What is a 'Working Day' ?

Day 60

The last couple of days have been a bit messed up, certainly in terms of how they might track back into the grant project.

Just how do you count a working day?
Especially if you are a self supporting artist?

People who have 9 to 5 'standard' jobs just don't get it. Yes, I do not have to go someplace at a fixed time, then do something I largely do not like, mainly for someone else's bennefit.
But I also spend more time each day (even if its broken up) occupied with my 'job'. I also typically 'work' seven days a week. I don't have any holidays.

Normally I'm up at about 7 AM (often much earlier). I dress, brush my teeth, go up to my office and turn on the computer. Grab a coffee. That puts me 'at work' by about 7:10 at the latest.
Then I'm involved in business related activity until normally 10 - 10:30.  This includes all the business communications, which I in fact do first. This may be answering questions, preparing quotes and design work. Keeping my business records (including all that tax stuff for the sole bennefit of the Government). There is time spent on 'outreach' - here being researching, writing, formatting and posting for the blogs. Attempting to keep the web sites up to date.

By about 10:30 or 11 AM, my brain is about toast. Some days the desk / computer work runs straight through to noon. By then I'm *really* fried.

During the grant project, I have been seriously trying to keep 'non grant' work to a bare minimum. I'm keeping a daily diary, when I note what I've done each day. Note that I do not consider that work required as part of keeping the Wareham Forge functional as 'non grant' time. Monday I spent a hour compiling my quarterly HST, for example.  A counter point was that this morning I spent roughly a hour and a half making up a design rough for a possible project for *after* the grant runs out. That time I will not include under the project grant.

Afternoons are generally spent in the workshop itself, normally starting some point between 1:30 - 2 pm. Once again, there is a lot more to undertake in the shop than just hammer at the forge. Supply trips (Monday morning I rushed in to purchase propane, elapsed time was 1 1/2 hours). Clean up and maintenance. Equipment construction and set up.
Now take one of the work sessions documented here, say the one shown as 'A Typical Work Session'.
First I need to figure out just what I'm going to do. This may include some organization and record keeping. Typically 15 minutes.
Then, having selected the bloom to work on, I start the gas forge and start getting the required tools, etc organized. All while waiting for the gas forge to get through its pre-heat. Typically 10 minutes.
Now I can place the bloom piece into the gas forge for its initial heat soak. Then I turn my attention to the preparing the coal forge. Clean, sieve, lay and start the fire. Wait for that fire to run through its coking phase. Normally sweep the shop floor while this is happening. Typically 30 - minutes.
By now the bloom piece is pre-heated and can be transferred to the coal forge to bring it up to welding heat. This requires some attention. I dance back and forth preparing the air hammer and hydraulic press for operation.
Elapsed time from when I entered the workshop till I pull the bloom piece out to the anvil? Typically 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours.
Insert forging the bloom here, normally about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Now at that point I'm, pretty much beat. Forging multiple kilogram masses at welding heats is exhausting and demanding work (even *with* my two machines).

Add some time shutting things down. Normally its now something between 5 - 6 pm.
I make that a 'normal' work day of 7 a to 5:30 p, with 1 1/2 hours average for lunch = 9 hours.

Then there are the *long* days.
Now do that basically 7 days a week.


I was extremely pleased - and quite surprised, to get this OAC grant! (Ok?)

Taking the amount awarded in the grant and converting it into normal working days, at 5 per week and weekends off, the total came to * 43 * working days. Use that standard, with the 14 days for the Smeltfest research trip considered additional time.  With the grant effective February 15,  the last grant day would be Thursday April 26.
Tomorrow.
See the 'day count' at the top of this post?
I have deducted all the time I have spent on things that I do not consider part of this project. I've been counting 'full days' (not working hours!)
Today's total?
* 60 * days

I'm actually going to try to squeeze out additional working time past that April 26 date for the grant project. I have an academic paper to deliver at the International Congress on Medieval Studies on May 10. My intent is to extend my own work on this project to that date.

