the bellows issue01

8/9/2019 The Bellows Issue01

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Issue 1 - Spring 2009

The Dodderidge Forge at Angaston - Maintained by the Angaston & Penrice Historical Society

In this issue

Editorial

Presidents Note

In the beginning

A.B.A.Vic's 20th Anniversary -

Stan Briggs - a life of a blacksmith.

How to - Twisting


2/13

Contents

The objectives of the Association shall be to promote, preserve, and develop the Craftsmanship,

and techniques of all the various disciplines associated with Artistic Blacksmithing to the

highest standards possible. Supporting these aims include:

a) To Provide means of communication between mature people with an interest in

the craft of Blacksmithing, for the exchange of ideas, experience, techniques and

information for their mutual benet, by the publication of a regular Newsletter.

b) To Encourage a greater awareness of, and interest in the appreciation of the skills

of Blacksmithing among Architects, Interior Designers, Art and Craft groups, and

the general public, and to provide links between Blacksmiths and potential

customers by means of Exhibitions, Demonstrations, and Publications.

c) To Promote and actively provide the opportunity for training in all the various

aspects of Blacksmithing means of demonstrations, lectures, and special tuition

sessions.

d) To Act as a representative body, in the interests of Australian Blacksmiths, locally,

nationally and internationally.

e) To Undertake community service, providing these services are within the

comfortable limits of time, talents and costs that the association and individual

members can aord, in the context of the associations, purpose, objectives, rules

and legal obligations

f ) To encourage communication and goodwill among Blacksmiths of all Nations.

g) To co-operate with similar associations in every practical way at the local, nationaland international level with the interests of the associations members and

community

h) To ensure the association achieves the purpose and objectives by all

possible legal means.

Purposes & Objectives of ABASA Inc

2......Editorial

Page 2

1

3

......Contents

......Cover

......Presidents Note4

5 ......'the beginnings'

6 ......A.B.A.Vic's 20th Anniversary

......20th Anniversary Highlights7

8 ......A.B.A.Vic Art Gallery

9 ......Stan Briggs..'a life of a blacksmith'

TheBellows

SPRING EDITION

OCTOBER 2009

EDITOR

Rob Kenning(08) 83702137

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Rob Kenning

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

PRESIDENT

Chris Carter(08) 82625415

VICE PRESIDENT

Sonja Hurst(08) 83860910

SECRETARY

Rob Kenning

TREASURER

Kirstie Stewart

(08) 83779360

GENERAL COMMITTEE

Terry Johnson(08) 83825559

Cat Lambert(08) 81650918

Keren Sutcliffe(08) 82401363

Stan Briggs(08) 83568868

......Useful sites and Contacts

12

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......How to...TWISTING


3/13

Welcome to our rst edition of The Bellows Newsletter.

The last few months have been anything but slow during the formation of our new association.There has been an over whelming interest in the creation of an Artistic Association from

blacksmiths all across South Australia and interstate.

The idea of creating an association in South Australia was born out of necessity. There are a large

number of smiths in the state that have no representative body or outlet to meet or communicate

with other members of the trade. We had the idea of starting a guild or association, after meeting

with metal smiths, knife makers and artist blacksmiths at various functions and shows over the last

3 years. Another factor considered, was the prickly subject of Public Indemnity Insurance.

To secure insurance on an individual basis, was an expensive proposition, especially for those of us

who are practising and learning the craft. We have had o

ers of fee free premises to set up a forge,only to be ham strung on the insurance side of the deal.

The association of artist blacksmiths will have the facility available to our members for full

insurance for all committee approved events, allowing us to spread out and educate the public on

the many and varied facets of our craft.

Our front cover photo depicts the front facing forge area of the Doddridge Forge in Angaston. Our

good friends at the Angaston & Penrice Society have been managing the forge for many years and

have kept it in the same condition as if Hardy Doddridge had just retired. It s till has hand bellows on

the two forges. You can close your eyes and imagine your back in the 1900's. The only thing missing

is the sound of horses in the main street. A days work forging with bellows guarantees a good

nights sleep.

The Doddridge Forge allows us a great opportunity to show the public some of the aspects of the

craft of blacksmithing.

