Hey, Have you heard....

When you have a hobby you suddenly become an expert to everyone you know on all things even remotely related to that hobby. It's a natural phenomenon. People interact with you, discover your hobby and, either out of genuine interest or mere politeness, they try to engage with you on that topic. Sometimes it's a bunch of questions on the origin of the hobby and how you came to be involved, or it's a story about a friend or relative who is also into that hobby. Sometimes they relate a time when they, themselves, dabbled in that hobby.

As a hobby blacksmith, there is a minimum of 5 common points of conversation that come up.

1. Ancestral blacksmithing, either mine, theirs or someone they know
2. Horseshoes
3. The Renaissance Faire
4. Civil War Re-enactment
5. Have I heard about the blacksmithing shows on The History Channel called "Forged in Fire" and "Milwaukee Blacksmith"?

These are all fine topics and talking about them is a pleasure. I appreciate, just like anyone else, someone taking an interest in me or the things I like to do.

When "Forged in Fire" came out, I heard a lot about it because it had the word "Forge" right in the title. I don’t subscribe to any cable or satellite service nor do I even have an antenna hooked up for broadcast television so I couldn’t watch the show on schedule. My TV viewing experience is limited primarily to my Bluray player for disks, Netflix or YouTube. It wasn’t until I discovered I could cast the programs on the TV via my smartphone using The History Channel App that I started watching these shows with some regularity. Most people know I carry a knife with me most of the time and have a small collection of them that I rotate through. People naturally thought a show about making knives and swords and axes and all kinds of other weapons would not only be a show I would love to watch but also, since it's a competition show, try to compete on.

They are partially correct.

I very much enjoy the show. It's style is identical to a competitive cooking show on The Food Network called "Chopped". Four smiths use their skills to complete a challenge in a set amount of time with one smith being eliminated after each round. The winner gets $10,000. It’s a wonderful show, the panel of judges are tough but fair and often act as cheerleaders for the people competing. There is a minimal amount of drama and the show mostly focuses on the craftsmanship of the smiths competing. You can see some truly wonderful work and if you're not too jaded, you might even get swept up in the action. I watch this show with my wonderful girlfriend Jessie and we both find ourselves gasping when something goes really wrong or oohing and ahhing when something goes really right. We look forward to watching whenever we can.

However, as much as I like watching this show, there is NO WAY I want anything to do with being on it. I don’t like working under that kind of pressure and I cannot stand having someone scrutinize and judge my work. When I’m working on stuff I like keeping my own pace and having the piece naturally come to fruition. I will happily remain a spectator.

Milwaukee Blacksmith is a whole other matter. That show appears to be closely modeled after “Orange County Choppers” where there is a family business and they have a crazy deadline or challenge to meet and or overcome and there are family arguments but in the end there is success. There is also an unnecessary recap after each commercial break taking away from overall content. The show has a much more scripted feel about it and some of the drama of the episode can induce a bit of eye-rolling.

That does not keep it from being a show I’m very fond of. Jessie and I have watched the episodes as they have become available and quite enjoy a good deal of the programming. The projects that come out of that shop are wonderful and seeing scenes from around Milwaukee and the surrounding area in a program like this is pretty cool. Earlier today we were at the Kenosha Harbor Market and afterwards stopped by the Dinosaur Museum to check out the T-Rex Statue they created in the most recent episode.

We have already planned on adventuring to see other projects on display. The show is also good for Milwaukee in that it promotes a city that has a long history in manufacturing. There are also some really beautiful shots of Milwaukee in the transition scenes. Providing the show doesn’t turn into the drama-filled screamfest that O.C.C. turned into, I expect we will be watching regularly. I may even look into taking their Blacksmithing 101 class offered on their website. Learning is an ongoing adventure.

Hey Stranger!!

It has been a while since I posted here an it is time for that to change. Life is gathering momentum. Fox River Forge has been at it's final permanent residency for several months now and the anvil has been more active then ever before! I have a great many stories to share so please check back from time to time to see what's going on. I will post updates to the FRF Facebook page when theu occure but I have always felt this platform is better suited to what I want to do. I look forward to sharing with you.