I think the Ontario Taxpayer is certainly getting their money's worth...


PS - this piece just took me one hour to prepare

Why Bloom Iron ?- Four

The most obvious characteristic of bloomery iron is its distinctive texture.

2011 - Bloom Iron Bowl - forged bloomery iron - L 20 cm

As was mentioned in the Feburary 29 post, one of the major differences between bloomery iron and modern industrial steels is that the formation process used in a bloomery furnace always leaves glassy slag trapped within the metallic matrix.
Just how *much* slag is mixed in with the metal from an individual smelt will depend on a large number of factors : type and quality of the ore, furnace design and working sequence. Loosely it is the experience and the skill of the smelt master which defines all the variables. Reguardless, the desired result of any smelt attempt is to produce the highest yield with the least amount of fuel expended - and the densest bloom possible.

Bloom Iron Bowl was forged from a one quarter section of a bloom created in 2005. In this case I wanted to retain as much of the surface and edge texture as possible. For that reason, the cut section from the parent bloom was not subjected to the normal compressing, folding and welding steps. Since the ideal working bar would retain as little slag as possible, there might be several courses of these steps in the 'bloom to bar' process.

Cutting the 7.5 KG bloom
Shot with available light to show the metal heat.

The starting piece was a rough pie shape, with two edges the cut surfaces of the inner portion of the bloom. The other edges were the more ragged external surfaces of the original bloom.
By taking this segment , then basically hammering it flat down into a plate, all the slag inclusions and the bloom's starting ragged edges were retained.
The next step in the process was to take the two more or less flat surfaces of the plate and polish them roughly smooth with an angle grinder.
Once this was done, the plate was again heated to forging temperature, and worked with ball surface hammers over dishing forms to create the overall bowl contour.
The last step was to use a wire brush to clean the fire scale off the inner surface of the completed form. This polished the metal to 'bright', thus raising the contrast between the metallic and darker slag pockets.

Bloom Iron Bowl is an excellent example of the special physical composition characteristic distinctive to bloomery iron.


I should mention that this specific aspect of bloom iron - the possibilities of the unique texture - was first illustrated to me by the work of Lee Sauder

Detail of Tension Deficit by Lee Sauder

Why Bloom Iron ?- five

(Day 17)

The second distinctive characteristic of bloomery iron is variation in carbon content.

(This is going to be a bit technical for the non-metalsmiths.)

Carbon has a major effect on iron when it is added (alloyed) to the metal. Even small amounts of carbon drastically effect the relative resistance to deforming (effectively the hardness). Some modern metals with their approximate carbon contents:
'Electric Iron' ( a low carbon Bessemer steel, used for transformer cores) - about 0.05 % Carbon
Mild steel (what most everything is made of, from cars to I beams) - about 0.2 % Carbon
Spring steel (old leaf and coil springs in autos, heavy cutting tools) - about 0.5 % Carbon
Tool steel (small, sharp cutting edges) - about 1.0 % Carbon
Cast Iron (cookware, stoves) - about 2.0 % Carbon

Because iron alloyed with carbon resists forming - it will get increasingly more difficult to actually forge (hot hammer) shapes. In the pre-Industrial Age world, the ideal iron for the blacksmith had as *little* carbon in it as possible.
You can see that this works in direct opposition to the requirements of the blade maker. For a durable cutting edge, you would want some amount of carbon present. Hardness equals edge holding ability. Also the complex series of heat treating methods apply to Carbon alloys. (A topic for *much* later!)


Remember our idealized direct process bloomery furnace:

Carbon is *not* present in the starting iron oxide ore.
Carbon may be absorbed by the reduced metallic iron in two ways:
First, directly to the surface of the individual particles as they fall down the body of the furnace. This is most commonly found with very small particle size ore, or with a furnace that is allowed to run too hot.

