Blacksmither Radio

This week I’ve got Haley Woodward and Colby Brinkman out of Austin Texas.  To get a good idea of each of their forging skills have a look at each of their websites, www.Haleywoodward.com and www.metalmantis.com .  We had a great conversation about the each of their blacksmithing backgrounds, the Austin Forging Competition they started, which by the way is coming up on April 21st and let me announce the competitors that will be there this year; Monica Coyne, John Rais and Steven Yusko, The Vasquez Brothers, Mike Rossi and Daniel Beck, JR Lodico, Jim Masterson and Logan Hirsh (2017 winners), Meagan Crowley and Elizabeth Brim, James Viste and Brad Nichols.  Anyway, Haley and Colby talk about the infamous bus ride to Mexico and about their duo demo at the CBA Spring Conference. And that brings us to our sponsor for today’s episode and that’s the 2018 CBA Spring Conference organizers. To register, head over to www.calsmith.org and click on the events tab for the online registration button. What We Talked About  

This is the Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin.  Where you get the low-down about upcoming classes and events that are happening in the following month, I’m talking about March 2018 for this bulletin.  If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to info@blacksmither.com and I will send you the details I need for the press release.

This is week I have a returning guest, Ellen Durkan, from Delaware.  She’s an incredibly talented artist blacksmith that has a line of metal dresses called Forged Fashion.  She is also an adjunct professor at the Delaware College of Art and Design.  She will be a demonstrator at the upcoming CBA Spring Conference and that also happens to be the sponsor for today’s episode.  This year is their 40th anniversary, so it’s a big event and Dennis Dusek and his conference crew have been diligently planning for the past 6 months.  They have a talented line up of demonstrators, Zeevik Gottlieb, Lynda Metcalfe, Ellen Durkan, Haley Woodword, Colby Brinkman, David Lisch. The dates are April 12th through the 14th and if you register before March 22nd the price is $165 for all 3 days. The venue will be the Eldorado County Fairgrounds in Placerville, California. To register, head over to www.calsmith.org and click on the events tab for the online conference registration button. What We Talked About Ellen is teaching drawin

For this episode I wanted to share an article from the latest Jan/Feb issue of the California Blacksmith Association magazine.  It’s about a CBA member, Serene Silva of Santa Cruz, travelling to Cuba in search of blacksmiths.  She was awarded a grant from CBA for the trip and this article is part of her commitment to CBA in exchange for the grant.  I love learning about blacksmith scenes in countries around the world and Cuba especially since it’s such a mystery to most Americans because of the travel restrictions for us that have been in place for years. Now I’d like to take the time to thank our sponsors for today’s episode and that’s the Eureka Springs School of the Arts, aka ESSA.  It’s a non-profit school located in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  This year, they are celebrating 20 years of teaching the arts!  To see the complete list of classes for 2018, visit the website, http://essa-art.org/ or give them a call (479) 253-5384.  OK, here is the article titled “An American Blacksmith in Cuba” by Serene Silva

This week I’ve got David Lisch, he’s a blacksmith turned award-winning Master Smith knife maker, from Yelm, Washington.  A respected innovator of unique guard designs and Damascus steel that can be seen in his beautiful knives. David has run a successful blacksmith business for 25 years in Seattle and now teaches at his school, Oak Grove Forging Facility in Yelm WA. He achieved a Master Smith rating from the American Bladesmith Society (ABS)in 2015 and is the 6th Master Smith in the state of Washington. Now you’ll have to listen all the way to the end of the interview, because after I wrapped it up with Dave and we said our good bye’s I always turn off the recorder and follow up with the guest to see how they thought it went.  In this instance, I ended up asking Dave about the Forged in Fire comment he mentioned, so I turned the recorder back on and you could hear his Forged in Fire experience. What We Talked About David now fills most of his time making high-end award-winning knives and teaching classes whi

This is the Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin.  Where you get the low-down about upcoming classes and events that are happening in the following month, though this month I’ll be telling you about classes and events happening in January and Feb 2018.  I’ve got a lot of schools and events lined up for the rest of the year coming at you every month. If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to info@blacksmither.com and I will send you the details I need for the press release. This year is the bi-annual ABANA conference which will be held in Richmond Virginia June 27th – 30th, registration is open on the abana.org website.    Also, this year’s CBA Spring conference is held in Placerville, CA, just outside of Sacramento, the dates are April 12th – 14th and registration just opened on their website, www.calsmith.org, this year it’s $180 for the 3-day event. As of Jan 1 Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, application process opens for the two blacksmith summer sessions they will be holding.  The t

