2001-10-25 - 9:43 a.m.
I received an exciting bit of information the other night. Badger is coming back to Tidewater!
It has been about a year and a half since I took up my hammer and started to teach myself how to be a blacksmith. During those dark times when I was avoiding the list, I was jumping from one art to another looking for one that called to me. I was learning how to carve horn and amber and work leather under the guidance of Ross and Shrew. I liked working leather, but it was a bit tedious, carving was neat but it took so long, and well my hand is simply not steady enough to put ink to paper. I was in an art rut.
Now I had seen blacksmiths before, but it always seemed impossible for me to get started in it. I had no anvil, no fire, and no teacher. That was when I met a fellah who was new to the SCA. Eric was a smith. He had an anvil that had been passed down to him from his grandfather, and a forge made from the brake drum of an old truck. For a blower he used his mom�s hairdryer, and for roof to work under he used the great blue sky. The first time he had invited me to his place to bang some steel it was a bitter 20 degrees F outside and there were several inches of snow covering the ground. Of course, that did not keep the forge from lighting off, and in a few minutes we were huddled around the fire deciding what we were going to make.
After a few minutes Eric decided that I would create a snail. He gave me a hammer, a piece of steel, pointed at the forge and said hop to it. Now you can imagine my surprise here. I had never done this before, I might break something, I didn�t want to ruin his anvil�it was almost 150 years old�what do I do, how do I do it�? Eric, gotta tell ya, you�re the bomb. You simply said look dude it's not like you can break anything, it's and anvil. It�s heavy and hard, and with that 3-pound hammer, if you can break it�well I would pay to see that. So I put my piece of � inch stock in the fire, brought it up to temperature, turned to the anvil, and proceeded to make what I thought was a snail. Eric just watched. When I was done, I had managed to curl the steel up on its self to represent the shell of the snail, and had flattened the end to represent the head. I then split the end to make little eyestalks. I then futzed with it till I was happy with it. I still have that ugly little thing.
Eric told me when I had finished that he had wanted to see if I had any natural talent for working iron, he wanted to see if I could understand how the metal would move, he wanted to see if I really wanted to be a blacksmith. Hehe well according to him I passed with flying colors. I didn�t burn myself, the forge and the heat didn�t intimidate me, and I had in fact made something that sortta resembled a snail. Eric gave me a reading list, and told me where to start looking for smithing supplies, and told me that he would be happy to let me use his set up, and teach me what little he knew about smithing. Soon after that my good friend Brian gave me my first cross peen hammer. It was nothing fancy, 3-pound craftsman, of German design, but it is to this day still my favorite. After I got my hammer, I found an old army forge at a junk store. I know now how over priced it was, but at the time all I knew was that it was a forge, and I didn�t have one. How my sweetie managed to find the money to buy it is still a mystery to me, for we were living of a pretty tight budget at the time, but sure enough that forge came home with me that day. Now all I needed was an anvil. That soon appeared in the form of an old broken down beast that my friend Tunis gave to me. It was missing its heel, and had no edges left to speak of, but by god it was an anvil.
Enter the Badger�Badger is a good friend of Ross and Shrew, and a smith of some renowned. He was passing through the area and heard that I was trying to teach myself how to work iron. A 3 day delay in his trip, many hours spent at my rag tag forge, and I found myself armed with the basic skills that I would need to learn the art of blacksmithing. I have always said that I learned more in the 3 days I spent with Badger that I had in the last year and a half that I have been teaching myself. I give all credit to Eric who got me started, and to Badger who taught me the basics. To you fellahs I say thanks. And to the world I say watch out. Badger is coming to town, he plans to stay, and he is looking for an apprentice! I suspect my anvil will be ringing loud and long in the days to come.
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