19th Century Curran Village, Orrington & Holden, Maine

Sat. & Sun., February 24 & 25, 9AM-3PM Letterpress Printing Class. 12 hours total. Under the tutelage of professional letterpress printer Mark Matteau of the Dunstan Press of Scarborough, students will learn to set type in a chase, ink a platen on either a foot treadle or hand letterpress, and feed the press for a production. Working our 1890s replica letterpress printing shop with authentic period equipment will learn some of the foundational skills of mechanical printing in an age of inkjet and laser printing attached by cables to a computer. Students will complete five projects over the course of two days. Opportunities for additional volunteer work in the shop if interested during our regular museum season. Tuition: $125, includes takeaway materials.

Our event and classes scheduled for February 3 & 4 will proceed as planned whether rain, snow or shine.

Curran Homestead Village at NEWFIELD (Formerly Willowbrook Museum): Saturday and Sunday, February 24 & 25, 9AM-4PM. BLACKSMITHING: MAKE A KNIFE. This popular class is back with instructor Frank Vivier. You will heat and forge a billet of spring steel into a blade and handle tang. Grind and hand file your blade to perfection. Heat treat your blade with an oil quench. Prepare brass rivets and hardwood scales for a handle. Temper your blade and apply handle to the tang with epoxy. Final sanding and polish may be your homework unless time permits. You will complete your first hand forged hunting knife. Tools and materials provided. Class limited to 5. Ages 15 and Above. Tuition: $225. Students may retake this class and take on new bladesmithing challenges completing other knife forms under the tutelage of the instructor. Pay to register. First pay, first serve. Contact: Robert Schmick, Museum Director, (207) 205-4849. Email: thecurranhomestead@gmail.com

~ For Immediate Release ~

Monday, January 22, 2018

 

Contact: 

Robert Schmick, PhD, Museum Director

Tel: 205-4849, Email: rpschmick1@aol.com

 

Irv Marsters. President, Board of Directors

Tel: (207) 745-4426, Email: irv@bangorlettershop.com

 

Learning to Create with Red Hot Steel and Iron in the Greater Bangor Area

 

19^th Century Curran Homestead Village’s Six Week Beginning Blacksmith Course Begins Tuesday, March 13

 

19th Century Curran Homestead Village at Fields Pond

 

Starting Tuesday, March 13, 6-9PM and limited to ages 15 and above, 19th Century Curran Homestead Village, 372 Field’s Pond Road, Orrington will offer a basic six-week introductory blacksmithing course Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6 to 9pm. It is limited to six participants.

In announcing the course, Curran Homestead Village Museum Director, Robert Schmick, said “our exceptional instructor Dwight King of Orrington will once again share his knowledge and hands-on approach to teaching this traditional art. The class has been popular among both men and women throughout the region, and many have sought it out for many reasons, including exposure to another form of artistic expression, a skill for utilitarian applications, or as a complement to welding, among other reasons. This beginner’s course will introduce participants to traditional blacksmithing methods using coal-fired forges, hand tools, and shop equipment. Each participant will come away with new found skills and an amazing variety of products of his/her work that evidence experience with creating utilitarian objects and an attention to artistic details.

“Many students claim they have always had a great appreciation for the hand made and the ability to satisfy their own needs through their own industry. Certainly, the creative output of our last beginning blacksmithing class embodies this. Many have sought learning experiences beyond the six weeks and met for additional projects and contributions to the museum’s programs. We thoroughly invite this; we want people to utilize our facilities. King and several students from our last blacksmithing class will do a weekend together at the museum’s Knife Making Class in Newfield, our York County campus,” said Dr. Schmick.  “Never stop learning, when you rest, you rust!” is instructor King’s mantra, as he continually brings new material to his class syllabus.  The Curran Museum seeks to develop its facilities and a community of students of the craft exploring it in all its applications in follow up intermediate and master classes in the near future; this includes knife and blade smithing at Fields Pond, Orrington in 2018. Contact them, if you are interested.

The class under King’s instruction runs the full gamut of functional, handcrafted items for the beginner with forays into ornamental botanical forms particular to King’s own talents. The course curriculum includes: safety, materials and tools of the trade, fire starting and maintenance, heating the work, hammer blows and hammer control, measuring and marking, tapering to a square point, drawing out metal, forging square to octagonal and round, bending, twisting, forging a basic S-hook, a drive hook, screw-in/nail-in hooks, making a chisel, a punch, a drift, punching holes, flattening and spreading, forging a spoon, simple leaves, nails, rivets, tool handles, door handles, scrolls, preparing for welding, forge welding a ring, butt hinge and riveting as well as working on personal projects.

No experience needed. Practice studio offered each Saturday. Leather shoes, cotton or wool clothing (no man-made fiber), bring a pair of work gloves. Safety glasses and a 2lb cross pein hammer required.Tuition is $395, which includes materials and a copy of Lorelei Sims’ The Backyard Blacksmith, a great reference resource. A 2lb. plus straight/cross pein hammer is required.  Pay to register. First come, first serve by cash, check payable to “The Curran Homestead”, or credit card (MasterCard or Visa only). Contact us at 745-4426 or 205-4849, or by Email: thecurranhomestead@gmail.com.Curran Homestead Village is a 501c(3) non-profit corporation dedicated to hands-on, experiential learning. It uses the lessons of the past for the challenges of today and the future especially our school’s science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics learning objectives.

