Wulf's New North East Hammer-in
Derrick put on an increadible weekend for everyone who came. It was one of the best organized and well put together gatherings I have ever been to... and it was his first time doing anything like this ! I arrived late afternoon up in Essex Vermont on Friday, in the midst of a pouring rain storm. Thankfully the weather cleared up for saturday and sunday. As usual, I know many of my pictures will be captioned wrong or the like, so feel free to contact me with any corrections and I will make them as soon as I can.
The Images!
Wulf's hammerin pictures in chronological order
Friday
A pile of anvils at an 'old tool' store in this person's barn not far from the hammerin
A bunch of post vices and other tools at the 'old tool' shop
Matt inside Derrick's shop, Aldo in the background
The forges in Derrick's shop
Larry talking with Aldo in the rain after just getting there on his Harley, Matt in the background and Derrick just walking into the frame
Mace drawing out the temper on a new spring for Derrick's leg vise
Getting ready to errect one of the tents for the hammerin
Bill, Derrick, and Mace in the background while BURT FOSTER! BURT FOSTER! holds up the center pole of the tent
The back of Burt Foster, Aldo looking at something, Bill, Roger, Dan Farr, and I forget the fellow in the dennim jacket's name
Alex with ???, Dan, Bill and Burt talking while Roger examines a partially finished san-mai damascus blade that was on Derrick's workbench
Chris Kravitt of Treestump Leather talking with a family of 3 who were from florida on vacation who stopped by for the hammerin
Larry talking with Alex as Alex set up his forge
Larry, Chris, Dan, and Bill standing around while Alex was setting up his forge
I forget this fellow's name, talking with Burt Foster
Alex waiting for his forge to heat up while talking with Dan Farr and Chris
Blurry picture of Alex and his forge finally up to heat
Bill, Dan, Dan, Larry, Alex, Burt, and Chris sitting around and chatting while Burt was test firing the forge which would be used for the demonstrations to see what it's idle temp was
Joe Szilaski and his wife having some of the excelent filet mignon which Derrick cooked up friday night
Larry, Chris, and Bill talking while Dan Farr and Burt tinker with the forge some more in the background
Alex Burt and Dan talking
Chris, Joe, and I forget his name talking
Aldo getting in the way of what I was taking a picture of. I dont even remember what I was trying to get a shot of now.
Dan Farr and Burt Foster
Larry and Aldo doing some late night forging
Saturday
Picture out across some of the fields where people were camping
The far too small "one man tent" I slept in, and Larry's larger tent behind it, both of us having taken shelter under the tree from the rain while setting up tents the night before
The green coal forging area and lunch area
Alex and Chris Kravitt were the only other people already up when I got up
I forget his name (have it written down somewhere i cant find) Louis and Larry, who had just woken up
Louis, the fellow from Badder whose name I forget, and Aldo
Chris demonstrating some leather carving
More leather work demonstrations
Joe watching Chris show how he dies leather up to the edges of features on the leather.
Breakfast ! Donuts and coffee. Randal Dewey in the plaid on the far right
People milling around eating donuts and coffee
I forget his name from Florida and Larry talking, Dan Farr, Paul, ???, Roger, and Burt in the background
Two people whose names I forget flanking Paul
Roger, Nick Wheeler, and Burt Foster
Derrick getting things started, introducing the weekend's presenters
Burt holding the 1" round bar stock he started his demonstration with
Burt using the power hammer
Burt having knocked down the round bar into an octagonal shape for his integral bolster
Defining the transition from bolster to blade
Drawing out the blade portion some more by hand
Bringing down the spine of the blade to be level with the bolster portion
Bad shot of the in progress blade
Another bad shot of the in progress blade
Using the cross pien to draw down the choil area
Using a guillotine fuller to help sharpen the transition between the integral bolster and the blade
Offcenter shot of the blade with the bevels roughly forged in
another bad shot of the blade in progress, Roger in background
Checking the blade for straightness and making sure it's centered with the bolster on both the tang and blade sides with no twist
Drawing out the tang some more
Shaping the tang
checking the tang to make sure it's still centered and untwisted
Different angle checking for centeredness
More assuring that the blade is straight and centered
The finished blade forged to shape and ready for grinding
Joe Szilaski preparing for his demo on forge welding damascus by hand, Burt Foster looking on
Joe demonstrating how to prepare the layers before the first weld
Making the first weld
Hot flux flying as Joe sets the first weld
Checking the edges of the billet after the first weld
Hot cutting partway through the billet to prepare for the first fold
straightening the billet after cutting most of the way through
After grinding the scale clean and folding, Joe doing the second weld with everyone looking on
The 50lb Dupont power hammer which Derrick had just obtained
The hammer, and added frame work, on a trailer
Dan Farr starting his flat grinding demo
The green coal area, Mace putting a sign on his anvil, a kid from the family up from florida behind him, and Christoph Derringer speaking with someone else in the background
The sign on Mace's Anvil
Lunchtime !
