2024 ADULT WORKSHOP OFFERINGS

New Disclosure: Workshops are a source of revenue for our nonprofit museum as well as a fulfillment of our mission. We limit class sizes so that everyone is accommodated by the instructor. We contact you if we have to cancel a class for reasons of inclement weather or instructor illness. If we are unable to reach you we will send an email or leave a message. You will need to respond to that message to re-schedule the class. When you register and don’t show it means that someone else couldn’t take the class at that time and hence we lose revenues. Please be sure that you can follow through with a class before you register. There is a $50 processing fee if tuition must be refunded.

Friday Night Coal-Fired Blacksmithing, April 12, 2024, 6-9PM.

You will learn the basics of coal fired forging with instructor Dwight King. You will learn about safety, fire-starting, fuel, forges, and tools. Learn to heat and manipulate steel for the purpose of beginner’s projects like a J and S hook. This class might be the precursor to the following Saturday and Sunday knife making workshop or be taken on its own. Ages 15 and older. Wear natural fiber clothing and footwear. Dress in layers. Safety eyewear with side shields are necessary. Gloves and earplugs are optional but you should consider these. Bring a snack and water. Bring a 2.5-3 lb. hammer, if you have. Cost: $65 ( If you take the Sat. & Sun. class the cost is $50 plus the fee for the Knifemaking Workshop). Call to register: 207-205-4849.

Sat. & Sun., April 13 & 14, 9AM-4PM. Two Day Weekend Knife Making Workshop

This is a popular two day weekend knife making workshop. You will forge a knife out of high carbon steel, You will shape a blade and handle tang. You learn to temper your blade in a two part process. You will create a hardwood handle and attach it to your tang using brass rivets and fast drying epoxy. The handle and blade will be finished by you by the end of the class. This workshop involves the use of propane fired forges and 1095 steel. You need to wear natural fiber clothing and footwear. You need safety eyewear with side shields. Gloves and earplugs are optional. You need a 2.5 – 3 lb. hammer. Bring a lunch and drink. We never know how many classes we will be schedule during the late fall, winter and early spring when we offer this class, so sign up if you are interested now. Call to register: 207-205-4849.

Photo Gallery of Recent Knife Making Workshop (Jan. 2024)

Reed & Seth Branscombe, Paul Benoit, and Adam Orcutt work at forging a knife.
Pattie Jones looks on as son Simon strikes while the steel is hot.

On Friday Night, March 15, 2024, 6-9PM Beginner’s Coal-Fired Forging (Blacksmithing Workshop)

We will revisit coal fired forging after a long hiatus. Our instructor Dwight King will develop beginners skills in you as you create a series of projects including J & S hooks. You will learn safety, fire starting and strategies for shaping steel once you’ve heated it. You should have natural fiber clothing and footwear, gloves, and a pair of safety eyeglasses with side shields. Cost $65, Ages 15 & Older.

Saturday & Sunday, March 16 & 17, 9-4, Blacksmithing Workshop: Start to Finish Knife Making

Begin by forging a blade and handle tang out of 1095 steel. You will grind, file and sand this to your satisfaction. You will do the oil quench and we will oven temper the knife. You will make and fit a hardwood handle to your tang. This includes brass rivets and epoxy. You need natural fiber clothing and footwear, safety eyewear with side shields, gloves, maybe ear plugs, and a 2.5-3lb. hammer ( pein or drilling type hammer ). Cost: $325 Call to register: 207-205-4849. Ages 15 & older.

Saturday & Sunday, January 27 & 28, 2024, 9AM-4PM, Blacksmithing: Make a Knife Workshop, $325

Forge a steel metal knife using traditional blacksmithing techniques. You will begin with 1095 steel and hammer out a blade and handle tang. Once you have completed the rough shape you will grind, file and sand your blade to perfection. You will drill holes for your brass handle rivets. You will heat treat your blade starting with a heat and quench in peanut oil. The second part of this is an oven temper which will take place after you leave from Day 1. On Day 2 you will clean up your blade and create the parts of your hardwood handle and fix it permanently. Requirements; Synthetics melt whereas natural fibers may scorch so we recommend natural fiber clothing and footwear, safety eyewear with side shields, work gloves, ear plugs (optional), and a 2.5-3 pound pein type, drilling, or metal work hammer. Call for additional info. or to register with a credit card. Cost: $325 Call: 207-205-4849

