- Joined
- Jul 1, 2003
- Messages
- 270
Most of the BF regulars here have seen the work of Mike Deibert, a missionary-blacksmith who runs a vocational school outside Managua, Nicaragua. I met Mike a couple years ago, and have wanted to come down and teach at the school ever since. So last Wednesday I hopped on a plane and headed down to stay with Mike and his wife Lauren for about 8 days, teaching bladesmithing at the ESVO school.
What I taught, and how the guys are progressing will be the topic of another thread, but for now, I wanted to show something a little different. Even though I forge knives for a living, I am still rather green about the more ornamental elements of blacksmithing, and I have been bugging Mike since I arrived to watch him make something. Mike spends most of his time teaching, and less time actually forging than he used to, but from the few unsold items at the school to most of the furniture and hardware in his house, it's very obvious that he's a very accomplished blacksmith.
I would have been happy with a nice leaf or a rose or even a nice hook, but as the teaching slowed and the guys had a few hours to work on their own, i asked Mike what he really liked doing. I figure you get a better result when the artist is doing something that's really in his element. Mike said he really liked animal heads. That sounded cool, then I saw this horse head spoon on the workbench and said, "Man, this would look awesome with a head on the butt but a blade where the spoon is." And so was born this crazy project...
Of course they have horses here in Nicaragua, but more rare and more native to this very old land is the dragon who lives in the still active volcano a few miles from the shop. Mike has seen the old beast only once in his nine years here, but has never forgotten it's shape...
Here's a shot of the volcano. The volcano is still active and you can take a tour to the rim and look down into the always-smoldering core at the bottom of the giant hole in the earth.
So on day one, we started with the standard blade material of the ESVO school, the giant truck coil spring - 5160.
This bar is a solid 3/4" dia bar, so it takes either some power forging tools (which they're fresh out of) or the next best thing, lots of hammers...
Mike begins the creative forging at the anvil reducing the bar to a beast...
What I taught, and how the guys are progressing will be the topic of another thread, but for now, I wanted to show something a little different. Even though I forge knives for a living, I am still rather green about the more ornamental elements of blacksmithing, and I have been bugging Mike since I arrived to watch him make something. Mike spends most of his time teaching, and less time actually forging than he used to, but from the few unsold items at the school to most of the furniture and hardware in his house, it's very obvious that he's a very accomplished blacksmith.
I would have been happy with a nice leaf or a rose or even a nice hook, but as the teaching slowed and the guys had a few hours to work on their own, i asked Mike what he really liked doing. I figure you get a better result when the artist is doing something that's really in his element. Mike said he really liked animal heads. That sounded cool, then I saw this horse head spoon on the workbench and said, "Man, this would look awesome with a head on the butt but a blade where the spoon is." And so was born this crazy project...
Of course they have horses here in Nicaragua, but more rare and more native to this very old land is the dragon who lives in the still active volcano a few miles from the shop. Mike has seen the old beast only once in his nine years here, but has never forgotten it's shape...
Here's a shot of the volcano. The volcano is still active and you can take a tour to the rim and look down into the always-smoldering core at the bottom of the giant hole in the earth.
So on day one, we started with the standard blade material of the ESVO school, the giant truck coil spring - 5160.
This bar is a solid 3/4" dia bar, so it takes either some power forging tools (which they're fresh out of) or the next best thing, lots of hammers...
Mike begins the creative forging at the anvil reducing the bar to a beast...
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