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Questions for Lucian 

  1. What kind of forge did you start with?

  2. How did you get into blacksmithing?

  3. Where did you get your pair of tongs?

  4. What kind of metal do you use. 

  5. Where do you get your coal from?

  6. How did you get your forge? 

  7. Where could do you get your metal from? 

  8. What is your favorite thing to make?

Lucian is a blacksmith in Hardwick, VT. He is my metor for Renaissance class. He is going to help me polish my skills that I learned at my house. 

On 4/14/16 Debra and I went to see Lucian Avery in Hardwick, VT. When we got there at 9:30 AM, he was not in he's shop but was going to get it ready. He showed me how he starts his forge. He told me where to get blacksmith coal. It's called Black Rock Coal he told that in have to call a couple of days be for you go to get so they can have it ready. He told what he does with his students, he makes them make a hook, a nail, and a screw driver. Then you can make anything that you want to. He showed me how to make a fruit knife. He made it in 15 minutes. I told him that I need a anvil, he said that he has one that I could buy for around two hundred dollars. I think that he is going to be a good teacher for my renaissance study. I also thought that he is really good at being a blacksmith, I have never see a blacksmith do so smithing, I thought it was really cool that I could see him make something so fast. It was so cool meeting Lucian he gave some great pointers that I could use. When Lucian made the knife it was really thin and his hammer blows were so consecutive.

On 5/3/16 I went to do some smithing with Lucian. When I got there he showed me how to make a hook. He showed me step by step how to make it, in between each step I would do the step he just showed me how to do. The first step was to make the tip of the hook reallly pointy. Then I cruled the point to make a wave. Then I put the metal on the horn of the anvil to bend the piece of metal to a hook like shape. Then I flatten the part were it goes on the wall , I used the back part of the cross pen hammer to draw it out to make it flat. Then me and Lucian had to punch the hole so the nail can fit in. I held the punch hole and he hit the punch hole when I told him to. After I put it in the in the water to cool it down. Then Lucian show me how to protect my hook from rust. 

On 5/10/16 I went to Lucian's shop to do some more smithing with him. When I got there we pick out some steel to use for the screw driver. When the steel got to the transformation stage, Lucian showed me how to make the flat head of a screw driver. It took Lucian one heat to get it fully formed, but it took me a couple of heats to get it formed. After I got it formed we heated the screw driver head to non magnetic, then let it cool down slowly. We did it a second time, then we went of to the vice to fit the screw driver head into a screw. I used a file to fit the screw driver head in to a screw. After that i heated it to make a blue to straw color to make it hard. After we finish heat treating it, Lucian told me to pick out a piece of wood for the handle I chose the curly birch it has a wave pattern. The thing I learned was to angle the hammer and the hot piece of steel to make a wedge shape from the steel. 

On 5/17/16 I went to Lucian's shop to finish my screw driver. I started by hammering a brass ring into the center of the wood block so the wood does not split when being used. Then I drilled a hole in the middle of the brass ring so the end of the screw driver can fit into the handle. Then I heated up the tang of the screw driver so I can burn the wood handle on the screw driver. When brun the wood to the heated metal it basically glues the to pieces together. Then I just shaped the wood so it could fit into my hand so it can be used. The shaping of the handle was the hardest thing because the wood I chose was a hardwood so it took a long time to shape. 

On 5/24/16 I went to Lucian's shop after school. When I got there we started making fish as the last project before I can make my own project. We started by shaping the head to size, then we add the tail of the fish. then punch the eye, fins, and gills on the fish. Then we hot cut where the tail will go. After hot cutting I use the cross pen to make the fins on the tail. Then garped the designs I drawn on sunday, so I picked the one that looks a viking spear. We started by drawing out the tang of the spear  that took I lot of time to get a half of inch of metal to 0.25" and 6" long. Then we started working on the tip of the spear. 

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