I took this class, Modern Blacksmithing and Physical Metallurgy, my freshman year to take advantage of this very-hands on style of learning. I wanted to apply what I learned in lectures about the material properties of the metal to then apply them to the blacksmithing process. I worked in the Merton C. Flemings Materials Process Lab each work to work on our assigned projects.
Our first assignment was to create a decorative hook so we can practice many techniques: quenching the metal, tapering in two axes, making tight curves, twisting the metal, and making sure you move ONLY the part of the metal you want moved. It took many tries to get the final product, but over time I grew more experienced in the technique.
Completing this project took me so much time because of the care I need to put into the metal work. I had to be 110% attentive to what I was doing or else I'd typically have to start from scratch. Here's a closer look at the details of the work:
For my next project I created a bottle opener! For this, like the decorative hook, I started with a metal rod and shaped it how I like. I first flattened the rod, created a circular end, punch a hole through that rounded portion, created the tab to be able to open bottles, and then shortened the opener to a reasonable size.
We were then tasked with creating an ancient caliper. There were multiple components to this work. We had to make two curved pieces as the "pinchers" that would hold something, and they had to be of an exact length. After that, we had to think about how were going to hold them together while still allowing them to move. The solution was to punch a whole into the two pieces and then insert a metal tab. We had to be extremely careful about this because this had to be exact so that the ends of two pieces would touch when closed.
My prof had all of us practice how to weld two pieces of metal, essentially making a chain.
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