Chris
Fox River Forge

My New Hammer

I have always been interested in working with metal and had even made a couple metal sculptures but nothing ever really serious or focused. A little over 6 years ago I received a book about blacksmithing as a birthday present from my parents. As I was reading through it I began to think that this was something I would like to try. As I do with most things I am interested in, I began to research it. Looking online for blacksmithing websites and checking out the library and of course I ended up on YouTube.
As a research tool, YouTube is almost priceless. It allows me to access practical information regarding almost any subject I’m looking for. I began surfing through the pages and pages of videos from all over the world covering all kinds of things related to the topic I was interested in. I began to notice that two names kept popping up. One of the names was GaryHuston and the other was TechnicusJoe. I began watching and re-watching various videos these guys posted and I learned quite a bit. I sort of considered myself as their unofficial intercontinental apprentice.
Time went on and I joined a blacksmithing page on Facebook. One day I see that TechnicusJoe has joined this same page! I was jazzed so I sent him a friend request which he accepted. He then sent me a message saying hello! I will fully admit to being a little star struck. Here is a person, who lives in The Netherlands, whose channel I’ve been studying for years and has thousands of views sending me a message! I had to fight to contain myself. We chatted briefly and time moved on.
Recently, Joe’s YouTube channel hit 1 million views and he posted a video on the subject of raising money in order to continue to make videos and support himself. I sent him a message asking if he would consider commissioned work. I saw he had made a couple hammers and I was interested in maybe having him make me a 2.5 lbs. cross-peen. He replied saying that he could make me a hammer but that it would be very expensive and the cost of shipping would be high considering it was coming from The Netherlands.
I had previously priced out hand-forged hammers so I knew what to expect. We talked back and forth and negotiated a deal that worked out for both of us. He even offered to make a video of him making my hammer! I said I would do an honest video review of his hammer in turn. Here are those videos.


Joe Making My Hammer


Some pictures Joe sent me of my hammer being made

Footage of me using my hammer for the first time




My Review of the hammer Joe made me




As I said in my review video, Working with Joe on this was a wonderful experience. He was very accommodating and asked a variety of questions so that he could make me the best hammer possible. If you’re in the market for a custom made hammer that will last a lifetime and out-perform ANYTHING found in the stores, contact Joe HERE.

2015 update and goals

Happy 2015 Friends!

I thought I’d update everyone on how things are going at Fox River Forge. We are moved into our final location! We have returned to Big Bend and now reside in a garage a short distance from where we first started. In truth, I had wanted to set up in this location all along but I needed to work out the details a little more than I had at the time. Since then I have been out there working on things, building skills and working out the layout of the shop. It still needs some work but it is functional and I feel a real connection with the building we’re in. I will put together a post dedicated to the new shop location. I expect there will be an accompanying video as well.

In this post I want to lay out some goals for 2015. I’m in a place where I believe I can personally dedicate more focus on the forge. I would like to establish some items I want to accomplish this year and then at the end of the year we can review and see how we did. So here are5 things I want to accomplish by December 2015.

1. Do an off-site blacksmithing demo for a public group. This will involve loading my gear, going somewhere, setting up a portable smithy and working with people who have had little if any experience with this craft.

2. Continue to create items at the home location that will eventually be available for purchase. I’d like to have a surplus of wall hooks, bottle openers, corkscrews and other items available to anyone interested in purchasing something like this.

3. Become confident in the task of forge-welding. I see this as an essential skill I will need in order to really grasp the fundamentals of this craft. I have made 3 successful welds so far. I would like to refine the quality and appearance of my welds.

4. I would like to start offering individual blacksmithing classes. These would be a 4 to 6 hour session with an overview of the blacksmithing trade and hands-on experience leading to the student crafting their own piece to take with them.