Our newsletter will be our communication outlet at this stage, and hopefully, a web site can be

developed down the track. Our key for success will be in gaining input for subject matter from all of

our members in the coming issues. I hope the format of the newsletter sits well for everyone. This is

my rst try at Desktop Publishing, so any hints and tips from more experienced members and

friends, will be greatly appreciated. It is hoped that the newsletter can be produced as a PDF

document, as most members have computers. For those members who don't, I will endeavour to

produce a hard copy via my local laser printing house in Blackwood.

Our interstate associations in Victoria and New South Wales have very high quality publications,with very interesting content, and I plan to attain that level of quality over the next few issues.

From my point of view, I believe the quality of the content is the major point to strive for, so having

a good balance of articles will be a good starting point. We will have a broad section of talented

members to draw on, whose life, loves and passions, will create interesting reading for everyone.

I'd like to thank the members of ABA Vic and ABA N.S.W. for their support and encouragement for

this newsletter, especially Amanda Gibson and Graham Moyses.

Thanks also go to Stan Briggs, for his very interseting article on his working career as a blacksmith.

I trust you will enjoy this issue as much as I have in putting it together.

Rob Kenning, Editor

Editorial

Page 3


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Presidents Note...

Page 4

Over the past four months we have seen

the emergence of our Association take o

at a rapid rate.

I would say that it has far surpassed any

thing that we could have imagined. There

is already emerging a strong bond of like

minded people who want to see that this

ne craft is kept alive and that the general

public are made aware that it still lives on.

The support that we have already hadfrom the Associations in Victoria and New

South Wales has been a valued

encouragement to us all. With the advise

that we have had from them we hope that

we will not have too many hiccups along

the way.

It has been pleasing to see people accept

positions and take responsibilities ascommittee members, this makes the

sharing of the load much easier.

One our rst challenges is to nd a

suitable location where we can establish a

home base.

I am condent that we will nd such a

location just based on the way things have

been happening for us. It has beenamazing thatas we set our focuson an

issue a solution is oered from some one.

The networking with othershas certainly

come into play. It is great to see something

that was only a dream three years ago

nally come to fruition. I look forward to

the future with excited enthusiasm as we

all watch and participate in our new

Association. We are lucky to have been

able to secure a

meeting place, courtesy of the Elephant

and Castle Hotel.

Take Care,

Chris Carter.

President

A.B.A.S.A


5/13

the beginnings................

THE CREATION OF A.B.A.S.A. Inc

In 2006, a class of fourteen began studying aCerticate III in Visual Arts and ContemporaryCraft (Artistic Blacksmithing) at Panorama TAFEin South Australia. The course was to be therst of a series of courses oered at Panoramaand had the aim of training artist blacksmithsand promoting their ancient skills. Subjectscovered included Hand Forging, HammerForging, Sculpture, Technical drawing, Manual

and Gas metal Arc welding, Conceptual designand Communication and Occupational Healthand Safety.

As we approached the end of the course, welearned that we were to be the only graduates,as Artistic Blacksmithing would not be oeredthe following year and the forge at PanoramaTAFE would be closed. It was around this timethat the idea of forming a formal group wasseriously discussed. After completing the

course, we kept in touch with each other andsometimes met for a hit and a chat, but nofurther progress on forming our ownassociation was made. A number of us joinedthe South Australian Farriers and BlacksmithsAssociation, but found that the emphasis wason horses and farrier work rather thatdecorative or artistic blacksmithing.

Around the same time, a small team of artistsmiths demonstrating at the Dodderidge

Forge at Angaston realised that the publicperception of what artistic blacksmithingentailed varied from I thought it was a deadtrade comments to do you make horseshoes?. These circumstances became thecatalyst in our forming the Artistic BlacksmithsAssociation of South Australia. We see it as away of supporting each other in our work,making contact with more experiencedblacksmiths and promoting blacksmithing inSouth Australia.

Contact was made with our immediatecolleagues and then amongst those other ArtistBlacksmiths we could nd. There seemed to be adesire of many to have an association that couldcater specically to the requirements of the artof blacksmithing. Those interested includedprofessionals, retired smiths, amateurs, hobbyblacksmiths and the younger generation, allwanting the same thing, - to be involved and

participate in the ancient art of blacksmithing.With advice and encouragement from the NewSouth Wales and Victorian associations, webegan the process of developing a constitutionand list of aims for the association. A name wasstruck, a constitution loosely formed and ourrst meeting was held in July.

Our association is already growing! Ourinaugural meeting had 7 members present, the

following meeting had 9 members present with4 apologies. Our recent September meeting had14 members and 4 apologies. At this time, wehave a solid constitution, a logo and name forour newsletter. We are aiming to establish aresidence as soon as possible and conducttraining, demonstrations and workshops for thebenet of our members and visitors.

