Teens as Students - Expanded

Folks:
I am seeing a trend in messages coming in related to my ongoing series of weekend training courses.
This is parents, acting as agents for their basically 'young adult' children. 
Combined with a trend for people not to bother reading the (extensive!) information already detailed on the web site.
An increasing element is parents attempting to find alternatives to standard education for individuals with some element of a learning disability. Not realizing (perhaps through lack of their own knowledge) how difficult a task blacksmithing can be, and how complex the working environment actually is.

'For the Record...'


Blacksmithing - Teens as Students

"... My 14 year old son / daughter is keen to learn how to do blacksmithing.  Are your classes or private lessons open to teens?..."

I am getting an increasing number of e-mail messages like this one. Often enough that I feel I need to create a 'standard reply' to the question. My concerns in accepting students younger than 16  is based on my own (considerable) experience - both working and teaching.

I now require all parents indicate they have read this commentary.

My response question is : 'How physically robust and developed and how mentally mature is the young person.'

I normally set 16 as the lower limit for a potential student in blacksmithing. This is primarily since below that age - with boys especially, the possible range of size, strength and co-ordination is so wide.

The tools required to undertake any effective work at the forge are a minimum of 800 gms / about 1 1/2 lbs. The student MUST be able to not only move this weight - but more importantly be able to CONTROL the tool in motion. Now consider the amount of repetition required - the course extends over a 8 hour day. About 50 - 60% of that time is applied to direct forge work.
As a comparison, the basic forging hammer is somewhat heavier than a standard nail driving hammer. The degree of control required is considerably greater.
For several of the basic forging exercises, use of an even heavier 1000 gm hammer is required (making tongs).

I am quite concerned about the effect of the kind of high impact physical activities that blacksmithing requires on the body. For that reason, I devote considerable attention not only to related safety concerns, but also to physical dynamics. Using a forging hammer correctly and effectively is not like driving nails. Individual body size, strength and proportions will effect what determines the most effective - and safe - working pattern for each student.

A number of concerns apply most specifically to teen aged students.

The truth is that teen agers are by definition still growing and maturing. This effects raw strength, physical coordination, bone and joint solidity, attention span, potential frustration level.

As a blacksmith works, all these factors combine to produce physical strain.  As someone who is light framed (ie - not that strong) myself, I know that joints and tendons are cushioned by  the muscles. Younger joints and bones are not as strong to begin with, and when there is less muscle mass supporting the underlying structure simple fatigue can result in potential injuries.

What happens is that someone attempting to use a hammer too heavy for their effective control will instinctively hold the handle with a tighter grip. This in turn tightens the tendons. As fatigue mounts, the likely hood of the hammer head striking slightly off angle increases. If this happens, the hammer suddenly will rotate, the firm grip transferring the rotation into the arm and rigid tendons. The potential exists to physically damage these tendons at the elbow. Tendon damage is basically forever.

There is  often a problem with  less mature students with simple frustration. Without ability to manage the hammer weight - effectively - it will just take too long to finish the various forming tasks during the day. Also, there is a noticeable tendency to keep working well past the point where the student is obviously too tired to continue. The very control required for effective work, and more importantly to prevent physical injury, has long been lost. I obviously watch for this with all students, but it can be very difficult to convince even an adult student that they stop working during a paid program. As you might expect, I try to keep the instruction paced to the group average. Any given course may not get through the entire outline as posted - it all depends on the work speed of the group.


I have had boys as young as 14 as students before who have been successful with the work in the course. Mind you - these have been the 'built like a football player' type of early developed young men. (In some cases notably larger and stronger than I am!) I should also point out that teen aged GIRLS physically and mentally mature at a younger age, although raw strength may be more of a consideration.
One other possibility is to accept a parent and student working as a team. I will not charge extra for this - only one work station will be provided, which will be shared between the two. Ideally this allows the younger student to do as much work as they are able, with the parent assisting on heavier physical tasks. Work will be limited to the use of a gas forge only (due to space constraints around the coal forge).

