Dirty Smith®

Blacksmith Rory May

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Blacksmith at work, Missouri, 1940

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Lady blacksmith, late 19th century.

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Daguerreotype portrait of a blacksmith demonstrating forging a horseshoe by Philadelphia photographer Summer A. Smith, c. 1859-1860.

Source: Sotheby’s.

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Tuesday’s video is about a blacksmithing family business and how I came about sharing it.

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This week’s Tuesday video is ready. Enjoy!

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Friday’s be like...

https://youtu.be/2fvigEHmcnQ

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Part 2!

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Excluding the time as a kid, I’ve been working for/with my dad since I was 15. Easily 22 years working along side with him. After the “great dump truck” incident of 1997 which landed me an opportunity to work at the shop to pay back the damage done since no one local would hire me (I’ll share the story sometime if you haven’t heard it. It’s a good one.) But a #familybusiness is a hard thing to describe as it’s a different dynamic than that of a common employee/boss role. Through the years our relationship as father and son has evolved as there were plenty of bad/good times. There are some perks in this situation as I can ask him really what ever questions I have as there’s a level of respect and trust between us. That #respect and #trust goes the other way as I’ve put in my time here to do what needed to happen to get the job done. Work ethic. I do know that what we have built as a #family and as a business wouldn’t have existed if I had gone somewhere else. Glad I ignored those that put doubt in my way and tried to discourage this path. And those curious about wtf is going on here, we are twisting this large #Damascus billet 3 complete revolutions. And even after all this time, he still makes me laugh. #dragonforgeltd #dirtysmith #blacksmith #timelapse #dumptruckThug

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Bachelor party at Dragon Forge Ltd!

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Interesting day. Got to use the 125lb #powerhammer in tandem with the 75lb #patternwelding this #billet. This is for a decorative part of a project, not a blade. Started with 4” x2.25” long billet of mild steel and a203e. Did not use any flux and have not seen any delamination. For my first go at it, this went really well. Surprising easy as the prep was important, getting it to the proper heat, squishing out the material. But the grinding...gah. I could do with out it. But drew out this material 22”x1/8+. I’ll do another tomorrow with mild and 15n20 material. Thanks to those that hung out for the live stream! Sorry for the noise...it’s noisy here.

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Round 2 forging a billet of 15n20 and mild steel. Sample pieces for a bid.

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Zombie Apocalypse Weapon Challenge 2018 Finalists

This is the 4th Dirty Smith Zombie Apocalypse Weapon Challenge! The zombies have arrived and people are defending themselves! Craftsmen from

Zombie weapon challenge! (Results)

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Forgot to share the progress of the tattoo! Third session. Fire will go up under the Celtic work on my upper arm and some reworking on my shoulder next year

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Teaching blacksmithing in Rochester, NY

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Do NOT hit the anvil!

Back in June of 2018 it got busy with forging and work. So busy Rory had to stop messing around. Here you will get a peak behind what was ha

Latest video! Enjoy 🖤