erietuna Posted November 16, 2011 Posted November 16, 2011 Hi folks. Went to my first Blacksmithing meeting. They said I had to make something. Here you go. Late night last night, gotta get some sleep. P.S. I became a member of WRABA last night. Later, erietuna Quote
CurlyGeorge Posted November 16, 2011 Posted November 16, 2011 That looks good, to me. Nice S-hook. See, I can even tell what it is. LOL. Glad to see that you started pounding metal. Be careful, though. The addiction will get hold of ya. Thanks for sharing the pic. Congrats on joining the WRABA. You're on your way now!! :) Quote
ThomasPowers Posted November 16, 2011 Posted November 16, 2011 An S hook is the first project for 90+% of people I teach. (and the last project for far less than 1%; I've had less than half a dozen folks get "failed" after making their hook---and this is with about 30 years of teaching...) Quote
Marksnagel Posted November 17, 2011 Posted November 17, 2011 Nice first forging! Glad to see you are hitting hot iron.Enjoy and keep posting your work. Mark <>< Quote
pkrankow Posted November 17, 2011 Posted November 17, 2011 Good! Great facility they have there, and a nice hook. Phil Quote
Dallas de Marr Posted November 17, 2011 Posted November 17, 2011 Hi folks. Went to my first Blacksmithing meeting. They said I had to make something. Here you go. Late night last night, gotta get some sleep. P.S. I became a member of WRABA last night. Later, erietuna Wait, WRABA?! Maybe I should join up again. They weren't very newbie-friendly my first go-round. Which isn't to say they weren't hospitable, quite the opposite- it just seemed like everything they did was quite advanced. Stair rails, animal heads with punches.... awesome stuff, but nothing I could do at the moment. I'll have to catch up again- you don't happen to know when / where their next meeting is, do you? Quote
Bad Creek Blacksmith Posted November 17, 2011 Posted November 17, 2011 Vladimir, When things are to advance like that for you don't drop out or get discourage, speak up. Most Blacksmiths are friendlier than ever and at the time they might not had alot of new people. The thing about clubs are you are trying to make all of the people happy all of the time and it can't be done. If they teach the basics all of the time they are going to lose there more expierence smiths. You need to find someone that will be willing to teach you in the evenings or on weekends, if you go to their house take them a couple bags of coal or give them some money for propane if they use a gas forge. Good luck. Paul Quote
Dallas de Marr Posted November 17, 2011 Posted November 17, 2011 Vladimir, When things are to advance like that for you don't drop out or get discourage, speak up. Most Blacksmiths are friendlier than ever and at the time they might not had alot of new people. The thing about clubs are you are trying to make all of the people happy all of the time and it can't be done. If they teach the basics all of the time they are going to lose there more expierence smiths. You need to find someone that will be willing to teach you in the evenings or on weekends, if you go to their house take them a couple bags of coal or give them some money for propane if they use a gas forge. Good luck. Paul You know, you're absolutely right. If I had to pick one flaw (out of many ) that hampers me, it's the fact that I'm not really sure how to speak up, especially when I don't know anyone. Like I said, the four hammer-ins I went to were awesome, and everyone there was awesome- but you're right, I need to find someone more local. Where in Ohio are you, again? B) Quote
erietuna Posted November 17, 2011 Author Posted November 17, 2011 Thanks for the comps. I thought it was ugly and beautiful at the same time! I had not intended to make something when I went. ALOT different then watching youtube! Thought the folk's there where great. Just wanted to see what goes on, ask question's, see someone make something. One member made a forge shovel. Vlad they have or I should say we have a open forge on Tuesday night's 5-9 pm. Here is the link. www.wraba.com/index.html. It was intimidating because it is something new. The member helping me has been doing farrier work for 40 years. For some reason his hook looked better! I thought how LUCKY I was to be shown by such a person. If they have other members that want to make something too advanced for me ( which is not hard to do) I would be more than happy to watch and learn. Remember you can't ride the horse if you don't get in the saddle. The s hook made the wife happy. Now she wants me to build a wrought iron fence! I knew she would like the anvil sooner or later. Gotta get ready for work, later. erietune Quote
SReynolds Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 I teach a first timmer class in North East Ohio for the Ohio Histsorical Society. I have them make hooks too. Some can actually do it and make it apperar as such. It takes all day, but they leave with one. I begin with the draw-out method, and that takes some time. Then they work on bending the drawn-out item around the horn. Takes even more time, but that is what the class is for. It is better to pay the Histsorical Society the $$ to be a blacksmith for a day than to buy all the equipment and find out that this hobby frustrates you to no end!!! Quote
Jason @ MacTalis Ironworks Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 Dallas and Erietuna: Glad to have you two aboard. I am the WRABA webmaster, as well as the one who got the open forge night on Tuesdays going. I completely know what you mean Dallas, when I joined the club a year and a half ago, they just weren't doing much at all aside from the monthly hammer-ins, and I was kinda disappointed in that myself. I and a few others from the club have been working hard to make it more accessible for new folks, as well as provide regular shop time. We have alot of projects in the works, so certainly stop back up and we'll get you hammering. The club needs new blood, as most of the older members are getting on in years, and many have been tiring out keeping the club rolling. New ideas and folks willing to do the work are very valuable to us right now. We will also be starting some more stuctured workshops soon where for a small fee to cover materials, you will learn how to make various poducts, starting with MAKING THE TOOLS you will use for them. In other words keep coming up guys, we need your enthusiasm to build our club into what it can be. Other projects slated for this next year include: repairing the bellows in the old shop, returning the old shop to it's original condition as a working blacksmith shop instead of a static museum display, Making hinges for the new shop, possibly enclosing the new shop so it can be used in winter, restoring the power hammer to peak performance as well as making dies and tools for it, bigger and better demos for hammer-ins, the aforementioned workshops, and a few other ideas still in the works. Additionally, mysself and perhaps a few other members are willing to give private lessons in our shops for just a few bucks to help with fuel and materials, and maybe a couple beers :) Quote
erietuna Posted November 20, 2011 Author Posted November 20, 2011 Hi Jason. Talked to you a couple of times on the phone about the club. Will be going this Tuesday, hope to meet you proper. erietuna Quote
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