In this week’s CRAFT Video, Meg Allan Cole and I took a trip to Brooklyn’s She-Weld studio for a special blacksmithing lesson from Alex Himmelbaum. He showed us how to taper and decoratively curl the end of a steel rod and rivet it to a hammered backplate. It’s the burliest paper towel holder we’ve seen, forged from hot steel. Head over to CRAFT for more photos.
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8 thoughts on “Basic Blacksmithing on CRAFT (video)”
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I went to a Forge Day at a local nature reserve recently. It was awesome. The blacksmiths were extremely open about their craft. I got a chance to swing the hammer a bit, and ended up making a steak turner with a similar scroll on the handle. I’m definitely interested in trying my hand at it again. One tip that the fellow I worked with gave me for an anvil was to look for a length of railroad. Because of the metal they are made of and all the compression they experience over their lifetime, they are extremely hard, and make great anvils. He also highly recommended starting with a small propane forge.
Awesome, thanks for the tips!
Great demo, easy to understand and an excellent first project for anyone.
However,
Very disappointed that no-one in the studio is wearing proper safety equipment. If you are smithing than you NEED to be wearing ear defenders, as well as didumium safety glasses. None told me about this stuff then I was starting and now I have eye and ear damage.
http://www.centaurforge.com/Didumium-Curved-Lens-Glasses-48-mm/productinfo/3517/
yeah lady you totally “know” how to blacksmith now.