Viking Age in Ottawa for Canada Day

(1000 years in the making - less than 70 hours in the organization!)

On behalf of Parks Canada, I will be mounting a presentation of daily life in the Viking Age this Canada Day (Friday July 1) in Jacques Cartier Park, just across from Parliament Hill on the Quebec side. The Park is just across the street from the CMC on Rue Laurier, backing on the Ottawa River.

Admission is FREE
Presentation hours are 10 am - 8 pm

I will also be working as one of two historic interpreters. I will be operating a Norse type sand table forge, demonstrating simple blacksmithing techniques.
Also in camp will be Stephen Paine of L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC, who is flying in from Newfoundland for the presentation.

I'm told that there may be something between 350 - 400 THOUSAND people in attendance at the various venues of the official Canada Day celebrations. (Part of the draw are Will and Kate - who apparently are intending to visit the CMC (right across the street) as part of the Royal Tour...)

If you are near Ottawa, it would be nice to see some friendly (intelligent) faces in the massive crowds...

Recent Work

- I know that individual postings here in detail have been a bit thin of late. Preparation work for CanIRON 8 is eating up a lot of time (and limited brain power).
Here are a couple of images of one of my late spring commissions:



This was a small 'Juliette' type balcony intended to match the earlier purchased (by another maker) curved back kitchen door.
In use this balcony primarily allows the home owner to open up the pair of doors to expand their kitchen into the small back yard. The deck space on it is about 12 inches deep by 40 inches wide. Although certainly not specifically 'up to code' the customer did decide to have the top rail set at the required 42 inches tall. The frame is made up of 1 1/2 outside diameter pipe. The pieces were forged into graceful curves, echoing the shapes of the earlier metal stairs.

June 11 Smelt - REPORT

- for the DARC to CanIRON 8 Practice Smelt.

- is now available on the main Wareham Forge Iron smelting web site :

http://www.warehamforge.ca/ironsmelting/June-11/report11-11.html

Some things are free, but much more with Membership!

On 19/06/11 6:28 PM, John wrote:

Is it true that the iron smelt is on Thurs. only? That is my primary interest at the conference ...

The iron smelt by members of the Dark Ages Re-Creation Company will take place over the full day of Thursday 28, the opening day of CanIRON 8. The team will start the furnace build roughly 9 am, expects to be ready for the start of main sequence by noon, pulling the bloom roughly 4:30 - 5 pm.

This is a free, public outreach part of the conference. I'm expecting that I personally will be stuck running around organizing, but feature demonstrators Mike McCarthy and Jesus Hernandez are members of the "Early Iron Underground" and will be able (Mike especially) to lend a hand.

Of course you might expect that I should be plugging the full four day conference!

Jesus Hernandez, who works in the Japanese bladesmithing traditions, will be taking part of the DARC iron bloom and later demonstrating forging it down to a blade blank.


If you are interested in ancient historical methods, I think you will be interested in the (amazing) work of Jake Powning, who will be demonstrating Viking Age style pattern welding (twisted composite core), plus lecturing on his blend of Celtic and Norse designs.


There is a packed schedule of feature demonstrations, hands on workshops, lectures and panel sessions for paid registrations to CanIRON 8. One of the missions of the hosting organization, the Ontario Artist Blacksmith Association, is to inform and educate the general public about the 'art and mystery' of the blacksmith. For that reason we have included a full program of public outreach events.

Other aspects of CanIRON 8 which are being presented as FREE public access:

- Friday & Saturday (roughly 9-12 a + 1:30-4 p): Come see members of OABA, under David McCort, work on completing the Fergus Park Bench project.
- the Gallery is open daily from 1:30 - 4:30 p, including 'meet the artist' sessions
- our Auction takes place Saturday starting at 6:30 p, bid on original hand forged art pieces (plus smithing related items like tools and hands on courses)
- 'Hammer In' style demonstrations, Sunday 9 - 12 a, where members of OABA will present their skills using a range of forge equipments and working styles.
- Forging Competition, Sunday 1:30 - 4:30 p, always a lot of action and highjinks as teams of smiths (stuggle?) to make an object with limited materials and time.

For further information:

CanIRON 8 web site
Registration
Schedule

Regular Readers are no doubt aware that I am heading up the working team for CanIRON 8 ...