NEWSLETTER December 2008 Volume 1 Issue 11
In this issue: * President’s Letter * Blacksmith Interview * Editors Note* F. Turley on Tongs*
Presidents Letter:
November meeting went very well. We had our first Sunday open forge, and we had a few members take advantage of the time. Keith Hicks performed a very nice demo. Our IRON IN THE HAT was great. There were a lot of nice items.
We are still running into problems with the electric. Steve has been working to find what we need to do; more paperwork is the main thing. We will still be having our classes in January, so be planning for that.
Everyone plan to be at Steve’s home on Dec. 21 for the 6th annual Best IRON IN THE HAT EVER and our annual holiday family meeting. Bring a dish for lunch and that special item for IRON IN THE HAT.
We will be putting the Air Compressor and Kit in the IRON IN THE HAT instead of a raffle, so bring lots of money.
December is our election meeting, so please make your choices for your Board of Directors. We still have a lot of work and challenges ahead of us, so your choice is very important. Remember this is your Guild.
Thank You and
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and see you at Steve’s.
Travis Covington
Interview with Bladesmith Don Fogg: by Vince Nakovics
If you have ever done a search online for information about bladesmithing or blacksmithing then you have come across Don Fogg’s name in connection to some tip or technique he provided. I was really happy when Don agreed to participate in my as I have used many of Don’s tips floating around on the web. Check out his website: www.dfoggknives.com for tips, resources and general info about bladesmithing and now Don Fogg:
I started working in Peter Happny's forge in 1976 after hanging around and watching him work. It looked interesting and Peter was willing to trade labor for lessons. I worked with him for half a year and then was on my own. During that time I met Jimmy Fikes and Jimmy introduced me to bladesmithing. I started doing custom knives in 1979 and have been forging blades ever since. I didn't experience any thing other than generosity when I started smithing. Peter Happny, David Court and Jimmy Fikes opened their shops and helped me get started. We started a hammerin for bladesmiths at Ashokan, NY 26 years ago with the intent to meet and share our experience. That hammerin has been held every year except for 2001. I think that both blacksmithing and bladesmithing have grown only because folks were willing to teach and share.I never intended to work in a forge full time or for a life time, it just happened. At the time, I was in graduate school when I started hanging out at the forge. I was teaching English in the two year college and writing. I followed my interests and was very fortunate to find a market for my work. There have been times when I second guessed my choices, but by in large working in the craft has been a very personally rewarding thing to do. It has given me a way to measure my time and see my progress through life and I am grateful to have discovered it.
I know there are passions surrounding the subject of traditional vs. modern, but for me the process is only significant to the maker unless the result impacts on the finished product. Technique too often dictates design as does tooling and it is important that I follow my own eye. If I am true to that, then the results will generally have appeal to others.
Tom Clark introduced me to the Hofi style hammer and I love it. I use 3.4lb the most, but have a range from 6 to 2 lbs. I like the balance of the hammer in my hand. I use a 275 lb bladesmithing anvil made by Chuck Robinson and have to say that it has made me a better smith.
If you are contemplating making a living blacksmithing or bladesmithing; don’t quit your day job. Working for yourself is an extremely challenging way to make a living. If you get hurt or sick, no work gets done. You have to spend three times the energy working on business related aspects as you do actually forging. If you really like forging, it makes a great avocation, but you have to be cut from a different cloth to make a living doing it and most folks just don't realize how much you have to invest to make it work.
I think the most compelling thing I get from smithing is that it allows me to escape the chattering monkey in my mind. It accesses the right brain and challenges me in ways I could never have imagined. I forge for therapy, it makes me whole. There are full days that go by when I do not form a sentence, I am actively engaged in the moment and have visible results at the end of the day that describe my journey. It has given me the enjoyment of acquiring skills and forced me to learn about harmony and beauty.
Everywhere I have lived I find that smiths network and gather to share still. In Alabama the Forge Council was very active in holding meetings and classes as well as hosting several large hammerins. It is important that smiths cooperate and there are many times where one smith will get a large job and bring in other smiths to help with the work. Of course there will always be folks who do not; I think they will find that this one way attitude is very detrimental to their business and growth. As long as there is an open model of sharing and helping one another the craft will continue to expand.
I am encouraged by the influx of younger folks coming into the craft. As I teach around the country I have been noticing a younger student body. This is great for the health of the craft, but there are many negative developments as well. I think the influx of cheap forged components makes it harder to compete, but the biggest challenge is to educate the public of the value of handmade work. We are the most over marketed population on the planet and within this constant din of advertising we must learn how to capture people's attention.
