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I Forge Iron

Open House at Willowbank School (Queenston, ON)


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Hey folks,

 

I'm not sure how many of you are local to the Niagara region, but figured I'd mention this just in case.

 

I'm currently a student a the School of Restoration Arts at Willowbank, in Queenston.  We're a post-secondary institution that teaches 'built heritage conservation' (i.e. maintaining and repairing heritage buildings).  

 

In a couple of weeks, we are having our annual open house.  It's an opportunity for both perspective students, and members of the general public to check out all of the exciting things that are going on at the school.

 

We will have dry stone walling, timber framing, stained glass, and stone carving amongst the demonstrations.  We're also going to have the forge going.  Lloyd Johnston (who is our current instructor) is coming to demo, along with myself and a few of the other students.

 

If any of you are in the area, it should be a fun day.  The estate itself is pretty cool, and his is one of the few opportunities for a tour of the house.  Its a Greek revival mansion, built around 1830; and is a National Historic Site.

 

Anyways, if any are interested, it's Saturday April 20th.  The info is on the school's website:

http://willowbank.ca/content/beta/home/school-of-restoration-arts/place/open-house/

 

Cheers,

Neil

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Hi Neil, that's bad luck for me, I'm actually in the area at the moment but I'll be flying out April 18th. I was in the falls earlier today seeing friends, I was looking at the really awful ironwork that is around the falls (we went hiking in the glen and whirlpool). Shameful really!!!

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Hey Colleen, I wish I'd seen your post sooner (the forum software hasn't been working for me on my phone)...

If you're still in the area, stop by tomorrow (Friday Apr 12). We've been having 1st year forge class this week and are at it tomorrow as well.

Lloyd Johnston is teaching along with Pierre Bédard (a very good smith from Quebec). Also Lisa Langdon who is the OABA webmaster has been with us as well. It's been a bit cold out, but a lot of fun. We've got six forges going with about a dozen or so students.

We're there all day, from about 8:00am. Just follow the smell of coal smoke...

Cheers,
Neil

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  • 5 months later...

Hello All,

 

Just in case anyone is interested, I thought I'd post a brief update on the new 'Forge Studio' that we've been building at Willowbank...

 

It's a substantial timber frame structure (mostly white oak, with some spruce in the roof structure); which will be enclosed within dry stone walls. It will eventually sport a slate roof.

 

The dry stone walls are about half way finished. The stone thats been done so far was mostly built over the course of a long weekend during our recent 'Stone Festival'. The timber frame has been an ongoing school project, that's been worked on by students over the past 3 years (our timber framing course is about a week long each year).  The timbers were all finished by my (2nd year) class and the 3rd year class over the past two weeks, an we raised it this past Thursday & Friday.

 

It will likely sit largely as-is until this time next year, when the dry stone is finished during next years Stone Festival, and my class will finish off the timber frame (basically the sill plates, which will sit on top of the stone walls) plus roofing next September.

 

Once that is all done, we can build the forge, and I'll hopefully get to spend the bulk of my 3rd year working in this shop. I'd like to make most of the hardware for this building before I graduate... Time will tell.

 

tf-img-171.png

Land cleared, a base of compacted stone, and large stones which will serve as the footings for the posts of the timber frame

 

tf-img-172.png tf-img-174.png

Dry stone walls, approx. half finished

 

tf-img-176.png tf-img-177.png

Posts and beams going in. 9" x 9" white oak is *very* heavy!

 

tf-img-178.png tf-img-179.png

Trusses and purlin plates going in

 

tf-img-181.png tf-img-180.png

Common rafters in place, as well as some of the sill plates (along the sides). The rest of the timbers are just being stored till next years framing session.

 

One of the great things about this type of construction, you can walk away from a project and it'll sit there quite happily until you come back to it a year or two later. Try doing that with a modern stick-framed building!

 

When its eventually finished and is a functioning shop, we'll have to think about hosting an OABA meeting here.

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