Guest Intro paragraph This week I’ve got Evan Wilson from Austin, Texas who is the program director for the blacksmith shop at this nonprofit community organization called Mobile Loaves and Fishes. The Community Forge & Woodshop empowers their community of homeless members to engage in the creation of timeless crafts while also earning a dignified income. Through blacksmithing, woodworking and a range of other projects, the men and women in this Community Works program become part of a restorative journey toward social contribution, financial stability and a mastery of handcrafting skills. Their craftsmen and artists receive 100% of the profit from the sale of their products, enabling them to become more settled and experience greater stability in Community First! Village. They also encounter a greater sense of purpose, healing, and friendships — foundational components of life that every person needs and deserves. What We Talked About   Evan talks about his experience being a striker for Claudio Bottero

This week’s guests are Shaun Williams and Sylvia Andrassy from Pampano Beach. FL.  Shaun has been blacksmithing for 10 years and is the SE Regional coordinator of the Florida Artist Blacksmith Association.  Sylvia was this year’s FABA conference event coordinator.  Together they have started a non-profit folk art school called the Guild Urban Craft and Folk Art School. What We Talked About This FABA Conference that was held in the last weekend in October of 2017, had the highest attendance ever in FABA’s entire history with 450 attendees. The conference had 6 specialty workshops and two demonstrator workshops by Lisa Johnson and Claudio Bottero. Shaun talks about his visit to Claudio’s blacksmith shop in Italy. Sylvia tells us about her beginnings in blacksmithing 3 years ago and when Shaun asked her to go to a blacksmith conference as a date! Dark Angel Armory and Forge is Shaun’s forging business, he also started teaching beginner blacksmithing and knife making classes from this location. The classes grew

This week’s episode is a quick one!  I’m a member of the California Blacksmith Association and receive the bi-monthly magazine which is expertly put together by Mike Mumford, he does a great job every time.  The latest Nov/Dec issue he wrote an article about something he saw in the education tent at the last CBA 2017 Spring Conference.  Kevin Lauritsen was demonstrating in the tent and was talking about the difference between right handed and left handed tongs and the reason for the design. I’ve never thought about it and Mike Mumford says he’s never thought about it either, so he went out to his shop and found that most of his tongs are right-handed, but found two bolt tongs that are left-handed.  So, I too, went to my shop to see what I owned.  I have 6 pairs of right-handed tongs made by Dennis Dusek, a few random tailgate pairs that are right handed and only two that are left-handed.  Those two were made and given to me by Uri Hofi and Zeevik Gottlieb. Here is what the article by Mike said: First, some r

This is the Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin.  Where you get the low-down about upcoming classes and events that are happening in the following month, I’m talking about December 2017 for this bulletin.  If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to info@blacksmither.com and I will send you the details I need for the press release.   I have to apologize for not releasing this on Nov 1st, 5 days ago.  I was visiting my family in Virginia Beach and before that, I attended the FABA conference in Ocala Florida watching the incredibly talented master blacksmith and sculptor Claudio Bottero who is from Italy. The conference began on Oct 27th and ended on the 29th and the demonstrators were Claudio Bottero, Lisa Johnson, a jewelry/metalsmithing director at an art center in Florida and Sam Salvati, a bladesmith from Maryland. It was so magical to watch Claudio and his son Massimiliano, aka Massy, forge an incredible human figure sitting on a throne. The whole sculpture ended up being about 5 ft tal

This week I’ve got Larry Wood on the line from Ohio. Last month, in September one of the most coveted blacksmith conferences was held in Troy, Ohio, it’s called the Quad State Round-up.  It’s known for its well-appointed venue that offers a large soft grass camping area, exceptional demonstration buildings, the largest number of tailgate tools sales in North America (I’m talking hundreds of pickups, row after row, selling new and old blacksmith tools that start 3 days before the conference even starts!), a spirited forging competition for all levels and an affordable ticket for the 3 day event, this year and past 5 or so years it has been $55.  I went to my first Quad state 2 years ago, they had an international theme and flew in top demonstrators from Ireland, South Africa, and Germany. This year I was unable to attend because I was teaching a week-long sculpture class at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts in Arkansas. But I was sad to miss it because it was the 40th anniversary of the Quad State Round up

This is the Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin.  Where you will get the low-down, monthly, about upcoming classes and events that are happening in the following month, which will be November 2017 for this bulletin.  If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to info@blacksmither.com and I will send you the details I need for the press release.

