Jake James Week Day 4

My whole body is aching with pain. I can barely make a fist with my right hand and my shoulder burns like a sun. But it has been one of the best weeks of my life, for all the pain it has been so worth it.

Working with my friends all week just making stuff, doing some big forging and different techinques. Meeting Jake James, reuniting with Matt, Lee and Sam. It has been just a perfect week, just what i needed to get over the blues of the last few weeks.

Also Del brought cake. Good day

29th of October

Hey guys. Been a crazy week so far, the great Jake James is across from Canada designing and helping us build some sculpture. I was in all yesterday helping design a piece sadly had to miss out todays forging for prior reasons but in there tommorow for it. Thought i would snip a small post in about a few of the samples i forgot about in the last few posts.

 I hate this sample simple because i ruined it myself. I am after crisp lines to stand out and really show the movement in the steel and i burnt the skin a little ruining those clean lines. I chock it up to over exictment, i must admit when i got this one off the grinder i was a little giddy to get it hot and finished. I didnt use the cooking method i have been doing where i sit the steel in the fire for around ten minutes to get hot all the way through before i start ramping it up. You live and learn but it stills annoys me to look at. A postive i can take away from this particular piece would be the diagonal cuts in square stock, i really like how it bends and forcing a new line out of the section.

Now this one is similar to the last sample where i burnt the skin a little and it really annoyed me. Where as that one i took very little away this one i managed to salvage by learning something. I repeated several diagonal cuts all stacked on the same side building up a really unique look when it was squashed. It folded in on itself not only to the degree of making these ripples i like so much but it also built up new corners and different lines as it was being made. I must say i really want to try this sample again but take more care and slow down with the techinque. Look forward to seeing this again soon =]

I still have a few samples left to talk about so i might do a few more tommorow with hopefully a few pictures of the Jake James forging. Night peeps.

 

Friday Sampling

After lunch on Friday i got into the big section and onto the Massey. 

These are the really big samples i worked on. Got to say these six were some of my faveriotes of the ones i have done. All of them have been cut with the grinder. I tried using traditional smithing techinques to cut with a butcher but it got too hot over the period of cutting. So i said fuck it to the banter of be a proper blacksmith and took the easy option of using a grinder which is alot faster and easier. Sometimes got to use these modern techinques.

This is the first one i did. A piece of 35mm round section cut off at 100mm. I cut it twice with the grinder before putting it under the Massey. Why this was a bit of a turning point for me was this is when i really ramped up the heat. Before this i was bringing the steel out around yellow but with this one it was sparking white and the look is completley different. I am thinking that bringing it out right at its plasticity stage is the best time to get it under the Massey as it reacts in such a unique way. Why i like this particular piece in terms of style is the cuts are straight on the ripples making the lines alot stronger.

This was a piece of 40mm round cut off at 120mm with 3 grinders cut on the same side. When it went under the hammer it changed straight away, it began to crumple on the cut side building up one of the most unique ripples. I like how the lines pulling away from it make up like a stacking of the crumplings, it visually seperates the four pieces. I want to work more with this idea of controlling the crumpling with the use of cuts.

This is a piece of 40mm round cut of at 120mm with 3 diagonal grinder cuts in it. I really love this one because of how it reacted under the hammer. You can really see the seperation, the lines break it up into different sections. The top section is forced into the bottom making that really great ridge unchanged. When there is parts changed and those that you can see havent been touched by the hammer. I really want to try some more with the diagonal cuts to see if i can replicate this effect some more.

This was one of the more exicting pieces. I went mad on this with the grinder, it had diagonal cuts. Horizontal cuts. I had no idea where it was go, it could have sprung out all over or like it did pushing down forcing the lines out. I think it is a nice sample but there is just too much going on for me, i like the lines but there is too many. You cant really take in the subtle lines when there is so many going on. To me this is too far and I think that is a good thing, that i have seen what is too far just need to latch onto what is not enough.

 

Baby Sampling

On friday morning we were given the task to make up a response in the steel to a word. The word had to sum up your ideas so i went with Compression. Trouble with the little project was you couldnt use the power hammer so i was kind of on the ropes. Luckily with a little quick thinking and some searching the fly press was set up ready to go.

Had to use some smaller sections under the fly press but they turned out similar as i was going to get. One thing they did help me see is about slicing into the section to really change how they end up looking. I have picked a few i would like to talk about out of the baby selection.

All the babies together

 

This is a small piece of I think it was around 25mm round section with two slices put into it with the bottom fuller. I really like this one because it was the first of a long line of samples to do with slicing into the steel. Something about how some of the lines open up and some closes really adds a whole new level of depth to it for me.

This piece shows off more what I'm talking about. The three cuts all reacted differently, two closed but one of them opened up much wider. I think bringing new factors that I cant explain or duplicate is something i want to do. I am enjoying this so much because i dont know whats going to happen each time, if i can keep that going then this project will be a breeze for me.

This is another close up of the overlapping slices closing. I really like this one because it pushes down hard into the base. I want to try and replicate this idea of the top portion pushing down deep into the bottom. Maybe with quenching techinques i can replicate this process.

Well that was my baby sampling. The Friday Sampling should be up today or tommorow, its a big post so going to take me some time to write it up. Look forward to it people.

Thursday Samples

I went in on Thursday really hoping to get a few samples done under the Massey to maybe understand what i was looking at a little more. I never expected to have a day where everything just went my way, it really was one of the days that reminded me why im here doing this degree. But enough about how well it went lets look at the samples i did.

