John Crouchet Fall Hammerfest 2004 HABA Houston Area Blacksmith's Association

Houston
Area
Blacksmith's
Association

7418 Branch Point
Houston, TX 77095-2649

Home

Membership

Group Email

ABANA
ABANA Demonstrator Guideline

Maps

October 2, 2004

John Crouchet
demonstrates at
FALL BLACKSMITH'S HAMMERFEST
at
Oldenburg
This Fall we returned to our favorite Oldenburg site at HABA Lifetime Member Kennie Hall's place on Antique Show Weekend Oct 1-3. to bring our forges and have a good time.

Our bi-annual Blacksmith's Hammerfest event at Oldenburg was the weekend of October 2. We featured several special regional demonstrators under a Big Tent Saturday including :

8 am : Dave Koenig from Houston Area Blacksmiths Association
10 am : John Crouchet from Balcones Forge
12 pm : Chuck Stone from North Texas Blacksmiths Association
2 pm : Jerry Baker from Louisiana Metalsmiths Association
4 pm : Tom Lundquist from East Texas Blacksmiths Association

More information is available at the HABA website for the event Blacksmith's Hammerfest.

Featured Blacksmiths HammerFest Demonstrator
October 2, 2004 John Crouchet
Balcones Forge

Crouchet at Fredericksburg Museum

Statement

I began blacksmithing in 1997, after working for twenty-seven years as a professional goldsmith. I enjoy the change in scale, or what I call “working large”. At the same time, I am intrigued by the surprising similarities between working iron and working gold.

Although I am known as a flypress specialist, that is not what I spend most of my time doing. The vast majority of my work is traditional blacksmithing at the anvil and the treadle hammer. I work in Marble Falls, Texas, with Larry Crawford at Hammerfest Forge building gates, railings, fireplace screens, and traditional blacksmith products.

When I am not working with Larry, I forge at my own shop, located at my family ranch on Sycamore Creek in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. It is a great place to work if you can just remember to forge something instead of going fishing.

My training and experience as a manufacturing goldsmith left me with an appreciation for the classic skills of metalwork. Modern “casual” blacksmithing has often overlooked the importance of training and knowledge in the basic skills of filing, fitting, annealing, and shaping metals. I do not want my work to result from a “happy accident”. It should be carefully planned and well executed. In this way, I try to carry on the tradition of generations of working blacksmiths before me.

Demo

I plan to demonstrate "How to Demonstrate for the Public". This is an art and I have a number of tricks to show that will enhance your future demonstrations. I use some modified tools that make my public demos a little slicker, and I will show how to build and use those, especially a modified nail header.

I will have kits available for those who may wish to build their own modified headers. In addition, I will have a handout sheet to aid in your tool making and presentations. I will also touch on some classic metalworking techniques, showing some fancy filework and "whitesmithing".

I will also bring along a couple of my latest flypress "cobble-ups" that will help the flypress guys do a little magic of their own.

Contact

John Crouchet
Artist-Blacksmith
Sycamore Creek Forge
Marble Falls, Texas
(830) 798-3710
jac@sycamorecreekranch.net

[return to top]

John provided a 4 page handout about Files and Filing for Blacksmiths to illustrate many of the whitesmith techniques he demonstrated. You can download a scanned copy (pdf) by clicking Files and Filing .

Click on a thumbnail below to see the full image.

crochet1b.jpg	PA020005b.jpg	PA020007b.jpg
PA020012b.jpg	PA020015b.jpg	PA020016b.jpg
PA020017b.jpg	PA020020b.jpg	PA020021b.jpg

[return to top]

Please Join and be a part of HABA today! Call or email James Porter at 281-337-5384 for the latest information.

Notes about this Website

This website is Under Development and will continue to evolve for HABA Members.

The use any of the material from this site is at your own risk. All persons associated with this material disclaim any responsibility or liability for damages or injuries resulting from the use or application of this information. They assume no responsibility or liability for the accuracy, fitness, proper design, safety or safe use of any information presented here.

Please send all feedback/correction/omission/suggestions to your webmaster, Richard Boswell .
Enjoy!