.S Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 It looks like you lot and Aaron had a great time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbob Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 That Grin of Aarons is infectious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhrocker Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Lyle, you've done a really nice job on Aaron's seminar with Brian. Well, actually you 've done a nice job on everybody's session that you've photoed. Sure does make it interesting for the rest of us, and he'll have a good pictorial documentory for the rest of his blacksmith life showing where and how and who with, it all began. That stack of tooling you guys made is very impressive. I love all the chisels, fullers, well heck, everything. What is the reason for the one strip of steel with the series of round holes followed up with square punched holes? Sort of a practice strip? And the hammers! I thought Brian would make "a" hammer for a student, but Aaron has several of them, all differienc sizes and for various purposes I guess. Anyway, good job to you, Aaron, and Brian. Please continue with the practice of photographing students, we all get something out of it, or at least I sure do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Rhrocker, those were practice holes that Aaron made with his punches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clinton Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 wow that is quite a haul he got a lot done. I hope he does not have to fly home, he may get nailed with extra weight in his bags, tipping the baggage handler goes a long way at curbside check in (five bucks can save you 25 bucks) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron J. Cergol Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Well I'm back home and have been catching up with work the past few days; just getting some time to reply now. I drove home, a 14 hour drive, through Sunny and warm MS, and was greeted in WI with freezing rain and clouds. haha, it was to be expected I suppose. To start, one cannot have more hospitable hosts that Brian and Karen. I was greeted by their attack "dog" Dagni who may actually be a cat in disguise. Karen is an excellent cook, and kept me well fed and put up with my messy clothes dirt I dragged in. Talking with her, I'd say she knows more about forging and blacksmiths than the average smith I have met. She helps Brian out more that I thought. if not for her, his schedule would be a crazy mess, and he'd be in 10 places at once, or none at all. Thanks to her, I had booked my spot just in time, and had the fortune of taking this class. She deserves a lot of credit for Brians renown. Brian is the first to say "don't believe anything I say until you have tried it for yourself". It's a good thing too because when I first started forging with Brian, I thought he was crazy; well, maybe I still do a little bit...but in this case, crazy is an excellent thing. He challenges what others say is rule, breaks them, and proves it wrong-time and time again. I am mainly self taught, and have had a little help along the way. I am of the school of "keep hitting it until it looks right" kind of thought, so Brians techniques seemed very counter-intuitive to me, and more than a bit awkward at first. but the more I thought about what he showed me the more I got that "AHA" moment. Using what he has showed me, anyone can very effectively move metal with little effort; so much so that every blow is planned. I have never in my life been able to move metal that fast or with that much precision. I am still working on the precision part of it, but with a little practice, I think I will have it down pat. By using these techniques, I will be using so much less fuel, so much less material, so much less time, less heats, and less effort. I'm not saying it's easy, but it is simple. All this being said, I got much more out of the class than expected. For the first bit I was the striker, and I learned how to read the metal, and Brians movements. Then I got to experience the other side of it, holding the metal, the top tools, and directing the hits. It is a whole new perspective, and really give me a better idea of what to do when striking and how to change according to the metal. I found it much more difficult to direct than to strike. Then, onto the hand forging. Forging Hex was a great new thing to learn for me, and saves so much time. Half hammer faced blows, and working on the near and far side of the anvil are such amazing fundamental tools that everyone at the very least needs to try. As mentioned above, I have never been able to move metal that fast, and actually got the metal to "light up". One of the things Brian would repeat over is "reduce the surface are of contact" which at first didn't really seem to click for me. But when you stop and think about it, that's all forging really is. Focusing on a very small area not only allows you to better control everything, but work faster, more effectively and keep the metal hotter for longer periods of time. By continually reducing the S.A.O.C. you can do so much more in one heat, and functionally divide the metal up allowing you to not only create shapes with better and stronger forms, but to use less material and rarely have to use tongs. Forms-this was another thing that Brian would talk a lot about. Creating forms that have no weak spots, and forms that naturally lead the shapes to make themselves. By creating a strong form, the work went so much easier in the long run, with few to no problems occurring. a good example of this would be when you are dividing the metal for a leaf-generally you work over the edge of an anvil and neck it down on all sides. Overworking this area will grab too much material at once, and usually lead to cracking and risk having the leaf fall off. by Using Brians methods, this is nothing to worry about, and I ended up with a much cleaner looking product in the end-with fewer heats. All of Brians forms are very simple-simply effective. sometimes less is more. Like the animal heads, simply using a fuller will not only add definition for a mane, but also naturally arc the neck. likewise with the facial areas and hitting on the diagonals and giving it more depth. And then there is Lyle D. Wynn...what can I say? Lyle is so much fun to be around, and has a great sense of humor. He also taught me an awful lot; especially involving striking. He is the best striker I have ever worked with and should be an example for other strikers to look up to. He had a lot of patience with me, especially when I really put him to work making my hammer with the big cheeks. That was my first time directing the hits and holding a top tool, and he really helped me along the way. Lyle is also a very adept smith in his own right. He made his first pair of hammer tongs when I was there, and they blew mine out of the water. His cable knives are something to be seen first hand and he helped me make a RR trowel which came out quite well. He also has some very original and creative ideas of his own. If you can convince him to, you must see his Clogging skills and watch him juggle...maybe he'll even do them at the same time. I have also never met anyone who takes a game of Wisteria more seriously. A big thank you to Lyle too for taking the wonderful (and not so wonderful...) photos. He is an excellent photographer, and really got some great shots. I cannot thank the three of them enough for the hospitality and everything I have learned. I will hopefully be forging in the middle of this week again, and will try and take some pics of the things I will be practicing. If all goes well I will see you three (and Dagni) in July in IL. Ciao, Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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