#three rivers forge

Just finished watching The Tomorrow War with Chris Platt and I thought it was a good time to again showcase the greatest pistol ever designed, Mr. Browning’s Model of 1911.

If you’re interested in art or design, metalworking or history, the M1911 touches on them all.  If more designers took the lessons offered in the M1911, the world would be a far better place.

Over 100 years since the pistol was first designed, and still nothing matches it for form or function.  The fact that nothing has surpassed it in over a century is testament to the amazing skill of Mr. Browning.

A Nice Little Bundle Of Hand-Forged Goodness!

Getting quality ironwork into the hands of people, reminding them that quality is always better than quantity, is a big step in restoring the idea of craftsmanship in the public consciousness.

I really enjoy seeing these dishes come to life.  What starts as bare steel becomes a lively piece that keeps the eye always moving.

httpwww.storefrontier.com/three-rivers-forge

This is one of those interesting dilemmas that pop up in the everyday life of a blacksmith.

The customer specified that the screw hole needed to be 3/8″ from the wall.  That one little detail completely throws off the whole design.  How?  Well, as the old saying goes, God is in the Details. As you can see in the photo the 1/4″ vertical leg is, um, a 1/4″ thick, taking up two-thirds of that 3/8″ spacing we needed.  Since the head of the screw is 3/8″ in diameter, it’s got to go somewhere, right?  That somewhere just happens to be either partially under the vertical element or deeper into the horizontal part -- which is contrary to the plans provided.

And if that wasn’t enough, because of the need for a fastener there, it means you can’t simply heat up a bar and then bend it into a pretty “L”.  

To forge it into a 90º bend, you’d have to either drill and countersink before making the bend or after you’ve made it.  In the first instance, you’d very likely collapse the hole and have no way to get tools in there to clean it up.  In the second instance, you leave yourself with no room to get tools in there to drill the hole and make a countersink.

Isn’t it amazing how one little design element can dictate so much about what you do and how you do it?  This is the part of blacksmithing that nobody outside of the Trades ever gets to see.  Folks wonder why stuff is expensive or takes so long to make, but these tiny little details really add up in a hurry.  Just emailing back and forth with the customer has taken up better than an hour of shop time.  Making these little test pieces as “proof of concept” added more time to the bill.  Both of those expenditures have to be accounted for, but paying attention to the plans and having a bit of experience saved both parties a ton of aggravation.  There’s no worse feeling than running into an issue like this after you’re well into the project!  :O

Long-shank hooks for a very special lady in Upstate NY.  

Once again, this project exemplifies why the blacksmith is still very much needed in today’s world.  This lady had a very special application and needed something that would work with her house construction.  Weeks of searching through all the big box stores didn’t yield anything that would work.  Weeks more spent searching through the internet turned up similar results.

Then she ran across a picture of mine and, at wit’s end, decided to reach out to see if I could help.  And what does the friendly neighborhood blacksmith do when there’s a damsel in distress?  Yup, I solved her dilemma.  ;)

Now, not only does she get a solution to her problem, but she gets a solution that she can be proud of -- something that looks good, is custom built for her, and makes her smile every time she sees them.

That’s a win for both of us!

Just noticed that I’ve achieved the Tumblr milestone of over 1,000 followers.

Thank you all.  It means more than I can say to know that so many have chosen to join me on this journey..... even if pictures of my work don’t get nearly the likes and shares that the other pics do.   ;)

It’s the little things that make a difference.  A few small chisels will make all the difference in the end product.