 

Sincerely,
Robert Schmick, PhD

Museum Director
Curran Homestead Village at Fields Pond & Newfield
372 Fields Pond Rd.
P.O. Box 107
Orrington, Maine 04474
(207) 205-4849
Email: thecurranhomestead@gmail.com
Website: curranhomestead.org
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Think about this as a present for a loved one for the holiday. We can give you a gift certificate or register you for this January 23 class in time to present that as a present! Starting Tuesday, January 23, 6-9PM, Six Weeks of Beginning Blacksmithing Classes, Tuesdays and Thursday Evenings, at 19th Century Curran Homestead Village, 372 Fields Pond Rd., Orrington, ME 04474. The class covers all the basics of coal fired forging including safety first, tools and materials, heating, bending, piercing, and forming steel objects. Students will start off with a small project and build on their knowledge with a variety of tools that they will subsequently use in the class and after, hooks, a nail, spoon, and more… Students will be introduced to forge welding. Time permitting, students may forge a knife blade, if desired. This class also includes Saturday morning studio by arrangement; you can practice and get more forge time in. Cost: $395, tools and materials provided. Students required to supply their own 2lb. hammer. Registration is required and is first come, first serve by cash, check payable to “The Curran Homestead” or credit card (MasterCard & Visa only). Call: Robert Schmick, Museum Director at (207) 205-4849, email: rpschmick1@aol.com, or  Irv Marsters, 745-4426, email: irv@bangorlettershop.com

 

On Saturday, December 2, board members Dick Hanson, Dick Stockford, Ron Sucy and volunteer Nate Coe disassembled the North Castine Post Office in Penobscot, Maine and brought it by trailer back to Curran Homestead Village at Fields Pond. The building was located on the property of Jean Devereux who generously donated it to the museum. Mrs. Devereux donated the Kerrihard Power Hammer that presently resides in our blacksmithing shop back in 2010; the hammer belonged to her late husband Ralph Devereux who had a smithy and at one time taught an adult education blacksmithing class at the Mary Snow School in Bangor. The building had served as a post office until the 1950s and then as a workshop for the Mr. Devereux.

 

The building had once been positioned right in front of the 18th century farmhouse that still stands across Devereux Lane. It was moved when town lines were re-configured and what was known as North Castine became Penobscot. The building is of 2 x 4 and 2 x 6 construction. Since Mr. Devereux’s death more than twenty years ago the building has set idle with the hard winters taking its toll on portions of the building. A characteristic that likely saved the building was its 24 inch overhanging roof which protected the clapboard siding.

 

In disassembling the structure we had to cut the sides and half as well as the gables in order to fit the structure in sections on a flatbed trailer. The ends of the vertical studs that connected to the sill were decayed, and a plan for re-assembly will be to sister up these studs to connect them will new sill work. The structure will be a free floating one constructed on floating concrete pads. There will a wooden, tongue and groove floor. We will insulate the structure and sheath the interior with bead board.

 

The structure will our new history of communications building with a working collection of telegraphs, magneto telephones and crystal radios for hands-on learning experiences. The idea is to connect this building to other buildings by wire so that there will be an opportunity to communicate between buildings using historical technology. This was accomplished at Willowbrook with the HMS Titanic and Carpathia in the Hands On History Building; this telegraph exhibit continues to be a feature of our school field trip programming.

Much thanks goes to Herb Crosby for videotaping this footage!

Beginning Blacksmith Course at Curran Homestead

Beginning Blacksmith Course Begins Tuesday, November 7, 2017

19th Century Curran Homestead Village

19th Century Curran Homestead Village at 372 Field’s Pond Road, Orrington will offer a basic 6-week introductory blacksmithing course Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:00 to 9pm limited to six participants beginning Tuesday evening November 7, 2017.

No experience is needed. Participants will attend six consecutive Tuesday and Thursday evening classes and will also have access to the Homestead’s forges and tools for practice or projects on Saturdays during the same 6 weeks. It is recommended that participants wear leather shoes, cotton or wool clothing (not man-made fiber clothes), bring a pair of work gloves and, if they have them available, safety glasses/goggles, and a 2lb cross pein hammer.

In announcing the course, Curran Homestead Village Museum Director, Robert Schmick, said Dwight King of Orrington will teach the offering which has been very popular among both men and women throughout the region. Dwight King has been passionate about moving metal around with hammer control for more than 12 years. His work runs the gamut of functional, handcrafted items to artistic garden and lawn sculptures, and he’s crazy about forging leaves. He has been a frequent volunteer at 19th Century Curran Homestead Village, as well as Leonard’s Mills, and is always willing to communicate knowledge of the craft. Dwight says, “Never stop learning, when you rest, you rust!”

Schmick said, “This is a beginner’s course which will introduce the participants to traditional blacksmithing methods using coal-fired forges, hand tools and shop equipment. Each participant will go away with knowledge, skills and products of his/her work.”

Dwight King added detail to the course curriculum, to include: safety discussions, materials and tools of the trade, fire starting and maintenance, heating the work, hammer blows and hammer control, measuring and marking, tapering to a square point, drawing out metal, forging square to octagonal and round, bending, twisting, forging a basic S-hook, a drive hook, screw-in/nail-in hooks, making a chisel, a punch, a drift, punching holes, flattening and spreading, forging a spoon, simple leaves, nails, rivets, tool handles, door handles, scrolls, preparing for welding, forge welding a ring, butt hinge and riveting as well as working on personal projects.

Cost of the course including materials and supplies is $395.00 per participant. Cost includes a copy of the book “The Backyard Blacksmith” by Lorelei Sims. Pre-registration is required and is first-come, first-served by cash, check payable to The Curran Homestead, or credit card (MasterCard or Visa only). To register, contact Irv Marsters, Curran Homestead Village Treasurer, at 745-4426, irv@bangorlettershop.com, or by mail at 99 Washington Street, Bangor, Maine 04401.