February 20, 2002
Folly at the Forge full of mirth and metalwork
Blacksmith event draws 120 participants from around the Midwest and even Canada
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
In a dizzying array of sights, sounds and smells, the Eighth Annual Folly at the Forge was its usual hit - on the anvils abound.
Hosted by local blacksmith Dan Nickels, owner of Black Rock Forge, the event drew 120 blacksmiths from around the Midwest and Ontario for a weekend of learning, creating and fun. The weekend was not for the faint-hearted, as the pounding of electric pneumatic hammers occasionally drowned out the ongoing chorus hammers at the anvils, while showers of sparks arced over the glow of a half dozen forges, which belched out clouds of fumes.
For Nickels, it was all part of the magic of this 7,000-year-old trade.
"Sometimes you have to share your good fortune," said Nickels, a carpenter by trade who has been a full-time blacksmith for the past seven years. "That's what I'm doing here, giving people a chance to learn."
Nickels started the Folly at the Forge as a way to pass on the trade, as blacksmiths of all ages, skills and training come together to learn from each other. Even novices who had never pounded iron in their lives were welcomed and taken under the wings of the more experienced blacksmiths.
For Jeff Minervini, the weekend went beyond learning into discovering a whole new way of life. His interest in blacksmithing was sparked by a Christmas present of decorative iron and he came to the Folly at the Forge to try making something himself. On a break from making a fire poker Saturday afternoon, he proudly displayed a sconce he made the previous day and was already planing future projects, such as a vase.
"I was so excited yesterday I couldn't wait to get here today," said Minervini of Traverse City, after his first venture into blacksmithing. "I've never done anything like this before and I wanted to try all the techniques I didn't know. Dan taught me how to twist, bend and weld."
"It's amazing that when you heat iron up it bends like butter and then hardens up again."
Hardly a novice at hammering iron, Darla Selander has her decorative iron artwork for sale in galleries around the region. The Copemish resident began her foray into blacksmithing seven years ago when she decided to shoe her own horses. Bending iron into horseshoes prompted her to try making other shapes and soon she was making a variety of decorative art.
One of a growing number of women entering the trade, Selander has a forge at her home workshop and has become a regular attendee at the Folly at the Forge.
"Blacksmithing is a lifetime of learning, the more you learn the more you realize how much there is to learn," said Selander, owner of Anvil Art. "This is a wonderful learning environment."
Darrell Markewitz and David Robertson drove over from eastern Ontario to attend the event. Both professional blacksmiths, they have seen an upsurge of interest in both the craft and product of blacksmithing over the past decade.
"There has been an explosion of better quality decorative work in Ontario," said Markewitz, who has been involved with Canada's Viking Millennial celebrations. "
Both men taught themselves their craft over the years, experimenting on their own or learning what they could from the few remaining blacksmiths they could find. Their experiences make coming to events such as Folly at the Forge rewarding for two reasons: learning techniques from other blacksmiths, who may do things in a totally different way, and helping pass the trade on to a new generation.
"Most men in the 30-45 age range are largely self-taught and that is why something like this is so important to get the information around," Markewitz said.
"Blacksmithing skipped a generation and we have had to rediscover how our grandfathers worked. In North America we just about lost the trade, but people working in this today use a wide range of techniques ranging from literally the ancient to the most modern," he noted.