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Blacksmithing and Dan Savage
Jan. 24th, 2016 07:12 pmYesterday had some really awesome things in it. First, blacksmithing! I took a 3-hour class with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
norwoodbridge and we made a wrought-iron bracelet out of a short bar of metal.
Picture of mine here
We were, sadly, separated, as the teacher sorted people out by the height of their dominant hand's knuckles -- wasted effort in my case, since I ultimately felt a lot better with the anvil at a different height than expected. Anyway, the work proceeded in several steps: first taper the ends of the rod, then bend the ends into decorative shapes, and finally bend the whole rod around (perpendicular to the plane of the shapes) to make a bracelet.
The first part was the most muscley, and required the hottest iron, as we were pounding hard enough to really shift a lot of iron-mass around. We really did strike while the iron was hot. In fact, we had to keep the rod in the fire until it was hotter than red-hot -- better to wait for yellow or white. Then we gradually pounded each end first into a square tapered shape, then octagonal and finally round-ish. This part may have taken the longest, since nobody was hitting hard enough and it was the first step. And yes I did burn my thumb at one point, though not badly.
After this, we marked the circumference of our desired bracelet on the anvil (two handwidths plus one knuckle approximately equals 2πd), and this told us how much extra metal we had to bend decoratively around. Decorative bending was done with pliers and small jigs held in vices; and then the final bending was done on the rounded part of the anvil. I found all these last pieces way more intuitive than the initial hard hammering, but my forge-partner didn't, so maybe it wasn't really easier.
Along with striking while the iron was hot, I learned that there is such a thing as a water log! It's wooden, is kept in the water, and is heavy like a rolling pin; you use it to hit and bend hot metal without marking its surface. So next time you think of something getting waterlogged... I guess that's from smithing, too.
norwoodbridge liked the instructor's (obviously practiced) little rant about how we were there to make tools that make tools that sometimes make tools, and we (therefore) should not put up with inefficiencies or crap, but should "smith up" and fix little issues with our environment. Yes, totally. Not only when making tools that make tools etc, either (something software has in common with smithing), but in everyday life too. My basic rule of thumb is that if something is going to bother me every day, even slightly, I prioritize fixing it.
Then seeing Dan Savage live! That was really something, after reading his column for lo these 21 years. He was fabulous in person -- hysterical, insightful and occasionally very thoughtful. I loved it. I wish I could rattle off the long list of things he thinks straight people should pick up from gay people (along with the idea that non-penetrative sex is still sex). And I liked his experience-based observation that getting penetrated is much more taxing emotionally and physically than performing the penetration.
He also told everyone to read Emily Nagoski's Come As You Are (yay!) and displayed the most fabulous biceps. I mean really, those ARMS. They were distracting. He is way more buff now than he is on the cover of American Savage. It seemed appropriate to go see him as a polycule withheisenbug and norwoodbridge and Four-Leaf, even though Four-Leaf's husband no-showed on us and the blizzard messed up some travel schedules.
norwoodbridge and we made a wrought-iron bracelet out of a short bar of metal.Picture of mine here
We were, sadly, separated, as the teacher sorted people out by the height of their dominant hand's knuckles -- wasted effort in my case, since I ultimately felt a lot better with the anvil at a different height than expected. Anyway, the work proceeded in several steps: first taper the ends of the rod, then bend the ends into decorative shapes, and finally bend the whole rod around (perpendicular to the plane of the shapes) to make a bracelet.
The first part was the most muscley, and required the hottest iron, as we were pounding hard enough to really shift a lot of iron-mass around. We really did strike while the iron was hot. In fact, we had to keep the rod in the fire until it was hotter than red-hot -- better to wait for yellow or white. Then we gradually pounded each end first into a square tapered shape, then octagonal and finally round-ish. This part may have taken the longest, since nobody was hitting hard enough and it was the first step. And yes I did burn my thumb at one point, though not badly.
After this, we marked the circumference of our desired bracelet on the anvil (two handwidths plus one knuckle approximately equals 2πd), and this told us how much extra metal we had to bend decoratively around. Decorative bending was done with pliers and small jigs held in vices; and then the final bending was done on the rounded part of the anvil. I found all these last pieces way more intuitive than the initial hard hammering, but my forge-partner didn't, so maybe it wasn't really easier.
Along with striking while the iron was hot, I learned that there is such a thing as a water log! It's wooden, is kept in the water, and is heavy like a rolling pin; you use it to hit and bend hot metal without marking its surface. So next time you think of something getting waterlogged... I guess that's from smithing, too.
norwoodbridge liked the instructor's (obviously practiced) little rant about how we were there to make tools that make tools that sometimes make tools, and we (therefore) should not put up with inefficiencies or crap, but should "smith up" and fix little issues with our environment. Yes, totally. Not only when making tools that make tools etc, either (something software has in common with smithing), but in everyday life too. My basic rule of thumb is that if something is going to bother me every day, even slightly, I prioritize fixing it.Then seeing Dan Savage live! That was really something, after reading his column for lo these 21 years. He was fabulous in person -- hysterical, insightful and occasionally very thoughtful. I loved it. I wish I could rattle off the long list of things he thinks straight people should pick up from gay people (along with the idea that non-penetrative sex is still sex). And I liked his experience-based observation that getting penetrated is much more taxing emotionally and physically than performing the penetration.
He also told everyone to read Emily Nagoski's Come As You Are (yay!) and displayed the most fabulous biceps. I mean really, those ARMS. They were distracting. He is way more buff now than he is on the cover of American Savage. It seemed appropriate to go see him as a polycule with
heisenbug and norwoodbridge and Four-Leaf, even though Four-Leaf's husband no-showed on us and the blizzard messed up some travel schedules.
