Stainless steel bowl experiment

I started this bowl down in France at Le Forge Robinson with Simon. He was demonstrating to me how stainless sheet behaves when it is forged against a hollow stump.

It was very interesting to see how the edges folded when the center was stretched, and try to keep them flat. This was first experience with raising and dishing sheet, so it was cool to use stainless. I believe this is 304.

When I got back to the forge in holme lacy, I used my new leafing hammer to texture the edges. It became very evident that the peen on the hammer was a little too sharp, but this actually created a really cool texture that almost looks chased.

Ahh, the finish; my favorite part about stainless. First I gave it a go with 3M (nylon mesh)  mop on the buffing wheel in the HE center. After that I moved over to the polishing mop with steel polish. I purposely left excess polish in all the nooks and crannies. The highlights and lowlights of the texture are my favorite part of the piece.

Leafing hammer finished.

 Just put this bad girl into commission today, and I'm happy with the results.

She started her career as a masonry hammer many years ago and was reclaimed by your truly at the beginning of the course. She was kicking around in the box for a while until I decided to re-forge her into a leafing hammer.

I like the pattern, but I am not terribly pleased with the lines. They came out a little rough.

Did an oil quench at bright red/orange for hardening.

Research trip to the architectural salvage yard

What do you call a salvage yard where everything is four times the price of a normal salvage yard? An architectural salvage yard  !

In search of the holy grail of connections, Sam and I decided to take a little field trip to the salvage yard to peek around at old machinery. After a fruitless trip to one yard, we hit the iphone for more options.

Luckily, Steve Jobs didn't let us down. A few roundabouts later we found ourselves at some sort of cross between a salvage yard and an antique shop. Lots of cool stuff there.

Old farm equipment and industrial machinery; pretty much like blacksmith porn. Some very cool connections to be found at these places.

Full indoor and outdoor splendor.

Sam poses to prove that he was doing something course-related while not being at cultural studies.

 The largest pool table I've ever seen. It goes back six feet past where Sam is standing.

More Japanese joinery up in this joint.

Got more of the Japanese joint completed today. All the components are assembled and ready for finishing. I'm really pleased with the way it is coming out so far. Although there are some gaps here and there, everything fits together tightly and the connection is proven.  It took some very fine sawing and chiseling to make it all come together.

Here you can see the tenon is held in with two wedges all the way in. The wedges are cut from a piece of teak Greg had in the 3D workshop....Nice bloke.

When they are all the way in, they are snug and flush to the surface. This is the way I intended the joint to look.

Underside with wedges coming through. The kind of look like walrus tusks. I like it.

The wedges pushed half way out of the top.

Japanese wood joinery connection in progress...

My god, the Japanese are precise! Is a racial stereotype still racist if its complimentary? All I know is that I like the way those people work, and the way they prepare raw fish. 

Got this connection idea from a video I watched about complicated wood joinery. I like that it is very solid when assembled, but can be easily taken apart. 

Hoping to translate it into forged steel at some point. Maybe as part of larger piece, or maybe just on its own.

Original drawing in two point perspective. Have other drawings, too, but they're shit, so I'll redo them before I post them.  

Using different types of wood for the different pieces to create some contrast between the components. Masonite for the base and upright. Pine for the other two components. Probably stain one pine piece and just poly the other.

May go with a hardwood for the wedges, or even forge them .

Everything is fitting together well so far.

 Letting the glue set up overnight.

Simon Robinson Interview!

"Be Intimate With The Material"

Two Days in the World of Simon Robinson

The guy behind the counter at Europcar finally looked up at me after I was standing there for five minutes. “Robert Thomas?” He asked. I nodded, and he directed me to sign on a few dotted lines and then led me outside to the car park. “She only has sixty three miles on her, so be careful”. “Got it” I replied. “You know we drive on the left side of the road, right?” “Until you get into France, then you drive on the right”. “Got it” I said as I jumped in the driver’s seat and drove off. I was fairly excited, and not to be bothered by silly things like international driving laws. I was driving to France to meet and Interview Simon Robinson. This was a true innovator in the world of artistic blacksmithing, and he had invited me to his home and workshop for a face to face interview. He explained that “discussing the trade with experienced smiths was absolutely invaluable to me at this stage of my learning”, and that I should come down and stay at his house with his family if I was able.  I was honored with this invitation and graciously accepted. So, armed with my five-disc set of instructional CD’s on conversational French, and steel toe cap boots just in case, I set out down the M4 to catch the ferry into France.

I look on as Simon explains his creative process.

As an eighth-generation blacksmith, Simon had large shoes to fill. Most notably, his father; Tony Robinson was already making huge waves in the metal design world by the mid seventies with his innovative use of stainless steel in sculpture. Since age seven was the age that the Catholic church deemed “the age of reason”, it was on his seventh birthday, that Simon Robinson was allowed to forge his first piece in his father’s workshop. From that point on, he was hooked, spending all his free time in the shop until he took up the craft full time in 1980. Working alongside his father, they created the famed Winchester gates and many other beautiful pieces during that time. To complete his training, Simon embarked on a journeyman tour throughout Europe in 1984. During his travels, he learned from the likes of Freddy Habermann and Hermann Gradinger, just to name a few. It was these experiences coupled with the influence of his father’s style that helped define Simon’s creative process.

Simon’s creative process is based on feeling and emotion. “You must be intimate with the material”, the artist explained to me as he layed across the anvil caressing it like his dance partner in the middle of a passionate dip. “The hammer is your thumb, the anvil your fingers, and you are just to squeeze the material into whatever shape you desire, That's it.” He said very matter-of-fact as if no other factors stood between him and his art. These sentiments seem evident in every aspect of Simon’s work. Unless he has a strong emotional connection to the job, he doesn’t do it . Taking on every task with the same simple and spiritual approach seems to leave a sense of peace in his work as if it is in total harmony with its surroundings.  