The beginning of something new is an excitingtime for all involved and we look forward to the

future and development of our association, andto working with our colleagues interstate.

Written by Rob Kenning and Kirstie Stewart

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AUSTRALIAN BLACKSMITHS ASSOCIATION Vic

20th Anniversary By Rob Kenning

After

nding out about the 20th Celebrationsover in Victoria from conversations withAmanda Gibson, we decided to make thejourney to Mt Martha to attend.

Our SA association was in it's infancy and itprovided a good opportunity to pay a visit andmeet some of our fellow artisans andintroduce ourselves.

We made the bookings for accomodation and

left on a wednesday morning.Prior to us leaving, Terry Johnson and his wifeMargaret, Kirstie Stewart, Sonja Hurst plannedto come over as well. So, we had 5 membersfrom our association on the road to Victoria.Gabe Bullock was already over in Victoria andwould meet up with us on the weekend.

We arrived in Mt Martha in the evening andbooked in to our accomodation. The followingmorning we made our way down to the BriarsPark venue and introduced ourselves toAmanda Gibson.

Amanda was preparing to give a lecture in theprincipals and history of her association togroups of visting school children.We sat in on her rst lecture and were veryimpressed with the coverage and detail sheprovided in her presentation.After the presentation, we made our way up

the hill to the blacksmith venue to meet upwith the organisers, who were very busysetting up the venue in readiness for theweekend.

Our rst port of call was the Gallery of artisticwork being set up by Paul Mills and hiscolleagues. There was a wonderful display ofbeautiful wrought iron work on display withthe promise of more items to come in thefollowing hours. When complete, there was 64

exhibits from 16 artists.

The project theme for the weekend was toconstruct a garden gate. There were a fewgroups of members working on thedesignated elements in the design. The planwas to have the gate built and auctioned oon the Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, forvarious reasons, time ran out for the nalassembly, even though all of the forging wascompleted.

Over the weekend, the crowds ebbed and

owed. The wintery weather most likely stiedthe crowd numbers, but the interestgenerated was quite substantial. I am sure theVictorian association gained a lot of exposureand a few new members to bolster their ranks.I know that we all came away very impressedwith the quality of work and professionalismshown in the organisation.

Aside from ourselves, there was a number ofN.S.W members there to help out and wemanaged to meet most of the men andwomen instrumental in the formation of botheastern states associations.

Malcolm Paine, from WA was also there totutor and demonstrate his extensive talents atthe anvil. Kirstie was lucky enough to gainsome experience in forge welding, and didherself proud on her rst attempt.

Saturday night saw us attend a dinner at'Josephines' restaurant. Michael Dunn, thesecretary of A.B.A.Vic was the master ofceremonies and provided an opening speechfollowed by the induction of Keith Towe asPatron to the association.On Sunday, the forges ran hot and furious asthe smiths completed the last of the forgingfor the gate. The auction managed to raise$1,500.00 for the association.

Sadly, it came to an end and we said ourgoodbyes over a few drinks at the gallery.All in all, it was a fantastic weekend and we allcame away inspired.

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ABAVic 20th CELEBRATIONS

Members from ABASA at the gallery.

Forged bowls by Paul Mills.

Ray Gard educating the crowd (Gate pattern on Left wall).

A collection of leaves for the "Tree of Life" project. Kirstie Stewart trying out at forge welding.

Don Marshall working on the project Garden Gate.

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GALLERY HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ABAVic 20th CELEBRATIONS

Decorative Bowl by Mary Hackett

Bookends by Malcolm Paine

20th Anniversary Screen by A.B.A.Vic members Music Stand by Paul Mills

One branch of many of the 'Tree of Life'by Blacksmiths worldwide

Page 8Photography by Rob and Jen Kenning


9/13

M E M B E R S S T O R Y

Stan Briggs...life of a blacksmith

The Blacksmith said he would teach me the art ofre

welding. For this I needed a veryclean re, and he

used wet coal dust around the re and over the hot

coke to make a small oven. I was shown how to

bump up the metal to be welded, as you lose metal

in welding and scurf.

I was told to standnext to him and I was shown how

to bring the metal to a welding heat using silver sand

as a ux. This also stopped the ends from burning.

The power hammer was electric compressed air

driven, and could used by foot control or hand lever.

