Author: curranhomestead

This is a current TIMBERFRAMING project at the Museum. We have had two workshops in conjunction with this 24 x 72′ structure that will be a Meeting Hall, Exhibition Space, and Workshop/Demonstration Space. We received a Federal grant for materials, but no funding up to this point for the labor to finish the second half of the structure. This past week we finished the metal roof with volunteer and paid workers. We are planning a third weeklong workshop to complete the timber framing for this structure. This is an immense learning opportunity. We will need to employ our instructor who is a professional timber framer. He requires payment. We will charge $300 per student for a week of instruction Monday thru Friday. Let us know if you are interested in this reduced rate for knowledge and hands-on learning that would cost far more elsewhere. We are a nonprofit and your tuition will help us meet the costs of the workshop and work on the structure. Certainly, you are also welcome to assist us in window/door installation as well as putting up the sheathing. Give us a call: 207-205-4849, or Email with your phone number: thecurranhomestead@gmail.com

CALL: 207-205-4849 for more information and to register. We take credit card payment over the phone.

Saturday & Sunday, March 29-30: Blacksmithing for Kids (Ages 11-15): Make a Tomahawk. Accompanied by an adult the student will learn safety, materials, tools, and equipment related to forging. Students will begin with mild steel and create a “J hook” tapering, bending, twisting, drifting, and cutting the metal using hammer and additional tools. The student will heat and draw out a blade shape from a conventional claw hammer. The student will drift out a round hammer hole and cut off the claws of the former hammer. We will do an oil quench to hardened the steel and then an oven heat to complete the tempering process. Students will then create in our Carpenters Shop their tomahawk hammer handle from scratch using hardwood. This will involve the use of a froe, hatchet, drawknife, shaving horse, rasp and utility knife. Cost: $195 The class is limited to 5 kids and their parent/adult.

Saturday & Sunday, April 12 & 13, Blacksmithing: Make a Knife from a Farrier’s Rasp. This is our two day knife making workshop in which we create a blade and tang. In this case, we will use a Farrier’s rasp to add a particular look to our completed knives. We will temper these knives as well as create a handle with brass rivets and hardwood scales. Cost: $245

Saturday & Sunday, April 12 & 13, 9AM-3PM, Letterpress Printing Workshop. This workshop is open to students 12 and older, adults. This is an overview of materials, equipment, methods and techniques under the instruction of a professional letterpress printer, You will complete three beginner’s projects including printing a business card, stationary pad, and ex libris/book plate. Cost: $195

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Saturday & Sunday, February 15 & 16, 9am-3pm. Please sign up quickly as the instructor needs advance notice of whose taking the class and classes are limited to six. Valentine’s Blacksmithing: Make a Knife Workshop. Take this class with your significant other for a reduced cost. Normal single student cost is $295. A pair that each makes a knife is $545.00 for a $45 savings! A parent/guardian can take class too but the child age 13-16 needs an accompanying adult to assist (adult will watch not make unless they want to pay additionally for their place in class). This is a start to finish. Start with a high carbon steel billet. Heat and shape a blade and a handle tang. Use hand file, belt sander, wet stone and sand paper to refine blade. Heat treat and oven temper. Drill brass rivet holes in tang. Fit hardwood handle scales and fix with rivets and fast drying epoxy. Using sand paper and belt sander perfect your knife handle. Using oil or oil base material finish your handle. You’ve completed your first knife. Cost: $295 for the two day class instruction and materials. You will call: 207-205-4849 to register and make payment by credit card. You should bring a bag lunch, non synthetic gloves, non synthetic clothing and footwear, safety eyewear with side shields, maybe ear plugs (it gets loud), and energy for the two day experience.

Sorry to share that our scheduled Ice Harvest on Saturday, January 11 is CANCELLED due to thin ice and lack of snow. We will continue to monitor the weather for a possible re-scheduling of the event. Although we are having a cold snap there was still open water on Fields Pond, our harvesting site, as recent as this past weekend. There will be a two day blacksmithing workshop this weekend (Jan. 11 & 12) at the museum as well as a Beginning Blacksmithing Workshop for Kids on Saturday, January 18 as scheduled. Happy New Year!