Saturday & Sunday, January 6 & 7, 2024, 9AM-4PM: Blacksmithing, Make a Knife Workshop. Start to finish class. Begin with hand forging a blade and a handle tang from high carbon steel. Grind, file and sand your blade to perfection. You will temper the knife with a oil quench and an oven heat. You will prepare your tang to receive brass rivets and hard wood handle scales, You can sand these and oil finish them. We use a fast-drying epoxy in addition to the brass rivets to hold your handle together. Bring a bag lunch, safety glasses with side shields, ear plugs, leather gloves, natural fiber clothing, leather footwear, and a 2.5-3 lb. metal working hammer ( pein type or drill hammer ). Cost: $325 In case we have to cancel due to snow we will negotiate with you a makeup weekend. Gift certificates available.

Saturday & Sunday, September 30 & October 1, Make a Knife Blacksmithing Workshop. We’re Back! The weather is changing, and it’s time to start stoking the forges in the smithy. Sign up now by calling 207-205-4849. Our workshop costs $295 for two days of instrunction. You hand forge a blade and a tang. Heat Treat. You will walk away with a ytempered knife blade. You will fit wooden scales (handles) to the tang you hane forged and secure them with brass rivets that you form and mount. You need: natural fiber clothing, leather footwear, gloves, a 2.5 -3 lb. pein type or drilling hammer, safety eyewear with side shields, maybe ear plugs, and great enthusiasm. Waiting for your call.

Saturday & Sunday, May 27 & 28, 9AM-4PM, Blacksmithing Workshop: Make a Knife

This is our popular two-day class that begins with forging a blade and tang from 1095 steel in a propane burning forge. File, grind, and sand before annealing your blade with a peanut oil quench. The blade will be oven tempered overnight. Prepare your tang on Day 2 for a handle. Fit brass rivets and hardwood scales. Epoxy wood to steel. Do a final sanding and finish with an oil rub. Bring a 2.5 lb. pein, drilling, or engineer type hammer, safety eyewear with side shields, natural fiber gloves, clothing and footwear, and earplugs (optional). Cost: $295 Pay to register. The class is limited to 5.

Whig & Courier Letterpress Office

To Be Announced *( We had our first class on April 22 & 23, 2023). Letterpress Printing with Instructor Mark Matteau of the Dunstan Press.

This two day workshop in our new letterpress office is introductory. It has a syllabus and students learn the language of letterpress printing. Students will also learn about materials, equipment, and techniques. You work with lead and wood type as well as our collection of wingdings, borders, ornaments, and cuts. There will be an opportunity to take your learning experience beyond this two-day workshop as an apprentice into the following week as work organizing the shop will continue until March 11; and, yes, you can do some more printing. Cost: $225. Contact is as soon as possible , if you are interested: (207) 205-4849.

Toolbox Contents for Our Timber Framing Workshop (May 27-June 2, 2023)

Framing Chisel, 1 1/2″ -2″
Framing Chisel
Corner Chisel, 2 1/2″- more
Sharpening Stone & honing oil
Wooden Mallets, 30 ounces, hardwood—hickory
Wooden Mallet
Measuring Tape
Boring Machine
Bits and Braces
Combination Square
Cross Cut Saw
Cross Cut Saw
Power Saw with 8 1/4 inch blade
Shoulder Braces (Optional)
Cloth Measuring Tape (Optional)

Saturday, May 27 – Friday, June 2, Mortise & Tenon Timber Frame Workshop (40 Hours of Instruction over 7 days) with Ed Somers.

Learn to plan, measure, cut and erect a timber frame structure by hands-on experience with a timber framer and historic building restorer. The first day will familiarize you with hand and power tools necessitated. learn to maintain them. This hands-on project will have you creating mortise and tenon posts, braces, beams, rafters, and fastening them with pegs. You will also install purlins with metal fasteners. Students will complete this 7-day course are welcome to participate in our two additional week-long workshops in August and October for free. Starter tool kit needed. Get your own or buy ours. Lunch provided. Dinner and housing your responsibility. We can provide locations. Free camping and RV parking possible on museum site, Cost: $975

Timber Framing

Our project will be a 16′ x 36′ open pavilion.
Our Carpenter Shop was in part a product of our first timber framing workshop with instructor Ed Somers in 2016-7.
Volunteers, some students of the earlier workshop, helped complete the structure.
Ed Somers tunes up some mortises.
A barn raising! The Carpenter Shop goes up.
A power mortising machine is demonstrated.
The Carpenter Shop in progress.

Sat., February 25, 2023, 9AM-4PM, Make a Propane Burning Blacksmithing Forge. Scroll down for a photo gallery of these forges.

This class begins with a kit prepared by us in-house. It includes a recycled helium tank with the top cut off. Horseshoe legs have been welded to it. Lugs have been welded to close the top back up once you have lined the interior of the tank with high temp refractory cement. You prepare steel reinforcement for the cement. You pour the cement into a Sana tube placed inside the tank. You fabricate a handle for the forge with flat metal stock and fasten it with self tapping screws. You assemble a series of brass fittings and a shut off vale to a fire wand that includes a 30 PSI regulator. There are black metal pipe pieces and a .030 welding tip that is also part of the assembly. It takes a few days for the refractory to cure, and then you are ready to use this in a well ventilated space. All materials included. Cost: $325

Saturday, March 11, 9AM-1PM, Foot Treadle Sewing Machine Sewing Workshop

Instructor: Susan Howard, Cost: $40. Make a feed bag tote bag with handles. Bring a bag lunch. Snack, tea, coffee available. If you still have grandma’s or great-grandma’s treadle sewing machine around, now is your chance. We’ll use the museum’s machines for this class; we can give pointers on resurrecting your own or buying one (many out there). Learn to thread the bobbin/ needle on our Franklins, Whites, or Singers. Coordinate the treadle with the speed of the needle. These will be made from synthetic feed bags adorned with graphics and a variety of colors, which makes you wonder whether they’re made that way so that they will be recycled into something else like the printed patterns on cotton flour, burlap seed, or muslin sugar bags or yore that were made into dresses and all else! We’ll show you our collection.

Saturday, March 11, PAM-3PM, Metal/ Sand Casting Workshop

Instructor: Peter Grant Cost: $150 We invite pairs of accompanying parents/guardians with child ages 12-15 (one price, sharded projects) to take this as well as adults on their own ( 16 and older). Melt aluminum/bronze and pour into sandcasting molds you prepare with a pattern. A variety of pattern molds as well as our own through arrangement can be cast. This has artistic as well as industrial application; cast a piece of machinery or figurative sculpturer. We have cast parts to early gas engines: bronze rocker arms, aluminum mufflers, and bronze governor weights as well as sundials, door knockers, and art objects.

Photos from Our Recent February 4 & 5, 2023 Knife Making Workshop

Sat. & Sun., March 11 & 12, 2023, 9AM-4PM, Blacksmithing: Make a Draw Knife & Crooked Knife.

Over two days, you will experience coal fire or propane forge blade-smithing. Create a two handled draw knife with tempered edge for shaping wood held in a vise or shaving horse. Make a crooked knife, a traditional knife form with a hooked edge point used for shaping wood, preparing hides or canoe making. The handle will be a traditional crooked shape piece that holds the blade in a notch and is wrapped with sinew or cord. Cost: $295

Crooked Knife & Draw Knife, Past Jan. 14 & 15, 2023 Workshop: this class consisted of four dads and four sons learning together! Scroll down for another crooked knife and draw knife photo gallery.

The handle of the traditional crooked knife as seen here involves a bend in the tang end that fits into a slot created in the wooden handle. The tang end is then wrapped with cord or sinew.
The blade has a slight curve to it, and that is intentional as the knife is used by drawing it towards your body.
This is one of the draw knife blades produced in our class. It was made with a vintage file which likely has a higher carbon content than a file bought today. We looked for files with manufacturer’s name punched into them amongst a pile supplied for the class.
The quench. We went through the two step tempering process with both of our blade projects.
Heating up a blade for the oil quench. We have been using peanut oil.
Master instructor Dwight King is always attentive to students in the process, and he still manages to make each project himself during the class. This is particularly important as students see how its done.
That subtle curve in a crooked knife is being accomplished by this student.
The tangs may have been a little short as seen by the shortened handles but this is a first for this student, and we are here to learn.
Instructor Dwight King in action.

Metal Casting

Molten metal in a crucible has been removed from the propane burning furnace.
Creating a mold for the molten metal with a pattern. This is green sand that holds an impression. The sand is contained within a cope and drag (framework).
Poring molten metal into the sand mold.

Sat., March 11, 2023, 9AM-3PM, Metal/Sand Casting with Instructor Peter Grant.

We invite pairs of accompanying parents/guardians with child ages (12-15) at one price for shared projects to take this as well as adults on their own (16 and older). Melt aluminum or bronze and pour into sand casting molds you prepare with a pattern. A variety of pattern molds as well as your own through arrangement can be cast. This has artistic as well as industrial applications; cast a piece of machinery, jewelry or figurative sculpture. We have cast parts to early gas engines: bronze rocker arms, aluminum mufflers, and bronze governor weights as well as sundials, door knockers and art objects. Cost: $150

Friday, March 10, 2023, 9AM-12Noon. Pickling Workshop ( Ferment ) Making Good Bacteria.

We will make kimchi, sauerkraut and cucumber pickles. You will get a jar of each to take home. You will follow our recipes, cut and prepare the ingredients we have sourced, and you will put the product of your work in some vintage Mason jars to take home with you. Let the fermenting begin. It will take at least three days, if not more, for you to get the benefits of the pickling, The longer you wait the more flavor you get. These last for a month or so as we are not canning them; they last longer in a cool cellar. You can do this with a group of no more than six if you like or come as a pair, or individual. The action take place in our old farmhouse with a wood burning kitchen stove. Cost: $35 Call to register: (207) 205-4849 Registration Deadline: March 1 ( we need to be ready for you).

Past Pickling Workshop, 1.15.2023, Making Refrigerator Pickles, Sauerkraut & Kimchi (Korean Spicy Pickled Cabbage)

Kimchi
Pickles, Sauerkraut and Kimchi
This was our first group for the Pickling Workshop. Definitely we made quantity. Our sauerkraut got a little too much spice. The pickles and kimchi, in my opinion, were good, although I would have liked my kimchi spicier.

Woodworking

Pine Wall Box
Pine Wall Box with Two Shelves
Pyramid of Spice Drawers

Saturday, March 4, 9AM-3PM, Teen Woodworking 1: Make a Wall Box.

Not just for teens (Ages 12-17). Adults too. Use traditional hand tools. Measure, cut and fasten together a traditional pine wall box. Cost: $25

Sat., March 11, 9AM-3PM, Teen Woodworking 2 ( Ages 12-17),

Using hand tools measure, cut and fasten together a wall box with two shelves. Cost: $35

Sat. & Sun., March 4 & 5, 9AM-3PM, Woodworking: A Pyramid of Spice Drawers.

Create a four stack of drawers with turned wood pulls. Joinery involves making dado cuts, half laps, glue, and brads. Cost: $100

Sat. & Sun., March 4 & 5, 9-3, Letterpress Printing with Instructor Mark Matteau of the Dunstan Press.

This two day workshop in our new letterpress office is introductory. It has a syllabus and students learn the language of letterpress printing. Students will also learn about materials, equipment, and techniques. You work with lead and wood type as well as our collection of wingdings, borders, ornaments, and cuts. There will be an opportunity to take your learning experience beyond this two-day workshop as an apprentice into the following week as work organizing the shop will continue until March 11; and, yes, you can do some more printing. Cost: $225. Contact is as soon as possible , if you are interested: (207) 205-4849.

Letterpress Printing

Letterpress Printing

Dwight King, our resident blacksmith.
Dwight works at a coat rack in one of our recent blacksmithing workshops
A two day knife making workshop

Sat. & Sun., February 18 & 19, 2023, 9AM-4PM, Blacksmithing: Make a Knife with Instructor Dwight King. Scroll down for several photo galleries of past knife making classes.

This is our popular two-day class that begins with forging a blade and tang from 1095 steel in a propane burning forge. File, grind, and sand before annealing your blade with a peanut oil quench. The blade will be oven tempered overnight. Prepare your tang on Day 2 for a handle. Fit brass rivets and hardwood scales. Epoxy wood to steel. Do a final sanding and finish with an oil rub. Bring a 2.5 lb. pein, drilling, or engineer type hammer, safety eyewear with side shields, natural fiber gloves, clothing and footwear, and earplugs (optional). Cost: $295 Pay to register. The class is limited to 5.

WE CAN DO A GIFT CERIFICATE but don’t wait to the last minute. Our classes have a limited number of students CONTACT US @ (207) 205-4849.

Sat. & Sun., January 7 & 8, 2023, 9AM-4PM, Blacksmithing: Make a Draw Knife & a Crooked Knife

This class has not been offered in more than a decade! This can be taken by a parent with their 11-15 year old or as a singular adult; Pairs will produce a single draw knife and a crooked knife. Over two days, you will experience coal-fire or propane gas forging using traditional blacksmithing techniques and tools. Create a two handled draw knife by forming a knife edge and two spike tangs to receive hardwood handles. The crooked knife will be created with a flat tang to receive hardwood scales, rivets and epoxy. The crooked knife is the original utility knive used by Native Americans and frontiersman alike. Both these blades will be oil quenched and oven tempered. Call to register. Pay to register: (207) 205-4849. Cost: $295. 

 Sat. & Sun., January 14 & 15, 2023, 9AM-4PM, Blacksmithing: Knife Making Workshop with Dwight King. 

This is our popular two-day class that begins with forging a blade and tang from high carbon steel in a propane burning forge. File, grind, and sand before annealing your blade with an oil quench. The blade will be oven tempered overnight. Prepare your tang for a handle. Fit brass rivets and hardwood scales. Glue your handle before sanding. Bring a 2.5 lb. pein or drilling hammer, safety eyewear with side shields, gloves, natural fiber clothing and footwear, and ear plugs (optional). Ages 15 & above. Cost: $295

Sat. & Sun., January 28 & 29, 9AM-4PM., Two Day Make a Railroad Spike and Tomahawk Workshop

This is a good introduction to forging that we have recently had a group of ten friends take together. You will form both blade and handle, and then have an opportunity to refine it with file, grinder, and belt sander. On Day 2, you will create a tomahawk drifting a handle hole. You will fit a wooden handle using a shaving horse and draw knife. There will be lunch provided weather permitting with this workshop if our ICE HARVEST EVENT goes as scheduled. Call to register: (207) 205-4849. Cost: $295

Crooked Knife Database

One Day Railroad Spike Knife Making Workshop

Railroad spike knives completed in a one day class by students from Keene, NH.
Railroad spike knife in an afternoon.
Railroad spike knife made by Robert Schmick
Recent knives created during our two day knifemaking workshop.
Tim Hobbs works at a belt sander to perfect the knife he forged in our two day knife making workshop.
You too can make one of these pot or coat hangers for your home.

Sunday, January 29, 2023. Propane Forge Making Workshop at Orrington (19th Century Curran Village) (Ages 11-14 can take with an adult) with Robert Schmick.

Do blacksmithing in the garage or barn. Make sure you ventilate. Starting with a helium tank, we weld horseshoe legs to it, cinching lugs to the top, and some thumbscrews to fix your flame wand inside the shell. You prepare the tank with steel reinforcement for the refractory cement. You adapt a SANA tube as a form inside the tank. You cut multiple holes in your steel tank. You cold bend and fit a handle. You assemble a series of brass fittings and copper tubing that involves cutting, flaring and tap and dyeing. You can fit a new electric blower to your forge increasing its’ forging temperature (NEW option request). Your forge will be fully functional, but you should let the refractory cement cure for several days before using. We will instruct you on lighting and using the forge. Cost: $425 ($325 without blower). Call to register ASAP for the March 12 class. Call: (207) 205-4849

This One Day Railroad Spike Knife Making Workshop was held by Curran with instructor Dwight King at the Raymond-Casco Historical Society in South Casco in August 2022.
This propane burning blacksmithing forge can be made by you in our one day workshop.

Saturday & Sunday, January 7 & 8, 9AM-4PM, Make a Draw Knife & Crooked Knife

Over two days, you will experience coal-fore forging or propane fueled forging. Create a two handled draw knife for shaping wood held in a vise or a shaving horse as well as a crooked knife ( a traditional knife form with a hooked point that you draw towards you in shaping wood. These will be tempered. Wooden handles will be fitted using a shave horse and draw knife. Cost: $295. Pay to register: (207) 205-4849.

Saturday & Sunday, February 11 & 12, 2023, 9AM-3PM, LETTERPRESS PRINTING. This two-day workshop in our new letterpress office is introductory. It has a syllabus and students learn the language of printing. Students will also learn about materials, equipment, and techniques. You work with real lead and wood type as well as our collection of wingdings, borders, ornaments, and cuts. There will be an opportunity to take your learning process beyond this two-day workshop with offered apprenticeships. Cost: $200. Potential students be aware that there will be an opportunity to meet and greet with instructor/printer Mark Matteau of Dunstan Press in Scarborough, a working letterpress business, before the class. We will be setting up and organizing the shop; let us know if you would like to assist. There will be postings on our Facebook page to this effect. To register, call: (207) 205-4849.

Knife Making Workshop

Knife Making: forging
Knife Making: Filing and Sanding
Knife Making: Belt Sander
Knife completed by blacksmith Dwight King
Knife completed by blacksmith Dwight King
Knives by blacksmith Frank Vivier. Frank was our blacksmith down in Newfield, and conducted workshops in knifemaking, ME until 2020 when we consolidated our offerings to exclusively Orrington.
Knife by Frank Vivier
knives by Frank Vivier
Knives by students
Knives by students
Belt sanders will be used but there is opportunities to use hand files.
Students sketch out the designs of the hardwood handle scales.
Hardwood handle scales are attached by brass rod rivets that are set in the steel tang of your knife with the addition of epoxy.
Knife by blacksmith Dwight King
Student Knife
Our knifemaking workshop includes file work and hand sanding as well as work at a belt sander and/or grinder.
tomahawk by blacksmith Frank Vivier, we have made tomahawks as a follow-up to knife making. Ask us about this,.
Mike Johnson works at forging a tomahawk.
Knife by Frank.
Frank Vivier using a propane burning forge he made that includes two burners and a blower allowing it to achieve forge welding temperature.
Blacksmith Dwight King in the Fields
Doug Dolan (center) has taken our knife making workshop several times.
Students with their knives. Instructor Frank Vivier holds the sword he made.
Students with their knives and tomahawks.
Student made knives

Coal Fired Forging: Blacksmithing

At the Tom Flagg Smithy
Our dual side draft forge.
Students from Shaw House of Bangor’s alternative high school spent some time in the Fields Pond Smithy.
Dwight King at the anvil cutting steel with a cutting hardy.
Dwight King blacksmithing at our last event in Newfield before relocating the Tom Flagg Smithy see here. The Flagg Smithy with be up and running by the winter of 2022.
Action in the Fields Pond Smithy, 2017
Fields Pond Smithy, 2017
Coal Fired Forging
Coal Fired Forging
Double Forge Action
Blacksmithing Instructor Dwight king, 2017
Individual attention in our blacksmithing workshop

Letterpress Printing

Letterpress Printing: 1902 Golding Jobber (On Loan); this is one of the larger format presses available to use.
Letterpress Printing: A Chandler & Price Letterpress from the Ellsworth American.
Letterpress Printing: A side view of the 1902 Golding Jobber.
Letterpress Printing: Some of our collection of letterpresses.
Letterpress Printing: We have a vast collection of wooden and lead type amassed since Willowbrook Museum closed in Newfield. The Willowbrook Legacy Collection is the core of the collection with the original contents of the William Cram Letterpress Office in MA.
Letterpress Printing: This 1872 Chandler & Price was from the Ellsworth American newspaper, This is our largest format press, and you can be amongst the first to use it in more than a half century.
Letterpress Printing: This 1897 Golding is one of two we have in the collection, This one was the centerpiece of the William Cram Letterpress Office.
Letterpress Printing: A 1925 Kelsey Excelsior.
Letterpress Printing: A proof press and some of a growing collection of cuts.

Propane Blacksmithing Forge Making

Here we see one of our forges in action.
A lot the work on your propane forge will happen before you arrive to class including welding the horseshoe legs and lugs to cinch the top to the bottom of the tank.
this is our propane forge design. We are offering a new variation with a blower if you’re interested.
Part of your work on the forge will involve set up a Sana tube mold to line your tank with refractory cement.
Some propane tanks with welded up legs and lugs ready for students to arrive to complete them.
The black metal pipe with thumb screws is the receptacle for the flame wand that you prepare.
There is cutting and grinding involved in the preparation of the tank you make your forge out of.
You will also be using some hand files to work out metal burrs.
Some pleased forge makers.
Welded up tanks.
Applying refractory cement to the tank’s top after first creating a spider web of steel wire reinforcement and plugging what well become
Mike Johnson secures elements of his mold before pouring refractory cement in the tank to insulate it.
Mixing refractory cement.

Metal Casting/Sand Casting

A group of high schoolers from Shaw House of Bangor’s alternative school spent a day learning the fundamentals of sand casting.
Our propane forge making workshop could result in your own metal casting furnace instead as seen here in fabricating a top feed for the crucible which is used to metal the metal in.
Peter Grant reveals the product of his efforts, A significant part of producing cast objects is the file and grinding work necessitated after the cast.
Among the objects cast are some vintage car ornaments and a pineapple welcome sign, but some classes have included the casting of antique engine parts including governor weights.
This workshop included creation of an aluminum version of this wooden rammer, an essential tool in sand casting.
Here we see the cope and drag filled with green sand that has received a pattern. These will be joined and molten metal will be pored into a channel cut into this pattern.
This metal casting workshop was unique in that we went to a Machine Shop in Hudson, ME to do the workshop with a group of machinist interested in adding to their repertoire. Many Machine Shops oif the past also offered pattern making, casting and machining services. The museum has a collection of wooden patterns from several Machine Shops.
Here Peter Grant shares some technique at his home foundry, Odd Duck Foundry.
We are using aluminum and bronze in our metal casting workshops.
This homemade forge is the center of action at this metal casting workshop in front of the Fields Pond Smithy.
These parts are to a portable riveter’s forge. The product of your metal casting efforts might be replacement parts. Ideally you want to create a slightly larger pattern of the object to accommodate for shrinkage but those 32nds and 16ths may not matter for a piece like this.
Husband and wife Peter and Gail Grant shared metal casting with some our event visitors.
These foundry workers in the past used the same tools that we use in our metal casting workshops.

Shibuichi ( Japanese Metal Art )

Shibuichi is Japanese is translated as “one quarter”. It is usually an alloy mix of one part silver and three parts copper. Shibuichi was often used to decorate a samurai’s sword’s handle and scabbard. It is used jewelry. At this experiment Biddeford metalsmith Ann Thompson orchestrated making the alloy for possibly jewelry in the future.

The randomness of the shapes formed in cooling the alloy might inspire the design of jewelry
Cooling the alloy in snow
Shibuichi Charms
Shibuichi Artwork
Ingots of the copper and silver alloy.

Make a Shaving Horse & Forge a Draw Knife

Dove Tail Joinery & Six Board Blanket Chest Making

This finished blanket chest has some after class embellishments including the turned feet.
We used 150 year old barn boards for our six board blanket chest making workshop.
Wew start with the example of dovetails from antiquity; this seaman’s chest has all the characteristics of a six board blanket chest including rope handles.
Our Blanket Chest Making Workshop begins with some practice at cutting dovetails.
Cutting dovetails.
One of the finished products of our first Six Board Blanket Chest Workshop. This was completed by Doug Dolan who will teach our next dovetail joinery and blanket chest making workshop at Orrington.
Here Doug Dolan works at cutting dovetails into some rather hard wood.
Cutting dovetails.
Cutting dovetails.
Cutting dovetails.
Cutting dovetails.
Part of the workshop included teaching students to sharpen their tools. keeping a razor sharp edge is important. We also gave a lesson on setting the teeth of a saw.
As we did not use new lumber there was added effort in cutting through hardened wood albeit pine.
Some dovetails cut.
Coping saw work; there were a variety of hand tools used in the process of cutting dovetails. Some preferred back saws.
Here we see the barn boards with their original red ochre paint. These boards were the exterior of a barn hanging vertically with battens.
This workshop included the use of 150 plus year old pine boards. They were glued together to achieve the desired depth. After glueing these boards were thoroughly planed to revealing a rich golden color best revealed in the final product seen above.
This Dado Cut is important to final assembly, This groove accommodates the bottom board of the chest.
Assembly of Blanket Chest, 1

Apple Tree Grafting (Spring)