Historic Warwick Blog: Beginning Blacksmithing at The Historical Society of the Town of Warwick

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Beginning Blacksmithing at The Historical Society of the Town of Warwick

2 Days of Intensive Blacksmithing for Tuition/
16 Hours of Instruction/
Saturday and Sunday,
April 28 & April 29, 9AM-5PM

Tuition: $375, materials included

Class Limit: 6

Where: Hasbrouck Carriage Barn (Behind Baird’s Tavern). We will use portable forges.

Weather Dependent.

Instructor: Adriaan Gerber

Mr. Gerber is a full time blacksmith. He refers to himself as a “bladesmith”, as much of his creative output results in high quality knives, axes, and swords that he sells world-wide. These objects are entirely created by hand and without power tools, although most recently Mr. Gerber has employed the use of an antique trip hammer for the purpose of preparing the metal billets he uses in his work. Mr. Gerber’s home smithy is located in Lamoine, Maine, near Acadia National Park.

Show up to class with cotton clothing, no synthetics. Long sleeve shirts, no coats with nylon shells, safety glasses are required, and you might start out with a 2 1/2 or 3 lb. drilling hammer of your own( after you swing this a number of times it will feel heavier so I prefer the 2 1/2 lb. weight). There will be hammers and other tools to complete the class.

Day 1 / 9-5PM, 8Hours: Introduction to Safety, Materials and tools of the trade. Tapering. Drawing Out Metal. Heating, bending, twisting and shaping. Make a drift tool for punching holes. Tempering. Using the Cross Pein Hammer or drilling hammer to forge a basic s-hook. Decorative Bending. Setting down using half-faced blows. Make "S" Hook and/or "J" Hook. Forge a Set of Skewers or a fireplace poker with fancy handle(s).

More hot-cutting and splitting. Separating split parts for better access. Smoothing out cuts using the vise. Tapering to a square point. Drawing out metal. Forging square taper to octagonal and round. Flattening and twisting. Forging out a meat fork. Upsetting. Reducing metal width to form a neck. Preventing folds. Flattening. Drawing Down, bending and filing using the vise.

Day 2/ 9-5PM, 8 Hours: Using knowledge from Day 1 forge out a spatula (to be used for forge welding). Preparing for Welding. Upsetting and Scarfing. Fire Control For Welding. Using Flux. Forge Welding. Forging a spoon. Preparing for Welding. Upsetting and Scarfing. Fire Control For Welding. Using Flux. Forge Weld a Ring.
See Adriaan Gerber in action in this video (click):

Visit: http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid and see Adriaan Gerber in action.

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At our Summer History Camp this year kids will dig up crystals that fluoresce under a special black light. The crystals were actually discovered in the area as early as the 1820s and collectors from all over the United States and Europe came to the specifically places like Amity in the Town of Warwick to find these rare specimens for their museums, universities and their private collections. One of the largest off site exhibitions of these crystals is found in the Ecoles des Mines in Paris; there are over 150 samples of minerals specifically from Amity, NY in that collection which were discovered in large in the 1830s. What is interesting to imagine is that geologist and mineralogists from the greatest institutions of higher learning were traveling by horseback and carriage to the wilds of Warwick in the 1820s and 1830s to find rocks for their cabinets of curiosities.

Wawayanda Furnace ( 19th century ) the furnace that many of us remember seeing on our trips to the New Jersey State Park actually was integral to iron ore production supplied by Warwick mines. On a recent sojourn into the woods we visited some local iron ore mines that would have supplied the mid-nineteenth century Wawayanda Furnace. Of course, these operations were supplanted by the end of the nineteenth century when places with better quality ore that were closer to cheaper forms of transportation, like water and rail shut them down.

Ken Hamilton, "Woodlands Interpreter", will present the early 18th century life of Algonquin-speaking people, like the Minsi people of the Lenape tribe, of what was later named by Benjamin Aske as "Warwick." Here we see a trade camp with historially accurate artifact reproductions produced by Mr. Hamilton by hand; he an accomplished leatherworker, blacksmith and silversmith. As an "historical artifact artist", Mr. Hamilton produces props used in many living history scenarios and museums throughout the country. He will share some of his knowledge with campers at the Summer History Camp 2012. See further details.