I’m Ivan, some of you might know me - I dropped off my forge at the hackspace over the summer and fired it up once in a while.
I’m also an industrial design student at Emily Carr. For my capstone project I’m doing research into how forging might be made more accessible for people who want to begin metalworking, but who feel that it takes too much time, commitment or space to get started. I’m also interested in setting up a system of tutorials at the hackspace so that people can use the forge safely whenever they would like upon completion, and I think that we can maybe kill two birds with one stone here.
If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at blacksmithing hit me up and I’ll do a few sessions with you, and in return you can answer some questions afterwards about your experience and what has stopped you from trying out forging in the past, what you see as the main challenges to starting out.
The response to this has been awesome - thank you all!
I’m hoping to run some demos on Saturday the 14th and the evening of Friday the 13th, so drop by if you want to come watch. I’m definitely planning on doing some more as soon as possible. I might post up a schedule in the hackspace that people can fill in, so keep your eyes open for that!
Hi @Spicehammer, have you check out the vancouver community lab ? They have a forge there and some people who are doing commercial level work. I know if you talk to Max, he’s very approachable and willing to share knowledge. I think they might also be able to assist you in making applications for grant money.
One thing I can tell you from my perspective is that forging doesn’t offer a lot of versatility as a manufacturing process relative to the amount of danger involved.
Although it may be that there are some surprising applications of forging that I (and maybe others?) are not aware of.
EDIT:
Just one caveat, I was advised (in confidence) that any appearance of excessive ambition is dealt with harshly at the VCL and there is clique system. I can’t verify that, but I do believe it (FWIW).
Hi Rob, I have heard rumours about a forge at one of the spaces in the city but I haven’t been down to check it out myself yet. I’d definitely be interested in hearing more about Max - is he one of their forging specialists? Thanks for the advice too, duly noted - one think I like a lot about the VHS is that the community is very welcoming, cliques are far from my favourite thing. Cheers!
By chance it was Max who explained to me the gas welding torch setup (he knows all the welding processes but not the one who does the training),which what I was doing there at the time. But I saw him forging once. He was really beating the hell of it, whatever it was but it was some impressive work…
While I can’t speak to your experience I just wanted to say that I’ve recently joined Colab as a drop in member and I am really enjoying it. I am doing mostly metal work. To date everyone at Colab has been super helpful to me in answering my questions and showing me how to use the various tools. I’ve attended a few monthly meetings and they seem well run. As with any organization, and VHS is no exception, there is usually a core group of long time members who have put in a lot of time and effort to keep it running.
Anyways that being said, the maker community in Vancouver is small and I feel that your “in confidence” (really?) and “unverified” comments above are not helpful in spreading community good will.
So are you asking me for more details of my experiences?
If you would prefer that colab dirty laundry remain swept under the rug, I would just politely ignore the harmless lunatic at this point.