I was shown how to use the hand lever when the

Blacksmith was forging.

By the time I was 20 the Hammer-man decided to

retire and I took over his job. Also a 2nd Blacksmith

started. His name was George and he was Welsh, but

only stayed about 6-7 months, as he took another

position on the underground railway. About this

time the old Blacksmith said he was retiring. About

time everyone said. He must be at least 81 years

old!!, and so, I took over as the Blacksmith.

Around this time the Labour Government

nationalised the railways and huge cost savings were

put in place. The railway wagon stock was getting

too expensive to repair and they started buying all

steel wagons. Also, steam was on the way out, and

diesel electric locomotives replaced them.

After three years as Blacksmith, I was made

redundant, so I found job with SW Farmer & Sons

Engineering Company. They produced construable

work and balustrade. The government, at this time,

was building multi storey ats, so balustrade was

neededfor the stairways.

Page 9

At school my best subjects were woodworking and

metal work.I nished school at the age of 14 to 15

years. My father, who was employed by the

Southern Railways in England, got me a job in the

railway work-shops where they needed a young lad.

And so my career started.

The workshops were situated in New Cross, a suburb

of London. They were divided into two workshops.

Workshop One had 3 Blacksmiths working on

repairing Carriages and Steam Locomotives.

Workshop Two built and repaired the timber framed

coal wagons. This was where I worked.

We worked a 48 hour week over 6 days, with an

hour for lunch. Everyone worked on

Piece work. You were paid a basic wage and then

the bonus on production. The Railway had a strange

way to pay wages, the Blacksmith was paid, and he

in turn, paid the hammer-man, so they both got a

share of the bonus money. I was paid just the basic

pay.

The Blacksmith I worked with was in his mid

seventies and came from the West country of

England, where his father had his own smithy

shop.He was farrier and wheelwrightand repaired

agriculture machinery for many years.

The best way to learn Blacksmithing was as he did,

by watching and asking questions. The forge only

burnt the best cokethat came from steam coal. It

was a soft coke but large, about the size of a foot-

ball, and was kept outside the work-shop.

A part of my job was to take a wheel barrow and a

large wood malletand break up the coke into small

pieces, then sieve it to remove the dust, and wheel it

to the forge. A barrow load would last a days work.

Written by Stan Briggs.


10/13

As you can imagine, there was plenty of work

around.But in time, completion made it to

expensive to keep on with this type of work, and it

was closed down. I was oered work in the forging

section, but as I didn't want to do this style of work, I

left. I found work in a small company doingballasting work, but within nine months I was

oered a Blacksmith position with British Portland

Cement Co. doing forging and repair work, but no

re welding.

The workshop had an engineering section

Blacksmith shop with 2 Blacksmiths and a boiler

making section.

We had an agreement that the Blacksmiths workedthe bar and round metal work and the Boilermakers

did plate work and Arc Welding. Sometimes, this

was a joint eort, with Blacksmiths and

boilermakers working together.

The company gave the employees a number of non-

saleable shares for each year of service and each

year you received a bonus on each share you held

on the prot the company made, this was paid in

cash.

They used to send a van to the bank with six of thebiggest employee's armed with pickax handles to

collect the bonus money. The money as never lost.

The CementCo. was situated in the Medway town

of Northeet, so we sold our house and moved that

way.I worked there for 5 years, but again the

company said that production was coming to an

end in a year of two, as they were running short of

materials and new ways of producing cement were

being found.Australia, in 1960's, was looking for skilled

workersso I applied to come to Australia.

As we were government assisted, they advised us to

go to Melbourne. They arranged a place at the

Brooklyn Hostel in Footscray.

Not far from the hostel, a company called K.M

Steels produced metal bar and rounds etc for the

local industries, as there was a shortage of this.

B.H.P only supplied this material when they were

producing that run.

I was able to get a job with them making entry andexit boxes for the rolling mill, and also cutting tools

for the machine shop that made the rollers. For

reasons I would prefer not to write, this was coming

to an end.

We decided we did not want to live in Melbourne

after that, and we were told Adelaide might be a

better place for us.I told the Hostel Authorities that

I wanted a transfer to a hostel in Adelaide but was

told I couldn't do this. When I asked reasons why,

we were told we were migrants to Victoria notSouth Australia. Meanwhile, I was oered a job in

Adelaide, and I ended up going by myself.