Sitting around and talking at lunch
Burt Foster ready to start his heat treating demo
The quickly ground integral blade from that morning
Burt discussing the theory of diferential heat treating
Applying satinite to the blade for the heat treat
Christoph Derringer and Derrick
The blade all clayed up
The green coal area, Mace's forge to the left, and my own forge to the right
Dan Farr showing how he fits and solders his bolsters, Joe in the background looking on
The bolster soldered onto the blade
Joe demonstrating turning a high carbon railroad spike into a tomahawk
Initial forging down the end
Starting to punch the slit
Still working on slitting the hole for the handle
More slitting
Even more slitting
Yes, slitting a hole takes a long time, why do you ask?
the hole finally slit and ready to be drifted
Christoph Derringer forging a blade from 1"x.25" 1084, Dan Farr looking on
Dan Farr doing some forging
Sharp by Coop running over Derrick's newly planted spruce /mourn
Matt and Mike sprinting out of the woods after hiding Mace's anvil on him when he wasnt near the forging area
Matt making sure the plastic bag they put around Mace's anvil was secure and not going to give away the anvil's location
The ransom note
Closeup of the ransom note
Something's missing... hrm.
Mace finds out that he's been had!
Mace and his baseball bat chasing down Matt and Mike (holding an unfinished 'spatula' of a knife)
Mike threatening the tires on Mace's three wheeler
Mace preparing to beat up Mike while Mike threaten's Mace's truck
Mike, Alex, Bill, Matt, and Derrick sitting around starting to tell jokes
Alex, I forget, Mace and Bill with some more late night forging
Sitting around a pathetic little bonfire
All the wood was soaked from all the rain the previous day and the fire wouldnt get started for a long time
Sunday
People gathering early sunday morning before anything had started
Nick Wheeler's notebook
Breakfast!
Burt Foster re-doing the heat treat on the integral blade which didnt heat treat properly the day before
The blade in the forge heating up
Quenching the blade
Still burning oil on the blade fresh out of the quench
Scraping off the clay coating
After a quick 600 grit finish and dunk in Ferric chloride, the blade showing a distinct hamon
Dan Farr starting a handle shaping demo
The handle with the wood, spacers and bolster epoxied to the blade
Dan Farr demonstrating
Small wheel attachment to do the finger groves
Shaping the finger grove
The roughly finished handle
Better shot of the integral blade showing the double hammon from the transition line
The blade warped at the end during the quench
The un-polished side still with fire scale
The spine of the blade
Better shot of the spine of the blade
Green coal forging area without as much activity on sunday morning
Joe doing a metal carving demo
A very high speed flex shaft die grinder is used
Nick Wheeler ready to critique someone else's blade
Looking over the blade which Burt Foster carries with him
An increadibly tiny oragami bird which Christoph Derringer made
Front of the bird, overall height just over a centemeter
Coop setting up light boxes for his photography demonstration
Bill, having just severed his rope and chopped through a 2x4 twice, ready for the bend test on his JS performance blade
Starting the bend with Joe looking on
90 degreese successfully reached
Taking the blade otu of the vise
A successful performance test, Joe and Bill