THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 19, 1996 TAG: 9603190295
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
Get a forge, build a hot fire, hand a guy a hammer and an anvil and . . . Bang! Bang! . . . if nobody blinks when he starts pounding, it's a sure thing the room's full of blacksmiths.
Jim Slining had a rapt, steely-eyed audience Sunday at a meeting of a new local blacksmiths guild. In a suburban garage at a hobbyist's home forge, Slining pounded out 18th century-style nails and then flattened a steel rod into a keyhole-shaped spatula.
Half the fun for those who came was watching the guest from Colonial Williamsburg work; the other half was rubbing shoulders with people who don't mind coal dust under their fingernails.
``Coming here, I don't feel so alone anymore. Like, why am I doing this? It's so hard,'' said Chris Molinaro, a Virginia Beach smith who specializes in wrought ironwork.
And when the handle popped off Slining's spatula blade by accident and skittered across the cement floor, everybody just stood back and watched him hammer the two red-hot pieces back together.
Slining was among friends - many of them envious friends. After all, he's one of the few who are making a living at the dying art of blacksmithing.
Slining traveled from his regular job at theAnderson Blacksmith Shop in Colonial Williamsburg to demonstrate ironwork basics to the Tidewater Blacksmiths Guild, formed in January. The small chapter is part of a national organization - Artists Blacksmiths Association of North America.
Hooking up like this lets them attract pros who give workshops. Mini-lessons are the next best thing to quitting a day job and apprenticing to a master craftsman.
``So many guys who feel the urge to do this get a book,'' said one backyard blacksmith. ``But there's nothing like training under somebody who knows.''
Careful. That first whiff of hot steel never goes away.
``I got interested in it about a year ago,'' said Mitch Linden, president of the guild. ``Blacksmithing really opens up a whole new world.'' In Linden's case, it caused a career change. He went from traveling around the country repairing ships to being an underwater hard-hat diver to working for Thomas J. Lipton Co. in Suffolk in mechanical maintenance. Changing careers allowed him more time at his forge.
And it's profitable. He's made a pot rack for a dentist and has two custom orders for fireplace sets, both with wizard head embellishments on the handles.
Anthony Pirrone's interest in blacksmithing began in Europe. Retired after 30 years in the Navy, Pirrone's business card advertises his two specialities - blacksmith and wordsmith. He does technical translations of Romance languages into English and, after admiring Portuguese ironwork during his last naval tour in Lisbon, he's been doing blacksmith work for the Thoroughgood House, a historic home in Virginia Beach.
Owning a welding company led Mike Keeney to begin making hand-forged knives of Damascus steel - a metal-folding technique that makes steel look finely grained or marbleized.
``One kind of ironwork tends to lead you to another,'' Keeney said. He surmises there is a demand for hand-wrought ornamental ironwork in the right circles and dreams of the day he can be a full-time blacksmith. The craft has so many applications, said Keeney, ``You're limited only by your imagination.''
In his brother's case, that means few limits at all. Jay Keeney brought a large, copper-tongued dragon oil lamp wall sconce to the meeting.
He started forging three years ago and gets his ideas, he said, ``Sitting up late, drinking beer.''
Seems to be working. The dragon sconces are selling well.
``Can't hardly keep one,'' said the bearded Jay Keeney. He also makes wizard-head bottle openers, letter knives, and fireplace sets on which the tools hang from a dragon's horns.
Sunday's gathering around a backyard forge drew one onlooker from the Charlottesville area. Karen Robertson works as a blacksmith in Afton, Va., and makes interior hardware - scrolled door hinges, thumb latches, fireplace doors and kitchen hardware.
Watching Slining and taking notes on what he said, Robertson said, ``I'm trying to figure out if there's enough people in our area to form a group like this.'' MEMO: For more information about the Tidewater Blacksmiths Guild, call
549-1610.
ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
RICHARD L. DUNSTON
The Virginian-Pilot
A piece of ironwork made by Karen Robertson, who works as a
blacksmith in Afton, Va.
RICHARD L. DUNSTON photos
The Virginian-Pilot
Jim Slining, left, who works at the Anderson Blacksmith Shop in
Colonial Williamsburg, demonstrates the basics of his livelihood
Sunday at a meeting of the Tidewater Blacksmiths Guild. The chapter
is part of Artists Blacksmiths Association of North America.
The products turned out by members of the Tidewater Blacksmiths
Guild are both decorative and utilitarian.
by CNB