The second place carbon can come from is into the surface of the bloom, as it sits inside the liquid slag in the bowl at the bottom of the furnace. This is a slower process, so the carbon tends to diffuse from the outer layers towards the centre.
With larger blooms, the effective ratio of surface area to internal volume is lower. So this carbon variation effect tends to be more obvious with smaller blooms.
Also, the quality of the individual bloom comes into play. The folding and re-welding process will tend to 'average out' variations in carbon content ('carbon migration'). There can also be carbon absorbed from the fuel during repeated welding heats.

Ok - enough theory - what is the practical effect:

Bloom Buckle - Winter 2011
Forged from a small bloom fragment

The variation in colours seen over the surface of 'Bloom Buckle' is a direct result of variations in carbon content within the metal. As a small fragment, the original metal was more drastically effected by carbon diffusion across its surface (high area to volume ratio).
The finished buckle was water hardened, then etched with a Ferric Chloride solution to highlight the differences in carbon content. (This is a variation on the process used for my layered steel knives.)

This is another effect which I intend on exploring (if time permits) within the framework of the OAC Grant.


Note to Readers :
The Arts is well known for its (often inpennetrable ) jargon. You may have noticed I don't tent to use this 'Language of the Artist'. What you will find here is a tendency to technical jargon - itself often poorly understood (and frequently *improperly* used). I would refer you to my commentary piece 'Defining the Artist Blacksmith'.

Why Bloom Iron ?- three

(Day 13)

As is becoming obvious to those reading past postings, my main attraction to bloomery iron is a technical / cultural / artistic one.


My close friend (initially teacher and eventually workshop fellow) Lee Sauder was initially inspired to attempt to smelt his own iron because of a kind of Virginia Hillboy Ethic : " You should kill what you eat." As a working artisan blacksmith, he considered it important to the understanding of iron as a material to have experienced the creation of iron bar - from dirt. Lee had originally looked at 'traditional' African furnaces. There was some video that had been shot in the 1970's showing some old fellows undertaking one last iron smelt, from what they could remember seeing as young boys. (Compare this with Europe, where there was no living tradition at all.)
Right - Bloom Iron Vase - Sauder
Of course, the bug bit him big time. When I first met Lee (in 2002) he and his working partner Skip Williams had roughly 50 smelts undertaken (about where I am now). I consider Lee and Skip to be by far the most experienced iron smelting team in North America. Along with Mike McCarthy (and myself) they are at the core of the new 'Early Iron' movement.

My own interest in iron smelting started from a historical standpoint. The first iron ever produced in North America was made by the Norse in Vinland, circa 1000 AD. The site at L'Anse aux Meadows Newfoundland contains the remains of what was most likely a single use furnace. The estimated yield has been (very approximately!) calculated at about a 3 kg bloom.

Because of my work on the Norse Encampment living history program for Parks Canada, I was part of a small research working team in Summer of 2001, considering how best to represent this event to the visiting public. My very first attempt at smelting iron was made at that workshop. (And believe me, if there ever was a case of 'everything you know is wrong' - that certainly was it!)
Right - First Iron Smelt - 2001

From a purely technical standpoint, my interest was sparked by the historical traditions from early Europe. As with Lee and Skip, it was clear that I had to learn how to actually functionally *make* iron first. The clay 'short shaft' furnace that would become the standard model here in Wareham was based on archaeological evidence. However, modern equipment and 20th Century perceptions of science based methods would inform the techniques that were developed.
At this point, if I stick to known raw materials, and follow the established equipment set up and proven method, I can reliably produce a good quality iron bloom every time. An important direction to this continuing experimental work is to remove these modern elements, one by one. The exact methods used in ancient Norse iron smelting represent a completely shattered and unknown working tradition. Even the archaeology can only at best give the most general clues into the actual working methods used 1000 years ago.
Bloomery Iron represents a material functionally different than our modern metals. How you forge individual shapes leading into a completed object can be quite different than those you would use if utilizing modern industrial mild steel.

