Had the first workshop class on Tuesday night – very cool. Mesa Arts Center has a pretty cool setup for the welding/blacksmithing lab – with a workshop and a balcony area for the forges, etc. Had a couple forges setup and pretty much got right to it. Used the black sand, some borax glass and graphite crucibles – loaded them up in the forge and gave them about an hour.
Interesting to see how the different forge designs affect the crucibles differently. One of the forges had the burner aimed right at the top of the crucible and just ate through the tops in short order. The other one had the burner toward the back of the forge and seemed to be a lot easier on the crucibles, as well as generating more heat.
Each of the six students in the class managed to get through one button. We’ll have a 3rd forge next week and hope to get through a couple per student so that we can start building a paddle during the following class.