The Hostel Authority would have to look after my

family while I was gone. I was told not to do this,

they would see what they could do.

In a short time, we were given a transfer to a small

hostel in Glenelg near the airport.

I bought a 2nd hand Holden and drove to Adelaide

and to the hostel. I worked for Horwood Bagshaws

for a short time, then found a job as a Jibing

Blacksmith with the Adelaide Steamship Co.

They had a workshop at Lipson street, Port

Adelaide, where I worked for 2 1/2 years.

Eventually, they made this job redundant, and I

transferred to the Adelaide Ship Construction at

Birkenhead for another 2 1/2 years. When they

closed the ship yard, myself and three others went

to Freighters at Seaton, welding Sea Container's for

a short time.

While I was at Freighters, I saw an advert for a

Blacksmith with the Adelaide Gas Co.

Their workshop was located in Gilbert Street,

Adelaide. The street gangs were also there.I later

moved to the Brompton works, where I retired

after 24 years of service.

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Stan Briggs...Gallery

Candle Holder

Stan Briggs at work at S.A.G.A.S.C.O.

Garden Gate

Now that Stan has retired, he has a small forge setup at home and creates pieces of work for friendsand family.

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Twisting square stock, is one of the easiest feats to accomplish for beginners. It immediately creates a

pleasant shape with an otherwise boring square prole stock.

First thing to decide is how far along the bar do you wish to twist and how many turns to give the bar to

achieve the eect you want.

With the simplest of tools, you will need a sturdy vice or post vice to hold the bar, and some form of a

turning device. This can be an adjustable spanner or a custom made twisting bar.

It is easy to make a twisting bar from a piece of similar stock, then weld it together.

Between using a spanner and twisting bar, you will nd it easier to maintain a straight twist with a two

handed bar than a spanner, as the twisting force can be applied evenly. If you intend to do a lot of twisting

work, it may pay dividends to build a jig frame with adjustable points of clamping. A jig frame allows

repetitive, uniform and straight twists to be created.

Which ever way you decide, another important point is even heating of the bar. An even heat gives you an

even twist. If the bar is red heat one end and orange at the other, you will get a twist that goes from tight to

loose.

As an example, we will do a 10cm twist on some 12mm square stock.

Mark with a scriber or marble chalk, where the twist is going and place that section in the re to a depth of

one third down from the top of the re and give the section a good soaking heat. Meantime, set up your

tools ready to move quickly.

When the section is evenly coloured light orange, remove the bar from the re and clamp the piece on the

outside of one of your marked points. Then t the tool and evenly turn the tool one or two full turns,

depending on how tight you want the twist.

If you nd that the twist is distorted, don't use a steel hammer to straighten it out or you will damage the

prole. Instead, use a wooden stump and a block of wood or wooden mallet to bring it straight.

Good luck and good forging.

How To............. TWISTING

Degrees of twist

by Rob Kenning

Page 12


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Useful Sites and Suppliers

http://www.metalartistforum.com/

All styles of metalcraft information

http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/

All styles of Blacksmith information

http://www.artmetal.com/index.php

Social networking for the metal arts

http://bawa.webkroll.com/

Blacksmiths Association Western Australia

Australian Blacksmiths Association Victoria

http://www.abavic.org.au/

http://www.baba.org.uk/

British Artist Blacksmiths Association

http://www.abana.org/Artist Blacksmiths Association of America Inc

Blacksmiths Associations

Blacksmiths Information and Forums

http://www.artistblacksmith.com/

David Robertson (Ontario Artist Blacksmith)

Blacksmiths Supplies

Stirling Fuel SuppliesMount Barker Rd Cnr Gould Rd, STIRLING, SA 5152

Phone: (08) 83392021

Metalcorp Steel285 Grand Junction Road OTTOWAY SA 5013

Phone: (08) 8301 3777Email: [email protected]

Southern Steel Supplies

69- 71 O'Sullivan Beach Rd LONSDALE SA 5160Phone: 1300 302 993

Horse Shoes 'R' Us9 Alabar Crs GLOBE DERBY PARK SA 5110

Phone: (08) 8281 0689

Fantech Pty Ltd17A Seaforth Avenue SOMERTON PARK SA 5044

Phone:(08) 83770502

EBM Blowers17/ 2 Portrush Rd PAYNEHAM SA 5070

Phone: (08) 88363544

If you have any contacts and web sites you

would like to have included, contact the

Secretary.

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