Visit to Little Dipper Forge

Last Sunday was the meeting of the blacksmith group Himself and I are a part of, and this time it was at the home and forge of Mitch L.  It was quite a treat to visit his shop!

Yep, that's THREE forge areas you see.  Tho obviously the one on the far right isn't set up for use.

Love the way he writes notes on the vent hoods.

I love wandering around shops... so many cool things to photograph.

Tongs of all sorts.

Mitch is so incredibly talented.  His home is full of items he has made.

Like this beautiful table.  His wife made the ceramics.

What a great lamp.

OK, I love this candle holder.  Is this not perfect?

A clever little Iron Man.  Too cute!

Anyway, the main event was out in the shop where Mitch did his demonstration.

That is one HOT piece of metal he's hammering.  As you can see, he was showing how to make a tomahawk that will hold a sharp edge.

This time it's even hotter... like about 2500* F! 

Explaining how to do the handle hole without splitting the weld.

Heating it yet again.  It was really interesting to watch how he would bring it to a certain point, work it, then reheat it to work some more.

Then finally over to the grinder to put on the edge.  Mitch said different metals spark in different ways and you can somewhat tell what sort of metal you are working with by how it sparks.

And here is the finished product.

Mitch put it into the club's fund raiser drawing they call "Iron in the Hat".  Members bring something to donate and there is a drawing for each.  It's mostly tools and blacksmithing 'stuff', but sometimes there is something yummy like homemade jellies or baked stuff.

Guess what?  

I won the tomahawk!!  I know right where I'm going to display it too.