Demonstrations !

[Corrigan]

Hi all,
I have got to give demonstrations to children from the ages of five to ten on Monday. I will have them for half hour slots.
Any ideas on simple things to make ? Never given or watched a public demo before so all help/ideas welcome.
Cheers,
Matthew

[Frosty]

Depending on how many kids attending each segment will determine on what you can do. For1-3 kids I'd do my usual leaf coat hooks and enlist the help of a kid for each one. Not for hammering or tong holding unless they're ond enough and their parents are standing RIGHT there to okay participation. For young kids I let them wax finished coat hooks and then let them keep the hook as wages. Of course I'd tell them they no longer had an excuse for not hanging their coat up to get a smile out of Mom and Dad.

This was a while ago though and I was a lot faster and more sure at the forge, Even maintaining an educational patter I could finish a coat hook in 7-8 mins. depending on questions. I started with 3/8" sq. stock so it wasn't a beginner's demo project but it wasn't advanced so the kids couldn't understand what was going on. Twisting the shank and bending the hook were favorites with the kids.

What I really like about the leaf hooks is all the different techniques involved from a longitudinal draw to the lateral draw for the leaf, twisting the shank, punching for screws and veining and bending the hook and using scrolling tongs for the finial scroll on the hook. Lots of techniques, plenty to explain without taking my attention off the work and best of all it's darned fast with practice and FAST is good for demos.

Of course this is just MY favorite general demo. Having someone come up to me and ask if I can fix something is icing on the cake. That little treat REALLY puts the craft in historical perspective.

Frosty the Lucky.

[781]

I make nails
swords from double headed nails either straight of curved
I precut 3/8" square stock to made a small Friedericks cross
leaves
Older watchers one piece rose out of 1/4" round
Ginco (SP) leaves out of horse shoe nails

[Jeff Seelye]

Anything that can be done fairly quickly... unless you are a good talker while you work, that seems to hold attention. I built a lexan shield around my anvil because Kids like to see up close and I don't trust parents/chaperons to keep safety glasses on kids. They can be the same eyeball height as the anvil. Frosty has a cool idea about the coat hook. I have never sold at a demo, I was paid to demo.

[Francis Trez Cole]

I would get the wise guy in the group and get him to crank my blower when he complains how hard it is, tell the group about what the day in the life of an apprentice is like.I also like the story about the blacksmith and the devil. Nails, hooks, leaf key holders dragon heads. Have a display of items already made this puts a table between you and the group. You have to be able to talk and work at the same time. If you stop to talk and answer questions put your metal to the side don't want is going up in sparks. Most of all have fun if you are having a good time so will others.

[D-ski]

I have demonstrated for many elementary school groups. Most of them would be perfectly happy to just watch me heat the metal to orange and then quench in the slack tub. They seem to get a really big charge out of seeing the hot steel generate steam. once they have seen me quench, they ask me to do it over and over.

Making nails is also good. Even 2nd graders seem to know what a nail is and what it is used for, so making a nail is something that is quick and something that they can relate to.

[dablacksmith]

ive done a ton of demos ... keep it small and quick .. nails,hooks, leafs i you can do um quick and keep talking ... let um ask questions ... but keep um at lest a 5 feet from anvil ..(i use ropes or fireirons as a barrier)..and try to make it fun! btw aprenticeship could start as young as 10 AND LASTED 7 YEARS! so get um thinking..