Shop Opening at Wrought Academy on Saturday, September 3rd
Date: September 3rd, 2016 (Saturday / 10am – 6pm)
Location: Wrought Academy / 2440 Adeline Street / Oakland CA 94607
Free Event / All are Welcome!
If you’re curious about the shop and the classes offered at Wrought Academy this is your chance to drop by and see what’s going on! We will be forging throughout the day to give you an idea of some of the skills taught here. Class projects will be on display as well as pieces from Jim Austin’s collection of forge work and tools. See you at the forge!
These pictures show the action at a recent blade-smithing class at Wrought Academy:
Oakland Axe ‘n Sax-in 2013
As a blacksmith, it’s always a pleasure to travel to a convention and meet smiths from around the world. To be amazed and inspired by other peoples work, to try out new techniques, and sample some tasty homebrew. Isn’t that what life is about?
For me it is. So it was a great pleasure to host Oakland Axe ‘N Sax-In 2013 at my shop this past weekend, an exclusive 3-day event with a focus on the art and science of Viking-style axes and saxes (to the uninitiated – a sax (or seax) is a historical, north European style of knife). The event was centered on demonstrations and presentations by Jake Powning, Petr Florianek, Owen Bush, Jeff Pringle and James Austin (me). We totaled around 30 smiths from the Bladesmith’s Forum and the California Blacksmithing Association, and it was organized by Jeff Pringle, Nathan Smith and myself (with help from our friends, thank you all!)
Below are some of the highlights, in imagery and words. If you were here and have uploaded photos of it or did a write-up somewhere, let me know and I will link it here.
And a big thank you to all who were here – it was truly a pleasure on my part.
- Petr Florianek and Jake Powning on decoding germanic onamentation
- Jeff Pringle during one of numerous smelts
- A table full of blades
- Death by axe, anyone?
- Petr Florianek surrounded during his demo on carving antlers
- Jake Powning working in leather for a sax sheath
- More blades at display
- James Austin forge welding
- James Austin showing the asymmetrical wrap up close
- Owen Bush captivates the crowd
- Owen Bush forge welding on the Nazel
- Jeff Pringle on construction clues from artifacts
- Jeff Pringle giving in-depth clues on a specific artifact
- A proud member of Team Dane Axe
- Another proud member of Team Dane Axe