Subject: Re: blacksmithing, a last (bet not!) thought

From: [email-masked] (George Dixon)
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 12:17:09 -0500

There is one more perspective on the "blacksmithing" issue I would offer.......

Before I came to blacksmithing I owned an operated a fabrication business.
We did the type of metal fabrication that went into small and medium sized
construction contracts.  As a result I am more than passingly familiar with
the possibilities of modern fabrication techniques in metal.

When I made the switch to traditional blacksmithing I soon came to realize
that if I wanted to achieve a specific look to my work, traditional
blacksmithing techniques were the way to go.  They are usually quicker and
'cleaner' in result than trying to achieve the same look with modern
fab-shop techniques.  The joinery of traditional blacksmithing requires no
clean-up in the sense that a weld bead does.  If you don't want the welding
to show you would have to grind, sand and reheat the piece...design
traditional joinery into the work and when it's collered or riveted it's
done.

Chisel cuts not only look like what you will file a saw cut to achieve,
they are often quicker to do.  Cutting a complex pattern in sheet metal,
bronze or steel, with a chisel and a treadle hammer is not only quicker
than sawing but the thin, wedge shape of the chisel gives the cut a natural
bevel edge as a by product of process. Laser-cuts are fine if you want to
either dress the edges to look like chisel cuts or if sterile, utterly
mechanical edges and  repetitive patterns are called for.  (Besides, if you
chisel it youself you gain skill and mastery of a process....farm out the
design to be cut commercially and you gain a reciept).
Slit and drifted holes not only look better than a drilled hole in a rail,
they leave the bulk of the original stock (as opposed to the stock removed
by drilling) which gives you a stronger pierced bar.  Find a fab-shop that
can put a 1" hole in a 3/4" bar.................

The point of this is simple...if you master traditional process (even if
you apply it to contemporary design) you can, in many cases, do the work
with less trouble and with a better visual result than you can when you try
to 'fake' the effect with modern tools.

The tube-steel question I had a while ago is a case for the mix.  I am
welding a stainless steel tube frame for a fire enclosure.  This allows my
work to fit a precise architectural setting and accomodate the rectalinear
glass.  The 14g sheet that is covering the frame is forge textured
(repeated high-temp passes through the fire to achive a rich pattern on the
sheet, which is then hand sanded). The negative spaces are chisel-cut as
are the decorative incisings. The moldings and corner bars are forged,
chased and chiseled as are the handles.  The sheet and moldings are riveted
to attachments on the frame so externally I have no false joinery to
conceal, in fact the joinery is part of the design.  It is, again, quicker
than trying to conceal a weld.

The key is to use traditional blacksmith process until you are as familiar
with it as you are with a MIG, and design your work to take advantage of
the visual by-products of that process.
George Dixon

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From: [email-masked] (Clay Spencer)
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 21:53:15 -0500

>clean-up in the sense that a weld bead does.

George makes the same point I've heard Francis Whitaker make many times.

Once you have assembled the equipment, tools and SKILLS to hand forge a
piece, and have developed and honed your techniques, maybe made a jig or
two, then you can do a lot of hand forged work just as fast as you can weld
and clean up fab shop work.

If we can educate the architects, interior designers and buying public as
to what the difference is we will have more of a market for handforged work
than we can supply.
Clay