Blacksmith demonstrations draw crowd at PumpkinFest
EVANS CITY — At the end of Main Street, past P & B’s Sweets and Eats, sat a lone tent with two blacksmiths covered in the smell of charcoal.
Nathan Oesterling and Ray Kipp gave blacksmithing demonstrations throughout the day on Saturday, Sept. 20, at Evans City’s PumpkinFest.
The two crafted pieces such as knives, axes, crosses and household items, including fire pokers, bottle openers and Christmas ornaments, using charcoal fire and hammered them on an anvil.
The two blacksmiths are members of the Pittsburgh Area Artist-Blacksmiths Association. Oesterling said he learned primarily from watching YouTube videos and practicing himself. Kipp agreed the videos are helpful and added the best way to learn is from someone with experience.
Most blacksmithing today is more “artsy,” but Kipp, a full-time blacksmith, said it didn’t used to be.
Kipp said every town would have had its own blacksmith in the colonial 1700s and 1800s. Large communities would have more than one blacksmith because it was essential for every other trade in town, he said.
“If you had horses, you went to a blacksmith for the shoes,” Kipp said. “If you were a farmer, you went to the blacksmith to make your plow, your pitchfork (and) your shovel.
“The blacksmith was the go-to guy. He often wasn’t the richest man in town, but he also didn’t need for anything.”
Oesterling said the trade became less practiced during the industrial revolution, when tools began being pressed in factories. The change made producing specialized tools cheaper and faster, but often sacrificed quality, he said.
“Obviously, there’s still the traditional things of forks and spoons and whatnot, but most of the blacksmithing now is more artsy,” Kipp said.
Most decorative items Kipp and Oesterling craft are made from low-carbon steel. They use high-carbon steel when they want the material to hold its edge or shape.
The pair used a coal forge instead of a propane forge for their demonstrations. Oesterling said as the coal burns, it’s refined into a clean-burning fuel they call coke that will get the metal to about 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. He said between 1,200 and 1,500 degrees is when the metal becomes hot enough to be shaped.
On the side of the fire was a hand-cranked blower wheel with a leather flap inside that forces air into the bottom of the fire.
“It introduces more oxygen into the fire to help it get to a higher temp where we can start working some of the steels easier,” Oesterling said.
However, the metal will burn and crack at a molecular level if it gets too hot, around 3,000 degrees, he said. Burned metal is unsalvageable.
Oesterling said there are six basic forging processes blacksmiths use to get their desired shape.
He used the punching technique to make bottle openers. He started with a piece of “square stock,” a long, flat metal bar. Using the pointy edge of the anvil called the “horn,” he “punched” a hole into the square stock then hammered it to widen the hole.
While one end of the square stock has the hole, Oesterling said the wooden handle would be fitted to the flat end. The flat end also must be fitted to the right shape to the wood around it for an ergonomic fit.
“You take a piece of rusty old steel that you found and recycle it and give it a new life that’ll be passed down for generations,” Oesterling said. “Any of these things, if not destroyed or lost, you can pass down to your grandkids.”