In recent years, Simon has been investigating the possibilities and limitations of sheet metal as opposed to bar, which is favored by most smiths these days. This fascination is very evident in Annunciation a 2007 commission, which the Artist calls his favorite work to date. Like so many other Robinson works, it is ecclesiastical in nature. The Virgin Mary is depicted at very moment the angel comes down from heaven and asks her to be the mother of Christ.  Using sheet metal and very basic repousse techniques,  Simon creates a life sized picture of a 15 year old girl who has been asked to take on an unimaginable responsibility. Her face shows fear and bewilderment as much as grace.  It is as much an experimentation into the material as an experimentation into capturing human emotion.

Annunciation-2007

At the end of our interview, I asked Simon Robinson why he chose to use stainless steel as opposed to mild, which is traditionally much easier to work with and favored by most working blacksmiths. He responded by explaining to me that mild steel has been worked for so long that we already know its limitations. “Stainless steel still has many secrets to tell” he said as he sat opposite me sipping french wine at his dining room table. Stainless steel is avoided at all costs by so many artists because of its notorious bad temperament and resistance to being tamed by its sculptor. “The material is uncharted territory” he went on to say. These words resonated with me. It was the fact that no one else would touch it that drew this artist to his chosen medium. Like so many others before him, it seemed Simon Robinson recognized that to be a true artist, one must be equal parts historian and explorer.  

Simon's Shop 

To summarize a man like Simon Robinson into a few paragraphs is no easy task, and quite frankly, does not due him the justice he deserves. At 49, he has a more extensive portfolio than many artists can attain in a lifetime. Some pieces shared with his father and some solo designs, but all have distinct style that is unseen elsewhere. When asked what the future holds for Simon Robinson, he answered that he believed the next twenty years would define him as a artist and a craftsman. He has spent nearly half a century developing his personal style, and now was the time for him to reach his true potential, and I believe he will do just that.

The "Dragon Gate" Part of huge commission for a private European client. Note the tuning fork fence on either side . Yes, it's all stainless.

To check out more of Simon Robinson's work please check out his website:

Le Forge Robinson

I do it for the Kids

Just to see their little faces light up when....blah, blah, blah......

Actually, I did it for a paycheck. The kids should find their own entertainment. I'm no role model.

Just found these pics from the Pocono Craft Fair back in August. Putting on a little demo with a left handed anvil. No big deal. Too bad you cant see the crowd in these pics. It was absolutely massive. Just teams of people watching intently as I turned a square end into a pointy end.

In all seriousness, though, it was quite fun to show a few people our craft. The idea of making a product to order right in front of someone then selling it to them is quite cool. getting to ham it up with the crowd can also be quite fun. I must work on my blacksmith shtick, though. I'll have to talk to Adrian about that.

I helped measure these steps!

Andrew and the guys from Artisans just finished these railings and got them installed up in Vermont (a state in the United States of America) They look great, and I hope I can get my hands on some more pictures. I helped Andrew measure the steps on the job site the week before I left for England, so I feel a small sense of involvement in the work even though I never touched the railing itself.

Vermont Railings

Top Set Tools!

Just made these over the break at Arisans. The set has three ball punches and three fullers with a set of dedicated tongs. The tools at all made from billets of 4140 chrome moly I bought on eBay (go figure) for $5 a while back. They were pretty tough to forge and only time will tell if I created all sorts of stress fractures by forging at the wrong temperatures. Good thing we all wear safety glasses in the shop!

The tongs are just made of mild and didn't really come out that great, but they'll do the job. They do have a cool little built-in spring closure which makes me look like I know what I'm doing, so that's a plus.

The leather roll ties the whole thing together so it looks like it was all purchased from an overpriced US blacksmithing web store.

I should be forging like Bottero in no time!

Tongs for top-set tools

Abstract charcoalism...

Seven words I have never uttered until today: "Drawing beyond boundaries was actually fun today". Mostly because I usually wish I had stayed in bed within the first 20 minutes of the class. 

Today was different for some reason. Ambrose tasked us with first copying one of our small sketches onto brown paper with charcoal. The paper was about 2 x 3 feet. I don't know how many millimeters that is. A million or so I think. 

I chose the isometric drawing below to copy thinking it would be easy to get done so I could leave. I didn't know that we were going to build further on the drawing, so my mind was set to quick task completion.  

After we got the first drawing done, we kept building layers on top for about 15 minutes at a time. After layer two, I put the Black Keys on the ipod and got down to business. First light shading, then dark, some scrolly bits...nice. 

By layer four I was onto a Chromeo album making some square forms followed by organic branch-like shading around the edges. I kept thinking back to my Mom's Alphonse Mucha book I had read over Christmas break. 

Mucha knew how to contrast geometric forms with organic. I love that. I love most things about Art Nouveau, but that seems to be a theme I keep coming back to. 

What else did I really enjoy about this process? Working big. Fuck drawing in little sketchbooks. I need a big canvas. I need to use my whole arm. I need to stand back four feet to see what I've done. I'll take a soap stone on a steel table over a 2B and an A2 sketchpad any day of the week. 

Care For a Hand-Forged Coffee Table?

I didn't actually make this table, but I did actually take the picture and write the listing, so you should still buy it. You know it would look great between your couch and over-sized television. 

Check out the Artisans of the Anvil Etsy Shop to see this table and all sorts of other cool hand forged items. I even made some of them! Mention my name and get everything at full price!