Although there were other smithies in town, Jesse earned a reputation as a good-natured, fair, and industrious businessman. Herbert Hoover's father Jesse owned and operated a blacksmith shop from 1871 to 1878. Playing barefoot around the blacksmith shop, I stepped on a chip of hot iron and carry the brand of Iowa on my foot to this day." So for now, I just have to be patient."My recollection of my father is of necessity dim indeed, but I retain one vivid memento from this time. But I wouldn’t have a lot of time to do that until I’m in my 3rd year at school anyways. Its a little hard for me to wait that long, as I’m just itching to get into this building, get it set up and equipped as a blacksmith’s shop, and get hammering on some hot iron in there. And so the dry stone walls will wait to be completed during next years Stone Festival and dry stone waling classes, and the remainder of the timber frame will likewise wait until next years timber framing classes. And while we could bring in a paid crew to just push to get it finished at this point – that would sort of defeat the purpose. As Willowbank is a school, the primary purpose for its construction is the educational experience of building it for us students. This building has taken a tremendous amount of work to get it to its current point – but is now on hold for a while. It will eventually have a slate roof too. The 3rd year class have actually been working on this frame off and on for the past three years, including solidly for the past two weeks.Īs mentioned in my previous posts this shop consists of a sizeable timber frame which is mostly heavy white oak, with lighter spruce for the rafters and sill plates combined with a dry stone wall. This past Friday, my ( 2nd year) class at Willowbank along with the 3rd year class, erected the majority of the substantial timber frame that will become Willowbank’s new blacksmith shop ( which they’re calling the ‘Forge Studio’). Posted in Student Life, The Journey, Tidbits | No Comments » Tags: blacksmith shop, Dry Stone Walling, forge studio, Queenston, Stone Festival, Willowbank In the meantime, here are some other shots from the event.
I don’t have too many photos of the Forge Studio at the moment (was getting late on Sunday by the time I packed up) but will post some soon. But I have faith that it’ll at least be done enough to keep the rain off me by next Stone Fest. Hmm, okay so perhaps it’s not *that* close to being done.
#My little blacksmith shop stone windows
The absolute best part of the weekend, was that the stonework on Willowbank’s new Forge Studio is now complete! Now its just a matter of getting the roof done, sealing up the gable ends, and building all of the windows and doors. Perhaps next year they’ll come back for more. Just as soon as you’re starting to get the hang of working with tongs, your day is over. A 1-day introductory course is far too short… at least for first-timers. The students were all very keen, and did quite well on their first attempts at blacksmithing (all things considered). Note to Willowbank: I’d like some dry weather for next year, please. Just like last year, I was blacksmithing in the rain. The students all happen to be from the Saugeen First Nation, and who have been working on the restoration of a large stone amphitheatre. I’ve no idea how they can do such quality work so quickly.įor my part, I had the privilege of teaching an introductory blacksmithing course to a group of dry stone wallers. It’s absolutely amazing to see these highly experienced craftsmen at work.
On Sunday, a group of master wallers participated in a friendly walling competition. There was some stone carving happening, with several individuals taking a 1-day introductory stone carving course. There was also a 2-day dry stone walling course on the weekend, followed by a DSWA certification day on Monday. A sizeable group of wallers from Canada, the USA and Great Britain were in Queenston working to complete the ‘Forge Studio’. In any case, without the stone carvers, the Willowbank Stone Festival was primarily focused on the art of dry stone walling.
Which is very understandable, as many of the carvers are people involved on the restoration of the Parliament Buildings. Their event was held in Ottawa several weeks ago. The Canadian Stone Carving Festival, which held its annual event together with Willowbank last year, returned closer to home this time. This years event was a little bit different, and slightly more low-key than the first one.
#My little blacksmith shop stone full
It’s hard to believe that a full year has passed since Willowbank’s inaugural Stone Festival, but here we are again…
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