My interest in Iron as a cultural material remains tightly bound with a lifetime of exploring the history of Scandinavia during its 'Viking Age' - 800 to 1000 AD. The Norse were well known for their skill as metal workers. Their method of welding layered and twisted iron alloys together to create 'pattern welded' (or 'twisted composite core') sword blades created some of the most complex forged objects ever created. Although initially undertaken for purely functional reasons, they would raise the technology to high art.

Sword of Heroes - 2000 Detail
Two 9 layer twisted core rods with spring steel edges.

The raw difficulty of producing iron in the first place, coupled with the limits imposed by small anvils and use of simple charcoal forges combined to lift iron to a material suitable for high status objects. To the Norse, elaborately forged and elegantly designed iron objects were the equipment of kings and queens.
There is a drastic change in our modern frame of reference, where iron (mild steel) is so cheap that it is both plentiful and generally only considered a functional material. As an artisan blacksmith, I strive to change this popular perception of iron as material. The value of aggressively hand forged objects lies in the skill of the hands which had created it, not in the cost of the raw material.

Cauldron Hanger - Sutton Hoo, c 625 AD
(replica, the British Museum)

The Norse possessed a series of distinctive artistic styles, changing over time. My own personal design style, which I call 'Rivendale', has been deeply informed by the artifacts of the Viking Age.

The purpose of my OAC Crafts Project Grant is to allow me working time to blend these aspects of technical tradition, cultural framework - and artistic vision.

Haliburton Sculpture Forest Submission

(Day 12)

Currently there is an open call underway for a new work for the Haliburton Sculpture Forest :

" The Board of the Haliburton Sculpture Forest announces a competition for a new
sculpture for the Haliburton Sculpture Forest in Glebe Park near the village of
Haliburton, Ontario.

The Haliburton Sculpture Forest is looking for a work of artistic/design excellence
and durability that suits the natural attributes of the Haliburton Sculpture Forest and
addresses the theme “Avian Fauna” (birds of the region)
...
Proposed sculptures can be representative of specific birds of the Highlands or can
be a work that brings the image of birds to the eye of the viewer.

The sculpture will be located in the Sculpture Forest along walking/cross country
skiing trails adjacent to the campus of Fleming College and the Haliburton School
of The Arts. The trails are used by thousands of walkers and skiers throughout the
year. The Sculpture Forest was started in 2001 and currently has 25 sculptures by
Canadian artists."

Although I have known about this competition for about six weeks, I really had a bit of trouble coming up with a suitable concept for a new work. In connection with my Crafts Project, I did want to use bloom iron as a major component. This is what I came up with:

Title: 'If You Build It - they will come'
Form: bird bath / feeder

Concepts:

Almost any sculpture providing the required durability and longevity for the Haliburton Sculpture Forest needs to be rigid in its construction. How to add movement to such an enduring form? My solution is to attract natural life itself into the sculptural framework. 'If you build it' thus entices the birds themselves to become an ever changing dynamic component of the work.

Gold Finch perched on my 'Glass Disk Hanger'

The central bowl is a irregular shape created from bloomery iron. The Near North region is covered with deposits of naturally occurring bog iron ore deposits. In the Settlement Period (1800's) these deposits were sources to the first iron industries in Ontario, the Marmarra Iron Works a prime example. Thus the primary material of sculpture is related directly to the Region.

Bloomery iron has a distinctive texture and visual appearance quite unlike our modern metals. I am the only artist in Ontario who creates and works with bloomery iron. Bloom iron, due to its low carbon content, will weather slower than modern mild steel. As it does oxidize, the slag occlusions this metal contains will cause it to weather in unusual patterns.
The shallow bowl becomes a natural bird bath, filled passively by rain. It also could be used as a feeder in winter months, attracting wild life.