What we are offering has intrinsic value, but we must make the case so that the general public knows and appreciates what we do. I truly believe that by dedicating ourselves to learning a complex and challenging craft, developing skills, and dedicating ourselves to producing quality work, we are doing a great service to our culture. Living with beautiful, well made objects that will survive us, provides a balance to the fast pace, high stress lifestyles most folks live. They are a reminder of what it means to be human and that there are alternatives, that we can make choices in our lives that will provide lasting enrichment. The struggle is to make people aware of what we have already learned and to share our joy and passion. We are on the cusp of change and many people today are looking for real value in their lives, we are hungry for it.
For the crafts to survive we need to be creative in our efforts to reach the public consciousness. Our craft organizations need to invest in fresh approaches, establish models that support the individual artist and not just feed off their efforts. We need to get our institutions involved in this effort and put real energy into promoting the crafts. We need to utilize the new communication tools to their maximum, internet, video, and traditional media. We need to move from a counter culture to main stream, but it will only happen if we all make the effort. We need fresh thinking if we are going to survive.
Editor’s Note:
Well the holidays are here and it will soon be time for us to reflect, for a moment at least, on the past year. I try to take stock of my accomplishments and more importantly look for ways to have done them better. I usually find that the only way I ever get anything done is if I set a goal to get them done. This year will be no exception. I have a gate to make, fireplace tools and numerous hooks and other smaller items to be made and I haven’t made it to the reflecting part yet. Hahaha. Let’s not forget to reflect on the fellowship of our Guild and try to make a list of what will make it better for all of us. We will have some new board members and maybe some new ideas of where we will go as a Guild. There maybe some who feel that the Guild recently has not provided all it should and that might be true in some respects, but if your feeling that way then you need to let your voice be heard either at meetings or as a board member. Some of the Board and Officers may work harder than others and not always do what we might think that they should, these are the fellow members that you have elected. It may be too late to be nominated for the board, but next year there are the Officer elections, become one. Okay that’s enough soap boxing for me. We have a great meeting coming up the 21st of December at Steve LaPaugh’s AKA Warwick Forge. Speaking of Steve I want to express a hearty THANK YOU, Steve has supplied pictures and articles for our newsletter almost every month this year. This being the final issue for the year I find myself wondering what I will do to make the next 12 issues better. All I can say is that the newsletter really is only as good as you contribute. If you look back on the year you will probably find that the issues you enjoyed most are the issues that had a lot of member contributions in them. Keep that in mind and next time you look at something that you would like to share with someone, think about sharing it with the guild. Well I hope that you have all enjoyed my attempts at making the newsletter interesting and pertinent to your interests. I look forward to the coming year.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah
Remember to Vote for the Board Members of Your Choice!!!
Annie Roche * Lemuel Brown * Bob Orcutt * Mike Lambiase * Diane deBeixedon * Rusty Heeley *
*Bear Short *Eric Hinckley
Tidewater Blacksmiths Guild Mission Statement
“The Tidewater Blacksmiths Guild is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the craft of Blacksmithing and to increasing the public awareness of the history of Blacksmithing while at the same time demonstrating that in this world, things hand made still exist and remain objects of art”
2008 TBG Officers:
President: Travis Covington (757) 617-9174 travis@covforge.com
Vice Pres: Tom Herendeen (757) 548-8800 twoherrons@aol.com
Treasurer: Steve LaPaugh (757) 877-5684 slapaugh@verizon.net
Secretary: Joe Gentile (757) 965-6878 amx-ray@cox.net
2008 Board of Directors:
Diane deBeixedon (757) 627-9962 ddebeixedon@cox.net
Bear Short (757) 485-5117 hydraconstinc@aol.com
Eric Hinckley (757) 497-6067 usnbear2@cox.net
Emory Ewell (757) 482-1448 eewell1@cox.net
Rusty Heeley (757) 484-3054
Committee Chairs:
Demonstrations: Hospitality: Tom Herendeen twoherrons@aol.com
Vince Parrish snoozp@aol.com Scholarship:
Mike Keeney scforge@cox.net
Librarians: Website:
Diane deBeixedon ddebeixedon@cox.net Travis Covington travis@covforge.com
Eric Hinckley usnbear2@cox.net Building Fund:
Newsletter: Joe Gentile amx-ray@cox.net
Vince Nakovics restoreman123@msn.com Diane deBeixedon ddebeixedon@cox.net
Vince Nakovics restoreman123@msn.com
Tidewater Blacksmiths Guild meets every third Sunday of the month. Location of the meeting is posted on our website: http://tidewaterblacksmiths.com
Demonstration Schedule: None scheduled at this time.
Special Addition a short video of Keith Hicks by Vince Parrish
Keith Hicks Demo