Forging a future with ancient art form

Charles Burns flattens a metal rod as he prepares for the next step in his blacksmith class. (T-G Photo by Mary Reeves) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Out of the darkness, lights glow bright, then fade again, literally beaten back into darkness. Harsh metal clangs soften to chimes and underneath it all is the constant roar of fire. Steam rises in hot, hissing billows. At first, it seems like a scene from Hades, with shadowy figures hunched over their work, hammering out the noise and pounding down the bright sparks.

But when they step back and reveal the results, you realize it is creation, not destruction going on here. Out of dark, dull and shapeless metal, they have created shining works of art. Pot hooks, andirons, napkin rings -- elegant and unique tools and decorations have been pounded, pulled and coaxed out of hot iron and human force.

Not bad work for students who have only been blacksmithing for three months now.

"As far as I know, this is the only blacksmith class at a technical school in the state of Tennessee," said Ken Preiser, who is teaching the course with Bruce Gillies at the Tennessee Technology Center in Shelbyville.

Preiser has been a blacksmith himself for close to 40 years, and has taught it before across the country, from Lake Ontario to Motlow. He left Motlow recently, but has been on the welding advisory committee at the Tech Center for more than a decade now.

When the idea came up to add blacksmithing as part of the welding curriculum, Preiser was excited -- and a little concerned.

"There was no money budgeted for it," he said. "None."

Forging ahead

Ken Preiser examines a finished set of napkin rings while the class continues work outside at the Technology Center. (T-G Photo by Mary Reeves) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

That didn't stop the school. Director Ivan Jones, faculty member Willie Price and others got together in the machine shop and cranked out what the class would need -- anvils and forges. The metals used in the class were donated, many from businesses here in town, but some from as far away as Texas. Gilder's paste, which tints the metals different color, was donated from a company in Wisconsin. Donors included Cooper Steel and Graves Metal in Shelbyville, WWWironworks in Fayetteville, Southern Ironworks in Lynchburg, Sexton Welding Supply in Tullahoma, King Architectural Products in Dallas, and Gilders Paste.com in Elk Grove, Wisc.

The donations have also come in the form of advice and classes.

"We have gotten support from Ken Scharabock who runs Poor Boy Blacksmith Shop on the Internet," said Preiser. "He makes blacksmithing tools and lives in Waverly. He is also willing to do power hammer demonstrations for the class.

"It all came together," he said.

The students came together, too. Eleven of them gather outside the welding shop in the not-quite-cold November night, heating metal rods, then hammering them into the shape they want. Some of the students are just out of high school, some are grandfathers wanting to fill their retirement time with a new craft, and one is a woman.

"I've been in education since 1976 and this is the best batch I've ever had," said Preiser.

The class, he added, is just a starting point. Many universities offer advanced courses and some blacksmiths offer apprenticeships.

"I think it's really practical, depending on what you want to do with it," he said. "I've made a few dollars at it, working for museums. This would make a good secondary career, although some folks can make a living at it. There are three in Nashville, but that's a bigger city."

Hammering out the details

Blacksmithing as an art form today is not quite the same as blacksmithing as a trade 200 years ago. The smithy that stood under that spreading chestnut tree made wagon axles, plowshares, swords and horseshoes. The iron or steel was heated, pounded, shaped, cooled and reheated, repounded, reshaped and recooled until it became a tool necessary for life in the pre-industrial age.

These days, the same heating, pounding and shaping process is going on, but the end product is rarely something like axles or plowshares.

"It's decorative ironwork," said Preiser. "We're making fireplace tools, cheese slicers, even napkin rings."

Napkin rings. (T-G Photo by Mary Reeves) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Those napkin rings are surprisingly complex, requiring the students to coax their stubborn subject into tight coils, using hammers, pliers and clamps. It has to be done in short steps, while the metals is still red hot and malleable.

"This, I think, is the most forgiving art," said Preiser. "If you mess it up, you put it back in the forge and start over. You can't do that with woodcarving."

Another plus for decorative ironwork that is handmade instead of machine made is its uniqueness.

"In blacksmithing, which is all hand-crafted, every single piece is a little bit different," said Preiser. "You get the hard work and sweat of the maker in every single piece of their work. Most of the things that you buy today that come off of a factory line are exactly the same and they are machine-made not human-made. That is of major significance."

Strike while the iron's hot

Matte Moore of Lynchburg is one of those eyeing the craft as a secondary career, and his calling to the forge makes sense when you discover his first career. Like the blacksmiths of olden days, Moore shoes horses for a living. These days, those who put shoes on horses are called farriers, rather than blacksmiths, and they tend to work 'cold," using metal made of lighter, softer alloys that don't require the forging process.

"The horseshoing kind of pushed me to this," said Moore. "At first, I thought of it just as a second business, but I enjoy the art. I look at it like an 'old-school' aspect. The artistic side just sharpens the fulfillment."

He did say, grinning, that the transition from working on the light, cold alloys to the hot iron was tricky sometimes.

It is the artistic aspect of blacksmithing that caught the attention of the class's lone female, too, but not surprising at all when you realize she is Sherri Hunter, the tile and concrete artist and author from Bell Buckle.

"I'm interested in seeing how to move metal, how to incorporate it into my artwork," she said.

Bent out of shape

Howard Nichols coaxes a curl out of hot metal. (T-G Photo by Mary Reeves) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

So far, the students have made cheese slicers, a "simple" U-shaped bend of metal with wire strung tautly between the two ends. The shape is deceptive in its simplicity, because the metals has been twisted time and time again, creating a decorative spiral along the back of the tool.

The same techniques were used when they made fireplace tools, turning simple andirons and pokers into works of art instead. One student, Cliff Butz, added to his technique so that the spirals looked as though they were filled with chunks of metal crystals.

"It's a secret," he said when asked to explain how he did it. "It's just a matter of a touch and a twist."

There are few secrets, though. In the time-honored tradition, a blacksmith would hand down his secrets to his journeymen and apprentices when he thought they were ready, and in many cases, that still happens. But to keep the old techniques alive in the day of machine-tooled metal and cold alloys, blacksmiths share tips and talent, through classes like the one at the Tech Center, or through organizations like the American Blacksmiths of North America, on whose board Preiser has served.

"Blacksmithing goes back a long, long, long way," he said. "We're doing it the same way they did back then. I want to keep that alive."