Bowl forged from Bloom Iron - 2011

The bowl at the heart of the sculpture is held up in a loose basket made of intertwined organic elements. Forged of stainless steel, these pieces will have a light grey colour, contrasting sharply with the dull black of the lower bowl. The uprights are stylized interpretations of two common Ontario road side plants. To one side will be a bundle of gracefully tapering rushes. To the other are a spray of my distinctive 'feather' forms, which are inspired by the reed Phragmites. Balanced against each other, the native plant and the invasive species. Who can say which is more 'natural'?

'Fire at Heart', 2oo8
Use of the 'Feather' element

The base frame of the sculpture will be covered with a loose spray of natural beach stones - gathered from the Region. First are oval, wave polished stones from the Lake Huron shore (Goderich area). The second are fragments of pock marked limestone from Manitoulin Island. If possible, some pieces of the dramatically folded granite from East Georgian Bay would be included.

Manitoulin Limestone - as sculpture base ('Crinoids' - 2012)

Size / Scale

In keeping with the four seasons use of the Sculpture Forest, 'If you build it' is scaled to retain a physical presence even with three feet of snow ground cover. The sculpture has an overall height of about seven feet. The area the sculpture occupies is an irregular oval about 3 1/2 by 3 feet.

The central bowl is an irregular oval shape overall, roughly 18 to 24 inches in diameter, about 6 inches deep. The top edge of this bowl will sit at roughly four feet off the ground.
As well as clearing the snow cover, this placement allows the rough textured lower / outer surface of the bowl to be easily viewed as the observer approaches - through the bulk of the seasons.
The inner surface of the bowl will be ground smooth. Initially this will make a bright surface, which will oxidize differently than the outer surface as time goes by. This difference becomes a visual discovery for the viewer as they approach closely.

The individual curved organic elements vary in height. The top of the lowest will sit at roughly five feet from ground level, extending to closer to seven feet for the tallest. The graceful curves sweep the terminal points inwards, providing a measure of safety. The 'feather' elements will be about 2 - 3 inches wide. The 'rushes' will be about 1 1/2 inches diameter at their widest.

What is above is only an excerpt from the larger detailed description prepared for the submission. If any reading are interested, the total time taken for the layout drawing, researching the costs and preparing the supporting documentation was roughly 10 hours. (If you're wondering where the time goes...)

Image 'Bird on Disk' by Karen Peterson

Why? A Historical reference.

(Day Two)

So - why is important that someone is working with bloomery iron?

It is fair to say that to understand were we are going, there needs to be a consideration of where we have come from.

The following is altered from a much longer commentary I wrote this morning for the NORSEFOLK discussion group.

First (and most importantly) the standard metal used up to the Medieval Period is *bloomery iron*. This metal is soft, has a stringy texture with slag inclusions. Individual pieces would vary considerably in physical consistency. Carbon content would vary not only from piece to piece, but also *within an individual bar*. We modern smiths are completely dependant on mass produced, scientifically refined, industrially consistent (cheap!) metal alloys. These are produced using variations on the Bessemer furnace, only introduced in 1855.
There is a fuller commentary on 'traditional' versus modern metals on the main Wareham Forge web site : 'Wrought Iron - what it really is, what it really means'
(I get very aggravated by contemporary bladesmiths who have adopted bloomery iron making, building on the work of those who developed the current methods being used - and obviously not understanding them. Making bloom iron is *not* about alloy control, it is about creating a physical texture in the metal.)

Modern commentators looking at traditional practices often use the term 'ritually' in place of a better description 'based on experience'. Our concept of 'ritual' is most certainly far different than ancient / non Western concepts. 'What you do if you want things to work' - in our world we would call this science.
An experienced smith knows that when you quench different pieces of iron metals from orange in water, there can be changes in how it breaks when cold hammered. The exposed surfaces can have different colours and textures. Metal that is thus treated, then found to be brittle, have a surface of small crystals, and a bright, light grey colour - that material also makes for a hard / durable cutting edge.
(This selection of materials based on physical appearance is the core of the Japanese traditional method. Consider - How do you spark test for carbon content, a standard modern practice, in a world with no high speed grinding?)

This wide variation in the quality of the starting metal is vastly important when creating cutting edges. Examination of a large number of individual blades from the Roman to full Medieval periods has shown that the processes of quench hardening and drawing back temper were *not* universally applied by bladesmiths until much later than most would suppose. Although this fact seems counter intuitive to a modern blacksmith, my interpretation is that the variation in metal characteristics in bloomery produced iron is the reason.

Even a small 'short shaft' furnace is easily capable of producing raw iron blooms much lager than those typical of the few artifact blooms we have from before the introduction of water power (Europe, roughly 800 - 1100 AD). Early smelters were creating blooms in the 5 - 8 kg range, *limiting* potential size. This just because of the great difficulty of attempting to work larger masses of metal down to useful bars, with only stone anvils and hand powered hammers for tools.

'Redemption' Bloom - November 2006
6.8 kg, from 19 kg combined ore and gangue

WOW! I actually GOT IT!!

I headed out the front of the workshop (first time today) about 2:30 in the afternoon.

I've got a letter from the Ontario Arts Council.
I'm expecting, well, not much more than 'thanks for applying, maybe next time'.

Dear Darrell Markewitz

On behalf of the Ontario Arts Council, I am pleased to inform you that you have been awarded a Crafts Projects - Creation and Development Grant in the amount of...A cheque is enclosed.

WHAT?
Huh - a cheque?
It's for 3/4 the amount I applied for?
I got the grant??
What...

Ok, so I'm still a bit in shock.

Here's what my 'Artist Statement and Grant Proposal' looked like:

The very first time I picked up the blacksmith's hammer was a direct result of my interest in ancient artifact and process. Objects from the Celtic Iron Age and Scandinavian Early Medieval periods continue to influence my developing personal style. There was virtually no existing living tradition of artistic blacksmithing in Canada when I started in the late 1970's. For that reason, my skills have been hard earned, and the transfer of methods into a new generation have become more and important to me into my fourth decade in the medium.

With experience has come a clear understanding that our modern materials are not equivalent to historic, much less ancient, metals. The ancient material is bloomery iron, produced by lost techniques, with no living tradition (in Europe), no written descriptions, even virtually no archaeology. How did ancient craftsmen make their raw material? This question has absorbed me for over a decade. Since 2001 I have self funded some 50 bloomery iron smelting attempts, and have observed or assisted in as many others (with travel to the USA and Europe). There is no other Canadian with as much experience with these methods, and few others in North America.

The results of all this work are dozens of iron blooms, several hundred kilograms worth. The next step in the experiential process is converting these massive and spongy blooms into working bars, by compressing, folding and forge welding. Individual iron blooms have a distinctive texture, caused by inclusions of slag, and can vary considerably in carbon content, sometimes even within the same bloom. These are significant differences compared to modern industrial steels, affecting the working processes in the forge, and also creating specific qualities to the finished object.

The purpose of this grant is to cover three months dedicated time to allow me to develop a practical understanding of how to convert my existing raw blooms into working bars. This process is further complicated by having blooms from different ore types and furnaces, individual blooms having quite differing physical characteristics. If time permits, the various metal bars produced could be combined into finished objects. The budget covers normal shop operation expenses, living costs, plus fuels and other needed supplies for the specific project work.
My existing workshop will have to be modified (then returned) for the specific tools and set ups required for these processes.
Also included in the proposal are funds to cover travel to a two week workshop gathering (in mid March) of the other primary leaders of the 'Early Iron' movement in Virginia.
Part of the process would be to publish my results, via web site and blog certainly, possibly also through formal papers or journal articles.

Look - I'm intending to document the day by day progress of the work covered by the grant. Right now I'm still twitching. I managed to get this blog set up. My brain is not tracking evenly right now, so give me a chance to recover...