Blacksmithing Lessons Archives - Donald's Innovations & Repairs

An Unexpected CBC Radio Interview

Donald Dawson — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 18:16:40 +0000

CBC Radio’s Margaret Gallagher, the host and producer of North by Northwest, BC’s highest-rated weekend show, reached out for an interview in early November 2024. Margaret meets creative people from all around the province speaking about their passions and inspirations.

Listen to the 11-minute segment by clicking here.

Invitation to an interview

"We're doing a series on folks working with metals, and I would love to come and visit your studio next week to do a taped audio piece," she wrote.

A half-hour turned into a whole hour of conversation about metal, metal fabrication, restoration, repair, and art.

These were some of Margaret's questions:

How did you get into working with metal?

I was always curious about how things worked. In our basement, I made steam engines out of tomato soup cans.

As a young person, I had a learning challenge and saw a child psychologist. When the psychologist discovered that I took apart clocks, he saw this as a problem. My parents and I did not. What he saw as a problem was my curiosity in action.

What keeps you working with metal?

One of the things I love about working with metal is the joy and surprise of forming metal into various and sometimes unexpected shapes.

And I love teaching and passing on my passion to people of all ages, from 5 to 95.

Listen to the 11-minute segment by clicking here.

machines and tools

We talked about the machines and tools that you can see in the shop, including:

A 1939 lathe from the Jericho seaplane base, which assisted in the repair of seaplanes protecting our coast
Oxygen and acetylene tanks and torches
A propane forge for heating big metal objects slowly and an induction forge that heats metal white hot in less than a minute
A 150-year-old Peter Wright anvil from the Nelson area possibly used in a mine.

restoring and repairing: getting rid of our throwaway society

We discussed how items that people bring to the shop for repair and restoration are rich in history and have sentimental meaning.

These childhood memories are significant and are a reminder of a treasured grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle and other family members. Clients who come with these items want to pass them down to the younger generation.

These family treasures are not only physical "things." They are full of memories, histories, and emotions - as if they have a life and a heart.

We don't have to throw everything away. If things are not repairable, we can recycle them.

whimsical art to engage visitors At the Eastside culture Crawl

Many items entertain and engage visitors of all ages during the Eastside Culture Crawl.

We show visitors objects in motion, like the two marionettes: a miniature blacksmith holding a golf club and a hockey stick on his back and whose hat flies off when he gets frustrated. A miniature metal anvil, forge tank and cat accompany him.

Then there's another marionette, Bucephalus, a steel horse weighing 10 lbs.

There is also a resonant metal violin weighing 7 lbs made without formal design drawings but created as close to a 4 x 4 adult violin.

And one year, we had a bicycle-powered pipe organ.

Culture Crawl Enthusiasts on Bicycle Powered Organ Pipe

creative and unexpected commissions

The stork is a water feature co-designed with a client who has two smaller metal storks in his garden and dreamed of having a large one for his fish pond.

For more information and for tours of the shop,

call Donald Dawson at 604-910-6427.

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Teaching Teachers to Teach Metalworking

Donald Dawson — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 19:35:18 +0000

Something exciting is happening in the West Kootenays. A married couple who are elementary school teachers are bringing metalworking to their school district. They hired me to teach them basic skills so they could, in turn, teach their students.

Skills Taught

Designing
Layout and marking
Cutting with shears
Cold chiselling
Filing
Bending
Hole-making
Soft-soldering
Finishing

Materials

22-gauge sheet metal
Flux
Solder

bringing metalworking to elementary schools

These teachers, who already had woodworking, drafting, and craft-making skills, were keen to bring metalworking to their school district. They asked for a 7-hour course, and after discussing their needs, I designed a 2-day intensive sheet metalworking course to teach them basic skills.

After 22 years of teaching UBC students and faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, teaching is one of my favourite things.

a meaningful project is key

Together, we decided that fabricating animal silhouettes and sculptures would work well as projects for both their students and themselves.

It is always essential that the objects my students make are meaningful to them, no matter their skill level or age. These teachers chose to create tealight holders. I asked them to select, design and draw what they wanted to make. One chose the shape of a sunburst, and the other a bird.

basic safety and sheet metalworking skills

My course for these teachers included the following skills: safety, designing, layout and marking, cutting with a shear, cold chiselling, filing, bending, hole-making, soft-soldering, and finishing.

We decided that mild steel sheet metal should be 24-gauge steel to make hand-cutting easy.

Filing

Filing was a big part of this skill training and is an art in metalworking. When I did my machinist apprenticeship, I had to do six months of filing. The final test was filing .020" slots in a microwave research project. These slots had to be accurate within stringent design parameters.

By the end of the two days, these teachers were up to teaching basic metalworking to their students. Plasma-cutting was an extra skill I taught one of the teachers, even though it wasn't part of the curriculum for her students. Both teachers achieved a great deal due to the complexity of the projects they completed in 7 hours.

tools for their classrooms

In addition to teaching them, I curated resources so that when it came time to buy the tools for teaching, they would have a clear list of what to buy and where to buy them.

layout, marking & shearing

FILING

soft-soldering

plasma cutting

Are you curious about metalworking?

Most one-on-one classes are one day and no more than 3.5 hours. I work with people of all ages, and if you or your family are interested in learning metalworking, call me.

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Crow Wine Bottle-Holder: Birthday Blacksmithing Lesson

Donald Dawson — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 22:30:27 +0000

Materials

Scrap metal

Processes

Plasma-cutting
Blacksmithing
Welding

A pre-Birthday lesson conversation

People buy blacksmithing lessons for birthdays and I want to make sure they make something they will love.

We usually meet before they come for their lesson, and I get to know them and what is meaningful to them. That way, we can make something they like and will feel proud of.

choosing a meaningful project

In this case, my client, who liked crows, wondered if we could make a one-bottle wine holder shaped into a crow. I sketched one for him that would hold the bottle in the crow’s beak, and when we got the right design, we began the three-hour process using scrap metal.

Full on blacksmithing

Chris used the plasma cutter and MIG welder during the three hours and learned blacksmithing techniques, including tapering, splitting, forming and texturing metal. We ended the project with polishing.

Final Result

My client, a complete beginner, created a work of art that was both attractive and practical. We had so much fun creating it.

Once home, Chris sent me a picture of the crow in its pride-of-place spot in the warm glow of the room, ready for the family to serve a fine wine. You can see the picture at the top of the page.

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Two 7- and 9-Year-Old Brothers Make a Candleholder

Donald Dawson — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:45:39 +0000

I prepared a fun blacksmithing adventure for two young brothers who are enthusiastic students and back for their third artistic blacksmithing lesson. In my lessons, we do more than make nails.

Materials

Steel

Processes

Plasma cutting
Blacksmithing
Welding

SAFE and ARTISTIC PROJECTS

I designed an artistic and complex project - a candleholder with four types of leaves, a bowl-shaped base, and a cup with a candleholder. The challenge for the day was to make a candlestick holder that incorporated leaves, a bowl, and a central candle cup with a hollow stem to tie into the cupped base. Rather ambitious, you may think, but these two brothers were up to it. I wanted them engaged with something exciting and complicated that would keep their interest.

Challenging Projects keep their interest

In addition, I taught them leaf-veining and how to neck down a pipe to narrow it and create the candlestick cup.

I showed them how to weld the parts together. The boys had welded up a bi-float plane and tealight holders in previous lessons. So, welding was not new to them.

The boys were genuinely enthusiastic, full of fun and beans. I knew they were tired and sore by the end of the lesson from hammering - because I was, too.

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