New guy in the area

[lanternnate]

Hi All,

It was recommended I poke my head in here and say hello. I'm a complete novice and just a hobbyist having fun hitting hot steel. I'm primarily interested in bladesmithing and making the various tools to enable that. There seems to be something useful to learn from pretty much any blacksmithing conversation though. I'm in Vermont, located up around the Burlington area. I hear there might be a few other Vermonters on here. I'll be keeping an eye out for activities, learning opportunities and whatnot in the area.

-Nate

[Judson Yaggy]

Hi Nate, welcome aboard.  Always nice to see another Vermonter smithing!  First thing I'd do is join NEB and make your way to one of the meets, it'll blow your socks off.  Around half of them are held in NH and the rest scattered around New England as we find a sucker...I mean volunteer to host.  We also have informal, occasional (sometimes very occasional like ever year or 2) get togethers at guys shops here in VT.  PM me your name address and email and I'll add you to the mailing list if you want.  

There are learning opportunities around Burlington too.  The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes has a big teaching shop and frequent classes.  Shelburne Museum sometimes has classes, and I've heard the the Shelburne Craft school is trying to get something going.  Bob Bordeux in Waterbury teaches knife making classes in his shop in Waterbury last I knew.  Further afield the Old Stone House Museum up in Brownington sometimes holds classes, as does the Grafton Museum down in Grafton.  There are probably more but that's just off the top of my head.  

Do you know about Ray out on Lakeshore Drive in Colchester?  Blanking on his last name right now, sorry.  He usually has a pile of anvils for sale.  Not cheap but reasonable quality, often has a craigslist add going but it's against the rules for me to post it here.  

 

[lanternnate]

Wow, there's more going on around here than I realized. I just joined up on the website through Paypal, so I'm official now  I'll PM you my info. Ray is where I obtained most of my current kit. I spotted one of his craigslist posts this summer saying he had a variety of small anvils. I wandered into his garage like a lost puppy and he set me up with a RR track anvil, a cross peen hammer, a set of tongs to hold a railroad spike and a set of tongs to hold a file. I've used those tools to do pretty much everything to date.

[JHCC]

4 hours ago, lanternnate said:

Wow, there's more going on around here than I realized.

What'd I tell you?

 

[Judson Yaggy]

Remind yourself of that in 3 months when the winds have been howling out of the north, freezing the teeth off the chickens, closing the roads, snapping phone lines, and you feel like the last living person, let alone blacksmith, north of the Mason-Dixon line (grin). 'Corse in 4 months everything will be coming up roses.  

Definitely check out the Maritime Museum, a lot of the others go into hibernation for the winter.  

[lanternnate]

Oh, I'm just new to blacksmithing not Vermont. Been here my whole life. I know the weather well. I figure we pay for it this year for last year not being too bad and fall dragging out forever.

[notownkid]

Welcome, lanternate    I'm down in Woodstock and have been to the Lake Champlain Maritime Mus. for  classes and they will most likely have a hammer in late May to get the season underway.  NEBs will follow shortly after that with an event somewhere in NE.