This is a single piece of 40mm round bar cut off at roughly 100mm. I got it up to a sparking heat then put it under the Massey for a shorter time than the others i will be showing. It was the first and in my mind the best because it showed me exactly where i wanted to take this year. Now this one is so unrefined compared to the others but there is little clues to what i saw, the ripples in the steel on the buckle points and the huge expansion on the bottom. The ripples are what i want to concentrate on because they are what i think I am really starting to chase to find what i love about them. Something about how they are wrapped around the steel is so fluid, it really shows off the movement and plasticity of a materiel that lets face it isn't that easy to move.

This is another piece of 40mm round section cut off at around 90mm. Why this one was so crucial to me was it was the point where i had used too much control rather than let the steel do what it wanted to do. I turned it on its side and started working the hot steel on 4 sides, after i had quenched it and brushed it down i knew i had gone too far. I think that working from the top is what I am after, working the other sides loses the detail in the ripples. I will try a few more samples like to see if i can find a happy medium but so far I don't like it.

This is a piece of box section cut off at 80mm and pressed under the Massey. Using box section was a real change to the round section i had used the first few times. It kind of came out of no where because i was only intending to sample a little bit of round but then Ambrose brought me some spare section and I gave it a go. I really like how it ended up but there was something missing, the ripples in the steel were more exgaretted than any of the other samples but this one looked too worked for my eye. I wanted to try one that was less worked to see how it would look so i did.

This is a piece of box section cut off at 110mm then worked under the Massey. Hit the nail on the head with this one, quenching the top section before putting it under the hammer changed the look of it all together. The ripples on the bottom coming down from the smooth box section was well for lack of words sexy. It was like a more literal version of what im trying to do with the round. I would like to experiment some more with box section and see about maybe quenching top and bottom to see what i can do with it. Working progress this one.

This is a piece of 35mm square section cut off at 100mm and worked under the Massey. Using the square section was a spur of the moment and it changed what im looking for in these pieces. I really like the ripples in the bends but a straight line going in to them just like this square or the box really brings them out more. I tried another sample to see if it was just a happy acident or the square section was bringing out the line.

 

This  was the last sample of the day. Its a piece of 35mm square section cut off at 80mm. I love this one because it didnt bend so much as warp its shape, the sharp lines stayed and really told a story of what had happened under the head and pressure. The top picture is my faveriote because it shows the line in motion. Square section is something i want to work in more maybe later on with the sampling.

That is all of my Thursday samples, look forward to baby samples later on.

 

Big Post Day

Hey guys i said i would be posting today about the massive amount of samples i bashed out over Thursday and Friday.

 

As you can see i have around 25 to talk about and i want to make sure i go over each one. I do find when you have to write up a big amount i end up missing one or two and with this i just dont want to do that. Each one was crucial in the progression of my ideas so i will be doing the posts in three stages today. Thursday Samples, Baby Samples and Friday Samples. Look Forward to them soon =]

25th of October

Short post this morning because in 30 minutes I'm off to the forge for another full day. Yesterday was one of those days that i remembered why not only I'm a blacksmith but why I'm in Hereford doing this degree. Everything was working for me and ideas were flowing. Hoping to get that going again today and make up another massive amount of samples.

Tonight I will start photoing all my samples and putting them up on here. I am thinking there is gonna be a lot of them =]

21st of October

 I thought i would post the tutorail sheets from my last two. I didnt have a very productive weekend with the wedding and all so got to get back into it hard tommorow. Look forward to a post tommorow about what i have been upto.

17th of October

Hey guys thought it was time to check in and get everyone up to date. Decided to do a fairly long post tonight as I am stranded in a hotel room till Sunday evening.

Well after my tutorail with Ambrose got me on track and to a project I have really jumped into this with both feet. Below I am going to put up the expermenting I have been doing with plastcine but more on that later. One bit of research I have been very much enjoying is an idea Ambrose had, go through all my forging books looking for squished steel and when i find it listing whether i think its too far done or not. I have done about 4 books now and got quite alot of pictures i like and a fair few that i think is a bit over done, its this contrast between the two i need to set out now before we start.

I will endavour to print this pictures from the books off to put up in my space, I have only been there a few times but everytime I notice how empty it is looking next to everyone elses. And im fairly sure by now Del would like to see something I am doing.

About the expermenting these are the shapes i made up on tuesday morning, there was a lot of different shapes like square, circle, hexagon section. I placed all of them in the fridge over night so that they would toughen up, doing this i feel the plasticine reacts as close as I am going to get to steel.

Once i brought them out, one by one i was either hammering them down to compress or forcing steel bar into them to make ridges. There are some i found successful and others didnt work for me. I will talk about a few that stood out to me.

This was one of the largest ones i did. It was a circle to start with but as soon as i started to apply the pressure it began to warp in the best way. One side shot out while the other crumpled in on itself. The picture directly above shows my faveriote piece of this one, the side that crumples in and started to fold on itself. I think this one has been worked just enough, i could have gone further but i would have ruined it.

This is an example of one that was worked too far. As i was pushing the steel in there was a really nice point when it was started to compress down and for some reason i kept going until this point. Its split on the sides and the other half of it is left almost untouched. When i get to the steel this is what i want to avoid making, i think it looks over worked and frankly shit in my mind.

This is one where i worked the bar in and i believe it worked. I didnt go too far with it and luckily pulled away when i thought it was right. Why i like this one is the depression on one side is splitting or ripping away from the center. There is something to how the depression folds over the rest of plasticine which really interests me, I am looking to do more of this and look more into what i like about it.

The rest of the pictures are other ones that i did. I will be doing another set when i get back into my house over the weekend, guess il go back to the disseration till then.