 Pete Braspenninx is an artist blacksmith living in Cazenovia, Michigan and is the owner of Phyre Forge.  He graduated from the University of Michigan School of Art and Design in 2004 with a focus in ceramics and jewelry.  Since being exposed to the blacksmith craft 14 years ago he has focused on transforming line into a continuous form with meticulous traditional joinery.  He has started a body of work called “Calculating Infinity” and there are 25 pieces in this body of work.  We talk about the what, why and how he calculates infinity.  We also talk about his upcoming demonstration at the 40th Quad State Round up in Troy, Ohio. That leads me to today’s sponsor, a big thank you goes out to SOFA and the Quad State Round Up Conference which started in 1977, 40 years ago.  The dates of the conference are September 22 to the 24th at the Miami County Fairgrounds in Troy, Ohio.  The demonstrators are Peter Braspenninx, Michael Bendele, Joe Bonifas (those two cats attended the very first Quadstate in 1977 and have

Allen Rozon is a blacksmith who works out of Montreal Canada.  Since initial exposure to blacksmithing through time spent learning the basics from Uri Hofi in New York state, Allen Rozon, was on a quest to spend time with highly respected teachers within the metal arts community.  An early friendship formed that would guide many of Allen’s steps taken over the years.  Taro Asano, aka Fusataro, visited Canada early in his career as a licensed master sword smith from Japan.  On that first visit, the two met at THAK Ironworks during his demonstration.  An immediate kinship developed between Taro and Allen, which deepened over the years and eventually spawned Tamahagane Arts, swordsmithing classes that draw from Fusataro’s formal apprenticeship and his 24 previous generations of swordsmiths. What We Talked About Allen explains his business, Iron Den and how it is part of a nonprofit organization and physical shop called Les Forges de Montreal. This organization started 16 years ago offering finically accessible

This is the Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin.  Where you will get the low-down about upcoming current blacksmithing events happening around the world.  The bulletins are released once a month and will announce events happening in the following month.   If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to info@blacksmither.com and I will send you the details I need for the press release.   OK, this is the September Buzz Bulletin, announcing events and classes happening in September 2017:  

Today I have Bob Menard, owner of the Ball and Chain Forge, which is mainly a custom architectural blacksmith shop in Portland Maine.  He has been in business since 1990. He is also the editor of the NEB’s quarterly newsletter.  Today we talk about his beginnings, production work, 180 lb plant hooks, what the ….and collaborative artwork projects.  Bob also gives us some golden nuggets about business insurance for blacksmiths. Today’s episode sponsorship provided on behalf of New England Blacksmiths, the ABANA affiliate serving Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island. Check us out at  http://www.newenglandblacksmiths.org/ In fact they have an event comping up called the Age of Iron at Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, MA it’s happening the 1st weekend in August,  5th and 6th for the whole weekend. And here’s an insider’s tip for my listeners,  any visitor that says they are there for the "Blacksmithing demonstrations", or for the "Age of Iron" will get the discounted gro

Joseph Campbell is an architectural metal fabricator who owns Metal Inc and the Metal Collaborative Studio in Philadelphia, PA.  You’ll hear Joe talk about the Metal Collaborative membership, it’s like a gym membership but to a metal studio outfitted with welding and blacksmithing equipment.  It’s an interesting business model that I wish would grow, giving competent blacksmiths or metal workers a place to be creative and collaborate with each other.  He mentions what membership access gives you and how much it costs.  Joe also talks about his own private and public commissions he has been getting through his metal working business. But first I want to thank our sponsor today and that’s Bob Menard of the Ball and Chain Forge in Portland, Maine.  He’s been making a tool that allows a blacksmith to increase the weight of their anvil by 30lbs and to make tools without the need for a large swage block with pass through holes, it’s the BCF Anvil Block and he’s been making them for 5 years in his forge in Maine. It

This is the Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin.  Where you will get the low-down about upcoming current blacksmithing events happening around the world.  The bulletins are released once a month and will announce events happening in the following month.   If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to info@blacksmither.com and I will send you the details I need for the press release.   OK, This is the June Buzz Bulletin, announcing events and classes happening in July 2017: