|
Blacksmithing is a family traditionMy mother [Mattie Lee Godfrey Dilbeck] has been researching our family history for almost thirty years, and she has proven that there have been blacksmiths for the last 200 years in the Dilbeck side of the family, and several in the Godfrey side. See the Genealogy section, when I get it completed, for more information -- if you're interested. Over thirty years ago, on a cool, rainy autumn morning when we couldn't go out and do any road construction, my father and I went into our employer's shop. There, Dad [Willie Franklin Dilbeck] went to the forge, built a coal fire, burned it down until it was coke, placed a steel bar into the fire, turned a crank to blow in more air, and then fashioned the hot metal as if it were very hot modeling clay. I was amazed at how easily this hard, durable material could be fashioned, and then how strong and rigid it again became after it cooled. Dad was born in 1913 and grew up on a small farm in eastern Tennessee, near Benton Station, where his family were sharecroppers, and his dad [William Batis Dilbeck] was a farmer and a blacksmith. That's where Dad learned his skills in this art. Later, as a young man, Dad worked as a blacksmith for the Tennessee highway department (in the 1930s) when they were still using horses, mules and oxen to work on some of the roads. He became a truck driver and worked for TVA while they were building the local dams, and then later as a driver for other companies. When he gave me my first taste of blacksmithing, I was a teenager and we both worked for a paving construction company in one of the Atlanta suburbs. It was fascinating sharpening picks and crowbars using nothing but heat and a hammer and anvil. We also sharpened and repaired other tools, such as jackhammer bits, shovels, steel stakes for holding concrete forms, and more. He taught me to harden the steel and then to temper it so it would remain hard but wouldn't break. Some days, now that I'm working to relearn what I used to know, and to learn for the first time skills that I never learned, I look around the shop and wish he were still alive to work his magic on the hot steel with me, and to pass along some of his hard-won wisdom that I wasn't mature enough to accept so long ago. But, thankfully, we had lots of days working on lots of things and talking about whatever crossed our minds. Some of what he knew slowly seeped into this hard head of mine, and I'm grateful for it. He taught me the appreciation of tired muscles after a day of hard work where something useful was accomplished. He taught me the value of a fair deal, and taking my time to do something as well as I could. He taught me that I was never in too much of a hurry to stop by the side of the road and help someone who needed help. These are values that I now hold dear. Detouring through several decades in the computer worldA few years later, I became fascinated by computers, and spent most of the next three decades working with them, leaving precious little time for anything else. I don't think Dad ever quite understood how I could call myself working when I was only sitting in front of a computer, or reading a book, or grading papers. Mom is the scholar and researcher in our family, and it was from her that I got my love of reading, learning, and hunting through reams of data for a few nuggets of information. In June, 1997, about 28 years after I programmed my first computer at Georgia Tech, I realized I was tired of -- no, tired isn't correct, I was completely burned out on -- working with computers and really wanted to do something much more artistic, and something where I wouldn't have to learn new languages every few months or read soon-to-be-outdated technical manuals. Returning closer to my rootsI took some time and started browsing through what I knew how to do, or might be interested in learning to do. I've always been attracted to stories about knights and warriors, and I decided it was time to do something I'd wanted to do for a decade or so. I set out to learn how to make maille armor. Later, when thinking about making plate armor and helmets, as well as knives and swords, I realized that blacksmithing was something I used to really enjoy, and is essentially done the same way it was hundreds of years ago. (As an aside, it's no wonder that I've always been interested in these topics. I've always told my Mom that she can stop pretending that we don't descend from royalty [see Genealogy Overview], but she just looked at me like I was weird or had a wart on my nose. In the spring of 2001, through a book written by Sara Sullivan Ervin, we've traced our ancestry back to Europe and there are more kings, queens, barons, earls, dukes, counts, countesses, princes, princesses, and czars than you can shake a stick at. Except for the last 350 years or so, when the O'Sullivans were attainted in the rebellion and had to flee Ireland, I could argue that I come from a better blood line than some current monarchs, but I don't think I'll bother with that arguement. [grin] Of course, it doesn't change anything, but I think it's interesting that I've always thought this to be true. Perhaps it was just a kid's fantasy or perhaps it was one of those "in the blood" things. Now, if I can just get her to admit that she hid a few tons of gold when my brother and I were young so we wouldn't grow up spoiled....) Making armour and swords seemed like a possibility for the next direction in my life. My main question was could I make a living at it. I still don't know the answer to that question, but I think I have some ability for this art, and I'm working to learn how to make it a career. I spent much of 1998 teaching myself to make chain mail, and getting ready to smite hot steel (for which I needed to do a good bit of reading, get some basic tools, build a forge, and clean out a portion of our shop). I'll always be grateful to Clay Spencer for answering some fairly dumb questions, offering some good advice, and bringing a nice Hay Budden anvil to me from somewhere in Ohio, just when I needed this centerpiece of my shop. I'm thankful to Steve Kayne for finding room for a last minute request for coal when he was coming to the blacksmith's auction at the John C. Campbell Folk School, a place where a fine group of people are dedicated to preserving traditional folk craft skills, art, music and dance. And while they're doing all that, they teach other folk how to do it to, too. I was delighted to discover that the old farm forge in the shop used to belong to Dad's mother's father ["William A. Carney"], and Dad, several years before he died, had rescued it from it's disgrace as a flower planter in one of his cousin's yards. It's a nice link to my past to have my great-grandfather's forge. I received lots of information, advice, and humor from the following mailing lists: the Knife List, ARTMETAL, and theForge -- thanks to everyone on these lists. Lots of good information about the SCA, armor, weapons, and fighting techniques were found on the Iron Rose mailing list -- a list primarily for women who fight in heavy armor in the SCA, but they also welcome men who are interested. Learning to make chain mailNow, before you wrinkle up your nose and say "ewwwww!!," I'm not talking about chain letters, I'm talking about interlinked rings of steel, iron, brass, copper, or whatever, that is used to make armor (you'll also frequently see it spelled "armour"). Later I learned that "chain mail" is a misnomer from the Victorian age, and the armor is more appropriately called "maille" or "mail." I've been making two weights of maille, in 14 gauge and 17 gauge steel. I prefer to refer to the heavy armor as battle armor and the lighter version as court armor. Everything I've done in this area has, so far, used butted links where they are held together by mechanical tension. After reading a number of messages on the Armour Archive, I've become interested in making riveted maille, and I'm going to experiment with that one of these days. I spent most of 1998 making various maille items and experimenting with a number of designs. During this time, I had the freedom to make whatever interested me without being concerned about what might sell. It was an interesting year. I enjoyed it. It was a refreshing change from spending all my time working on computers. In January, 1999, I began exploring other forms of metalsmithing, including traditional blacksmithing, the ambitious and difficult task of learning about medieval-style plate armor, how to make knives and swords, and the methods for engraving and acid etching designs in various metals. With the help and encouragement of Arch Avary, I've been studying what I need to know to cast various metals. Using some equipment and supplies he gave to me, and some he loaned me, I've learned quite a bit about casting pewter figures and polishing them. He spent an afternoon showing me the secrets of getting a mirror finish on metal through proper sanding and polishing. This has been a lot to learn, and I'm slowly making some progress, but I have a long way to go before I can produce items of the quality I'm aiming for. Learning to make steel rosesAs a result, I started a number of projects, and finished some of them. Just before Father's Day, 1999, I got the urge to learn to make steel roses -- with the idea of making one for my daughter as my present to her for making me a father. I enjoyed doing this so much that I've made several more. I've been happy to see that they have been received kindly and so far have been appreciated. Lately, I've had several people ask me how I do this, so I've put up a page on how I make steel roses. Others make them differently, and there are probably as many ways to forge flowers as there are metalsmiths who want to make them. If you want to see how I do it, the information is on JD's Steel Roses page. Happier now, and more relaxed, than I've been in yearsAs I said, I feel like I have a long way to go, but I'm happy to be making progress in doing something I really enjoy doing. Not only that, but what I learn this month won't be outdated next month. My anvil won't expire next year, and I don't have to upgrade any of my hammers to a new operating system!! (As an added bonus, nothing in my shop has "Microsoft" on it!) So, I guess I'm succeeding in what I set out to do nearly three years ago. Well, succeeding is maybe a little premature, I'm making progress towards achieving some of the goals I decided upon. Slowly, sometimes very slowly, but steadily. Learning to market my products on the InternetI've sold a number of roses over the Internet to very nice people from Maine to southern California and from southern Georgia up to Seattle. It's nice to know that people I may never meet will enjoy something I put so much sweat, effort, and care into. If you'd like to know more about how I got where I am, I won't bore you with it here, but you can read it on my Personal Thoughts page, or you can go to JD's Steel Roses and see how I make them. Perhaps you'll like them and decide to purchase one for yourself or someone you love. Back to the real world.It's January 12, 2002 as I write this. I had to make a difficult decision last month. Try as I might, I haven't been able to make a living as a blacksmith, so I'm going to have to go back to computer consulting, web design and programming to earn a living. (If you're interested, see Dilbeck Consulting.) Because of this, the time I have for making my Steel Roses That Never Wilt will be much more limited and they will be more rare than I originally intended. I'm not going to stop making them, but the waiting time between ordering one and receiving it will be longer. I really didn't want to go back to consulting. I'd much prefer to continue being a blacksmith, but that doesn't appear to be in the cards right now. If enough people decide to purchase one of my Steel Roses, then maybe I can -- one day -- return to doing what I love full-time. Perhaps this would be a good time for you to order one for someone you love. Sometimes things don't work as you plan...Last year, I thought I was going to reopen Dilbeck Consulting, but things didn't work out as I planned. About the time I was planning all of that, Mom found out she had cancer, so we scrapped all other plans and concentrated on helping her recover. She went for chemo- and radiation-therapy every day for weeks. Finally, in April 2002, she was ready for surgery. We expected to be in Asheville for six days, and then back home for a couple of months of recovery. The surgery went great. But there were complications. She was able to walk the long hallways to check into the hospital, but after the surgery, she suffered terrible nerve pains and had no strength in her legs. The six days in Asheville turned into six weeks of being in the hospital a couple of times and in Thoms Rehabilitation hospital the rest of the time. Even now, nearly a year later, she's not able to walk very far nor take care of herself as she used to. So, I canceled everything on my schedule and helped her. I was able to work on my various websites from the next room and still be available if she called. Now, she's able to get around a bit and I'm finally able to get out of the house on a part-time basis. I have been hoping to have time to get to the smithy to make a few roses, but that hasn't been possible, yet. Hopefully, I'll be able to make some in the coming months. Heading in a new direction...Instead of computer consulting, I'll concentrate on marketing, since I can do it from home and continue to be here to help her as she needs it. If you're interested, you can see Dilbeck Marketing. If you're looking for help in marketing and selling your products and services, maybe I can be of some help.
|
