Bladesmithing Week 1

The first week of class was taught by master bladesmith  Joe Szilaski.  He is an older gentleman originally from Hungary who has been making knives since he was 14years working as an apprentice smith.  I found him to be an excellent teacher.  His methods and techniques tended towards the more traditional or "old school" style of smithing.  We were able to spend a lot of time outside of class with the teachers as well so i got an earful and then some of stories about his life and tips about bladesmithing from him.

Here is Joe doing a demo on forging the edge of the blade.

To my surprise and utter delight they wasted no time in getting us into the shop and actually working on stuff as opposed to lots of class time and theory.

By late morning of the first day we were already starting to forge out our very first blade.

This is the progress i had made by the end of the very first day.  The blade is mostly forged out, with a little refining left to do, and the handle has been forged half way to complete.

Enter the Bladesmith

The New England School of Metalwork is where i attended my American Bladesmith Society(ABS) Intro to bladesmithing class. newenglandschoolofmetalwork check out their site. i definitely recommend it for anyone who is interested in metalwork and is able to do it.   The class ran from Nov7-20 and i was taught by two different Master Bladesmiths

This is the area in which I did my forge work.  We were given the option to work with either a gas or a coal forge. i opted for gas because there is a fair amount to learn about tending a coal fire and i was there to learn knives

First big purchase

So here is a little preview of my studio space. Nice and messy perfect for knowing exactly where everything is at.  I share space with 3 other artists. One of those recently had a kid and had reduced their space as they rarely get in anymore.  Another is attending school again and is rarely in as well.  The 3rd is a blacksmith who is in all the time. So the picture here is my work table and area.

Here is my Miller Syncrowave 200 TIG welder with water cooler setup.  It was the first big ticket item that i purchased with my windgate money.  I must say that i absolutely love it.

Here is an example of playing around with mixing metals and welding them together.  In this i have welded some silica Bronze into some stainless flat stock to mimic a sort of stained glass effect. i will post the finished piece upon completion.

SK guitar shredding machine all finished.

And here is the final result of the finished guitar. Al work was done myself with the exception of the final clear coat.  I sent it out to be done because i done have a proper clean ventilated spray area.

Photo courtesy of Dominique Almand

Get the show on the road.

So of course here i am posting a few days later than planned.  Work and poor file management have eaten up some time in getting this show on the road.  So the question is what does one do with a $15,000 fellowship?  Tools, classes, travel so many different possibilities. Of course  most of the ground work was laid out in the writing of my submission for the fellowship.

     The very first thing i did was purchase some hand tools.  I acquired a router, dremel, cordless drill, and some hand tools such as files and chisels.  I also purchased i wide variety of guitar components and parts.  Armed with these i set out to build my own guitar.

    A side note.  The neck of the guitar is all machined aluminum. A fair portion of the rough shaping was done while i was still in school.

I started out by drawing my body shape and cutting it out of a slab of Osage Orange.  The wood is naturally this color when fresh cut.

Rough shaping of the body using mostly hand tools like files and spoke shaves. Also started playing with sample finishes on scraps

Refining the shape more and adding body cavity

Test fitting parts in cavities

Machining work on the aluminum neck. cutting out the truss rod channel

machined tuning key holes

All kinds of test fitting going on.  Here the neck has the fretboard attached with the custom inlay i did.

Who I Am

    My name is David Skaurud.  I am currently 23 and living in the wonderfully cold city of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  I am one of the recipients of the 2010 Windgate Fellowship which was awarded to me by the Center for Craft Creativity and Design.  This blog is an account of what i have been doing with the sum of money that was awarded to me.

    By trade i am a furniture designer. The college that i attended was the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD).  I tend not to think of myself in such strict terms as being only a furniture designer.  Really i would like to think i can do, or at least figure out pretty much anything that involves using my hands to create.  So call me sculptor, furniture maker, luthier, fabricator, bladesmith, or anything else you would like, as i have made all of these things.  Truly it is simply a matter of my love to create and build with my own two hands.  While I have found that i enjoy a particular love for metalworking i also enjoy woodworking and many other mediums.

    This is just a little bit about myself, in the following days i hope to put up a series of posts to enlighten you all on what i have been up to since i received my Fellowship

David