So I am willing to accept a younger student - with the clear understanding that the PARENT is knowingly accepting the greater possibility of a less successful completion of the course outline. An important consideration must be the legal liability concerns in involving any individual under the 'legal adult' age of 18 in what is a potentially risky undertaking. Most importantly the parent must clearly understand the risks related to the activities and take * full responsibility * for any possible injuries that may occur.


Increasingly, I am being asked to accept younger students who are having trouble with normal academic studies. Individuals with learning disabilities may not be suited to the complexities involved within the working environment of the blacksmith shop. There is usually lack of understanding how technically demanding effective blacksmithing work actually is. New students will need to undertake at least FIVE new physical elements SIMILATANIOUSLY to work effectively. Ideally the individual must also be able to visualize often complex shapes and sequences.

My normal teaching technique involves the flowling steps : • A quick verbal description of the forging step, illustrated with a completed sample
• A slow physical demonstration of exercise, providing details of position, motion, expected results.
• A second repeat demonstration, undertaken at 'normal working speed', indicating primary elements
• A quick verbal review of the exercise, indicating possible problems
• A project card is available for individuals to refer to, with both illustrations and point form list of the main elements
• The individual student will then undertake the indicated forming task. Every attempt is made to provide direct supervision, both in terms of of reminders, suggestions, corrections as required.

Although this may seem harsh, I am not able to provide specialized training or extensive personal instruction much beyond that sequence, within the framework of a regularly scheduled training program. Please remember that these courses are *group* situations, and the pace and delivery methods utilized must balance the needs of the group as a whole, not a single individual. As each course progresses, each builds new skills on those previously undertaken, and students must increasingly be able to work independently.


Blacksmithing does require full physical abilities. Although it might prove possible to design speciallized equipment to allow those with certain physical disabilities to participate, I personally am not willing to undertake this kind of extensive (and expensive) modifications to the Wareham Forge or its facilities. Note that the workshop is most definately *not* 'wheelchair friendly' (dirt floors, uneven floor surfaces).

I am willing to discuss the possibility of designing a 'Private Session' program for individual students who have specialized teaching needs.

Activities for Younger Norse?

1a. Activities for 5 years olds
    Posted by:  rosie5823 to the Norsefolk discussion group
    Date: Tue Feb 25, 2014 2:19 pm ((PST))

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what activities would be suitable (and safe) for 5 years old boys to do whilst in costume?

DARC has had a fair amount of experience with public demonstrations. We 
centre on daily life and the craftsman, and also are using both full 
role playing (floating interpretive level presentation of characters and viewpoints), and fairly high authenticity standards. 

Kadja & Unn - Norstead 2000

One of the single most engrossing activities for younger visitors has related to water. We are well equipped with cooperage. A major task in any 'working' day is hauling water, for which we have a couple of yokes and lots of buckets and pails.


One of our team interprets the character of a 'household slave', and she undertakes a number of tasks related to this every presentation day. Gathering a bunch of kids to 'help' bring water from source back into camp always works well. We have a number of both pails and buckets with wooden lids that keeps water in the container, rather than on the carrier.

Volunteer Helper - L'Anse aux Meadows 2010

Related to that is washing up. We have a large tub especially for this. Three primary tasks : washing the dishes after meals, washing selected clothing, washing fleece as part of the textile preparation series.

Kadja - L'Anse aux Meadows 2012

Kids love to play in water - and the whole series of getting the water, doing the task, dumping the waste water - all re-enforces how much raw labour is required for the simplest task.

There are images related to all this on the DARC web site. Check the various museum presentation descriptions, especially at L'Anse aux Meadows for Parks Canada.




First image - Darrell Markewitz, Remainder by Paul Halsz

Viking Age Forging Hammers?

On 22/02/14 2:09 PM, Zachary wrote:

I had a question on Viking era blacksmith hammers that I was hoping you could answer for me. In your research and experience, what would you say the average weight of a forging hammer was? I have read that the weights the Vikings used were different from 19th century North American smiths, but I have not yet been able to find what that weight was.