Saturday & Sunday. January 11 & 12, 2025. 9AM-3PM, Blacksmithing: Make a Knife

Instructor: Dwight King

This is a great holiday gift. We can create a gift certificate and email it to you before December 21. The class begins with an overview of safety, equipment and materials. Using propane forges you will heat and shape a billet of steel into any number of blade profiles and a handle tang. You will grind. file and sand your blade. You will participate in the two-part tempering process. Day two will involve creating and fitting brass rivets for your wooden handle that will be applied with epoxy. Further sanding and an oil treatment will finish your knife handle. You will have a completed knife in two days. Bring safety eyewear or use ours. Bring a 2.5 lb. or 3 lb. hammer ( pein, drilling, or machinist type), natural fiber clothing and footwear, no synthetics. ear plugs are optional. Dress in layers. Bring a bag lunch. Cost: $295

Saturday, January 18, 9AM-4PM., Beginner’s Blacksmithing for Ages 11-15.

Instructor: Robert Schmick

This is a great holiday gift. We can create a gift certificate and email it to you before December 21. The class includes an overview of safety, equipment and materials. You will be instructed on the use of both coal and propane forges and will have an opportunity to work at each of these during the day. First you will learn fire building and metal heating. You will do several projects using a coal forge including some “S” and “J” hooks. You will heat and shape a railroad spike using one of our propane forges. Parents/guardians can accompany and assist. Cost: $95 Limited to 5. Bring a 2.5 lb. hammer, natural fiber clothing & footwear, your safety glasses or ours, and ear plugs (optional),

As you might know, the Village received a $45,000 Federal grant to build its’ 24″ x 72″ Community Center. This grant can only pay for materials, not labor. Additionally, a Davis Family Foundation Grant paid for the steel-reinforced building pad and an initial delivery of rough cut hemlock timbers that was subsequently used to create 24 x 32, or 4 bents, of the mortise and tenon timber frame structure. A workshop in timber frame construction began the process with six tuition paying students in May of 2022. Nate Coe continued the construction as a paid worker, and more recently under the guidance of Ed Somers of Bridgton and with the help of Nate and a group of volunteers the 32′ of the structure was assembled. Thank you also to Richard Pearson of Albion, ME who lent us his boom truck to assist in its’ assembly. We are now sheathing the roof to receive metal roofing. We will continue to work at closing up the framework with board and battens weather permitting. This is a perfect opportunity to learn building skills, especially those applicable to the more specialized style of timber framing. Contact us. We need volunteers to continue this construction. 207-205-4849.

Unfortunately, the orchard where we have been getting large quantities of delicious apples each year had no apples this season. The consensus was to cancel our annual Harvest Festival we couldn’t find a large quantity of free apples. A local resident whose family has long maintained an orchard nearby offered up approximately 8 bushels of Northern Spy, Rhode Island Greens and Cortland apples, so we organized a pressing for our volunteers. A first was using a hit and miss gas engine with a flat belt to run the Hocking Valley Mill that has long served the museum. It worked perfectly, as the Mill was always fitted with a flat belt pulley that was ignored in lieu of hand cranking. We discovered that powder post beetle holes in the legs of the portable legs had been long been active when two of the four legs completely fell apart at their ends. See the Yankee ingenuity that went into a temporary fix to use the mill. We will need to replace all the legs before next apple season, and we can always use help with that if you think you have the skills to contribute to that (207-205-4849). Photos of Cider Making October 25, 2024:

Weather Dependent ( check here for update )

Also, during Old Home Week, there will be silent movies shown on Sunday, July 14 and Sunday, July 21, 12-4PM.

Silent Movies— We will be showing silent movies from the 1910s and 1920s at the Cider Mill on Sunday, July 7 from 12Noon to 4PM. The admissions for this viewing will be free. Homemade popcorn will be available at a price of $3.00 a bag.

Movies to be shown, include:

Cecil B. Demille’s Male and Female (1919), Starring Gloria Swanson, Thomas Meighan, Lila Lee, Raymond Hatton, & Bebe Daniels (116 minutes)

United Artists’ The General (1927), Starring Buster Keaton (78 minutes)

a Charlie Chaplin short

Scott Pembroke and Joe Rock’s West of Hot Dog (1924), Starring Stan Laurel, Julie Leonard & Lew Meehan (30 minutes)

In conjunction with the new Orrington Farmers’ Market located at the Museum each Sunday, 2-6PM, some of the museum will be open (Free Admission). This will include the Letterpress Office and the Blacksmith Shop. Demonstrations will be ongoing at both. Learn about future letterpress printing workshops and blacksmithing workshops ( there is a Weekend Knifemaking Workshop coming up; see the “adult workshops” webpage on this website or consult our Facebook page “Events”. Carousel rides ($5) will be given at 2:30, 3:30, and 4:30.