Hawks!

I've been on a bigger than ever hawk kick here lately. They're so fun and so rich for learning.

As most of you who've been victim to my social media spew of photos know, I stick to two styles: hawks from rail road spikes and hawks folded and wrapped with a carbon insert. I used to really prefer to make the hawks from rail road spikes... but not so much anymore. I'm hooked on these wrapped eye style tomahawks.

We have a lot of scrap floating around the shop right now from fence jobs, handrails, gates, and utility racks. We just happen to have a lot of 1x1/4 flat bar laying around which works pretty well for making wrapped eye hawks. I've also been lucky enough to be surrounded with wonderful people who have come across a lot of 5160 leaf springs and given them to me.

This style of hawk head can be made into a lot of different designs (I've got a few brewing in my head that I'm going to try this week hopefully... I think my hawks need a bit more bearded look). I had an English professor in college that always used to say "There's a hundred different ways to skin a cat" ... strange, I know, but I think it applies here. A folded hawk can be drawn out and hammered into a lot of different styles, or so I've found. Depending on how one use a rounding hammer or the peen side of a hammer, these can be made into a Norse or Dane style ax, French trade axes, or whatever style is needed. Some of these designs depend too on grinding ability but I think you get my drift.

I did another rail road spike project for a good friend of mine recently. My cousin James Poag told me "Well. Every knife or project you make, you won't want to get rid of." That's definitely true. I fell in love with this beast I made for Luke. I liked the texture that came out of it, the shape, and the handle. At first I mounted it on a hammer handle but the handle cracked during wedging, so I decided to carve a handle from red oak. A little draw knife therapy is never a bad thing. Here's some photos.

On Demos, Booths, and Craft Fairs

It seems that we as human beings are visually learning creatures. Through this visual learning, we're able to clarify and gain a further understanding of things we had not understood or even known about.

Tis true for blacksmithing.

This topic for this blog entry spurs from our weekend at Harmonie State Park in New Harmony, Indiana. This past weekend was their annual Trade Fair and we were so lucky to be apart of such a wonderful event. Really folks, if you're from the tri-state area and have a trade or craft, you need to get in on this. So very well put together and worth every bit of your time. It was for us.

Doing things like demos and setting up a booth at the craft fair, the forge burning up coal, and the hammer flattening red, hot, soft steel helps people understand what exactly it is we do in this trade... and what exactly it is that we don't do. These kind of events allow us to show people of how we turn that plain, boring piece of steel into something exciting and inviting to the eye. Many people don't realize how it's done, but many have a general idea of what a blacksmith is... kind of. Perhaps it also facilitates a greater respect and appreciation for the work that we do.

However, it also gives you some killer one liners about your trade. Here are a few, bless these people's hearts.

"So uh, you doin' some blacksmithery over here?"
- Yup.

"Are you going to anvil that iron now? Right? That's how you flatten it or shape it?"
- I'm going to anvil this iron so hard that it's going to become hand hammered steel.

"So how long have you been a horse-shoer?"
- Well, I haven't shod a horse in 23 years! (...I'm only 23 folks)

"...can you make me a sword from Lord of the Rings?"
- Sure, come back in 30 minutes and I'll have some Orcs ready for you to test cleave, too.

"I know what smithing is... I've played Skyrim."
- I have too. Many, many hours. If you forge a ton of daggers in real life, your skill really will increase, ironically.

Now, I'm just poking fun. People don't know things unless they ask questions. There really are no dumb questions, just ones that are more fun to answer than others. It was so wonderful explaining the trade to folks. I was actually very surprised at the number of people just starting blacksmithing that strolled by, or people that had family members that were blacksmiths. Of course, it was wonderful making the connections and potential client connections that we made.

Below are a few pictures of our setup. It doesn't look like there's much around us, but all of the booths were across from us. We were on the edge with the most space.

Cheers! Thanks for looking!