The primary reference for this is always :
the Mastermyr Find
Arwidsson & Berg
91-7402-129-X

This volume was rare at one point. but was re-issued through the action of Norm Larson Books in the early 1990's. Now available through various booksellers (but try contacting for Norm)

Norm Larson Books
5426 E. Hwy. 246, Lompoc, CA 93436
805-735-2095 Evenings
larbooks@impulse.com

I have also looked at a number of individual tool (burial) groups. These also show the same general types and sizes best illustrated by Mastermyr.

The Mastermyr Tool find is a wooden box, full of a working set of blacksmithing and woodworking tools, as well as some additional metal objects. There is some discussion as to just what the find represents, as the whole box is packed with iron objects and massively heavy (!!).

Included is a full set of metalworking hammers, ranging from specialized jewellery / raising types through to several (long handled) sledges.
Generally, these hammers are *lighter* than the range used by many contemporary blacksmiths.
This is also echoed by the general weights found in blacksmithing hammers from the other finds from the Viking Age.

Cut together direct scans from Arwidsson & Berg

The basic size seems to run about 800 gms, with a second class in about 1000 gms. (That translates to roughly 1 1/2 and 2 lbs for Americans.)

An easy way to duplicate the Norse common hammer profile is to take one of those cheap 'Chinese' square face cross peens. then re-forge the peen down to the straight line profile of the Norse type. Re-harden in oil. (I've done this several times, and had good results visually and performance wise.)

By (not unexpected) co-incidence, my main forging hammer has always been 800 gms - with my second 'heavier' hammer chosen at 1000 gms. I personally find a 1.5 kg hammer a bit too heavy to easily control. Admittedly, I am lighter in physical build (at 5 foot 11 inches / 1.75 m and 155 lbs / 70 kg).
Might be something there?

'Groomsmen' Knives

One of the things I am getting requests for increasingly are custom blades as gifts on the male side of the modern wedding ritual *.

The commission was for a pair of roughly 4 inch blades, made of layered steel, with 'pale' wooden handles. The customer had sent me an image of a commercial blade shape he liked.

The blades are made of roughly 400 layer 'flat stack' layered up from mild, high carbon and L6 alloy steels. The handle material is maple.

The finished knives.

Showing the distress pattern on the flat billet

The blades as rough forged, after annealing.

Polished, Hardened, Polished again - after Tempering (colours still showing).

After a fast etch, just to get a glimpse of the surface patterning.

The construction of the billet resulted in a flat stack at about 200 layers (three welding phases). This was drawn to a long bar, about 5 - 7 mm thick. The surface was distressed by using a pointed stone on my air die grinder. This produced a series of shallow rough tear drop cuts into the layered surface (on one side only). Each cut was about 2 cm long by 1 cm wide, about 3 mm deep.

At this point the bar was flattened again, cut and welded again with a high carbon steel core.
This has become my method when working with layered steel. This provides the hard cutting edge for a useful tool from the carbon core, but protected with the layered steel outer slabs. the layered steel is primarily a decorative effect in a blade in this size.
This final billet was drawn to the size needed to start forging the two matching blades.

Forge the actual blades. (total of 2 hours within the overall process).
Anneal.
One rough shaping polish, second surface polish.
Harden (Oil quench in this case), Heat soak (!!)
Fast cleaning polish, tempering.

I like to do my heat treating 'by eye' - to create a 'zone temper' result. You can see the resulting tempering colours, a blue along the back to a straw on the cutting edge.

Final surface polish
Etch (once in nitric for depth, again in ferric for colour)
Prepare, apply wood blocks, shape with files, sand smooth.

Total elapsed time for the two matching knives - 20 hours.

I would not have chosen this hilting material or shape. Left to my own artistic choice, I would have used a natural antler tube for these knives. This was entirely the customer's order however. 


* What I have been finding is that there is a cultural shift happening - directly because of the impact of the overwealming growth of the commercial wedding industry, with its stress on the 'perfect fairytale' - and the massive costs involved. Watching their brides  spending increadible amounts on, well, virtually everything, there is a increasing backlash of 'well, *I'm* getting something special too'.

One caution to those reading and dreaming :
See the total time?
What is 20 hours of your work time worth?
Guess how much this kind of specialist work should command?

'Nuff Said?