Day 204 of 365

It's not easy to contain my excitement.

I've got an incredible hobby that never feels like work. Since my favorite partner has gone off to have his own adventures I've been trying to find someone to work with me.

On the 204th day I gave my very first blacksmithing lesson.

I didn't want to scare anyone but I also wanted them to understand that everything around the forge gets hot. I'm not talking about boiling water hot, I mean bubbling flesh hot. The forge gets over 1500 degrees fahrenheit. When you burn flesh at this temperature that heat causes serious damage.

We don't mess around, this shit gets hot.

After explaining what not to touch we put on all of our safety gear and lit the fire. I burn a gas forge so most of the mess comes from the work we are doing. When you heat metal and hammer it, the impurities come off in flakes and chips called scale. As the bits are popping off with every hammer strike they can cause burns too. Like I told my student, everything around the forge is hot enough to burn you.

The project that I demonstrated was a heart made from a horseshoe nail. There are quite a few steps involved. They listened, watched and performed exactly as instructed. The best thing about playing with hot metal is that if you make a mistake, you heat it back up and hammer it again. This project is very forgiving for a beginner.

We spent two hours at the forge and when we finished my student had three pretty little hearts.

I had the best time sharing something I'm so passionate about.

Day 204 was hot... hot... hot!

Love & Light