Blacksmithing has been part of this world for hundreds of years. From swinging a hammer down on an anvil, I will show you the process from start to end.
One must have an idea of what one is going to make. Then look at the object. Look closer and understand what you're looking at. The more you can see, the easier it will be to create form and shape.
Light your forge and bring it up to the heat you desire. Place a piece of steel within. Light the forge and bring the steel to become red hot. Take out your tong and place it inside the fire, then pull out the pieces of steel you desire.
No time is wasted. Place the piece of steel against your anvil with a mighty swing of the hammer to strike against the plate of steel. With each strike, it takes a new shape. Slowly turning into the shape you desire.
Remember if you lay that piece of steel down and it's not in your fire it is still hot regardless of its color. No time to waste sticking that piece of steel back in a fire. You know how to do that. Grab your tongs and put that piece of steel in the fire. You continue doing this, shaping and bending that piece of steel.
Pretty soon your anvil and your hammer are playing a song. The rhythm of banging and climbing is heard throughout the workshop. The blacksmith cannot stop the shape far from being complete. Bending, twisting, hammering goes on for quite a while.
The blacksmith takes out his hot brush and begins to knock off all the slag off the steel. Form lays underneath the shape of a mystical quality. Look closely at the object. It looks like a heart. Let's put it back in the fire so we can temper it. Let the forge do its work bringing the object to the color we desire and then drench it into a bucket of water.
Now a hot brush is needed to complete the task. Back in the fire it goes, relaxing the molecules that sit inside the steel. Take out some beeswax that sits on the counter. You don't need the steel to be red hot but hot enough to open the pores of the steel. Apply the beeswax upon the steel allowing the steel the soak up the wax. Hot brush against the wax and steel bringing to life. The objrvy is created. Do you love it or do you throw it away? I guess it's all about how you feel about what your create
The conclusion of this task always take time. Time to think what you want and who you want it to be. For me it is the blacksmith. I am the one that hammers steel against the anvil forming shapes into works of art. Always creating, always having new beginnings.
Now for a call to action. Take the first step and ask for help. We are nothing if we don't ask for help from each other. Through the world of sharing, we as a community come together and create new opportunities. In blacksmithing it can take two to three men and women swinging the hammer to form a shape.
Sincerely Tolley Marney
https://www.facebook.com/tolley.marney/videos/2160705660944070/blacksmithing video