5. Possibly open an Etsy store. This will depend almost 100% on how goal #2 works out. I briefly looked into it recently and it was enough to confirm my guess that I am not at all ready for one right now.

So there it is, my 2015 goal for Fox River Forge. Here are some photos of items I have made in the past few months.

Skill Set Breakthrough!

Greetings everyone!  Things have been moving along here Fox River Forge. We will be moving, yet again, in the near future to our final location but in the meantime I have been able to put hammer to steel a little more regularly. 

I recently achieved a very important personal goal I set; forge welding. This is exactly what it sounds like. I was able to weld two pieces of metal by heating the metal to near its melting point and hammering it together to form one piece. 

The first weld I achieved was some flat stock I bent into a ring and welted the ends together.  After that success,  I decided to try it again with the purpose of making two connected rings. 

Success was sweet. They aren't very pretty and I think the integrity of the weld may be low to moderately decent, what I learned about the process from these successes was immense. I'm very proud of this. I will be working on this skill more in the future. It is a very important skill for a blacksmith to have. 

A lamp for Kim.

Greetings friends. Long time, no word. I apologize for that. Things have been kinda crazy for me both with the forge and outside the forge but that's a story for another time. This post is about my very first lamp! Late last year I contacted a friend of mine who is a potter about making me several coffee mugs. After some discussion we worked out a work in trade where she would make the mugs and I would make her something at the forge. After some brainstorming we settled on a desk lamp. She wanted it to be completely original and of my own design and wanted no input on it what-so-ever so it would be a surprise. The only thing I made her decide on was if it was going to be painted or raw. She chose painted. Here are some pictures of the process.

Once it was finished, I went looking and found a lamp shade took it home and made a video.A video I made once I put a bulb in it and put the shade on it can be watched HERE.

What's up with the forge??

It has been way too long since I posted here. Life has a way of getting in the way. Anyway, I thought I would bring everyone up to speed on events here at the forge. I stated in the last post that we were remodeling the smithy in order to have an indoor workshop. Those plans are still in effect but various details including site location have changed dramatically. We were originally going to build a small enclosed smithy on the site where the forge was located. Before doing this I wanted to get permission from the land owner so as to not step on anyone’s toes. It soon transpired that there was some dispute as to who actually owned that piece of land. One owner was the person who lives right next to the spot. He would regularly visit me while I was working. The other potential owner was a Farmer who lives up the road from the location and owns the surrounding fields. I diplomatically got permission from both parties and began acquiring materials. I was working with a good friend and co-worker named Steve. I know what I wanted but it was Steve that came up with the design and even donated some material in addition to his time and knowledge. We began building the day after Thanksgiving 2012 and after several weekends in the cold and rain and snow we were ¾ of the way done when one of the owners contacted me and told me I had to take it down for tax and insurance reasons. We were crushed. All that effort and money was going to be wasted. The other land owner in question found out and immediately began researching where his property line ended and eventually discovered that it ended about 10 feet from one of the walls of our shop. There was no other recourse. It took weeks before I could even go down to the site and look at it. I told Steve we had to take it down and a few days later he came to me and said after discussing it with his wife, he would like to offer space on his property to set up the smithy. It wouldn’t be as big but it would eventually be enclosed. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and accepted. While we were building the smithy, I was also helping him remodel the other half of the duplex he owns as a “work in trade” sort of deal. His Mother had been living there but has suffered a bad fall and required an assisted living environment. He offered the opportunity for me to rent it and I jumped at the chance. Not only was this a massive upgrade in living quarters, it would allow me access to the smithy at any time. I moved the hearth and other vital supplies over to the location Steve set aside for me and set it up. He also had someone at work draw up and burn a sign for the forge out of some steel so we put that up as well.

Yesterday, we finally went out to the old site and tore down the building. I will clean up the site and salvage what I can. It’s been a long frustrating year but I have been able to do some things. I built a prototype paper towel rack.

I did an artistic modification to a machete for a costume.

And I made a snake out of a small spike.

I look forward to increasing the production from FRF. I will be sure to keep you all in the loop.