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Valbonne - A festival of Forgerons

shown is a rack containing perhaps two dozen tongs with various specialized heads, a couple of hammers and three large sledge hammers.

  We went to a festival of blacksmiths in a small town called Valbonne.  The theme was "The Art of the Tool" which just happens to be a subject that is very near to my heart.  There were about a dozen separate working booths equipped with hand tools, huge antique anvils, 30 ton trip hammers and forges bellowing coal smoke.  Here are a variety of tongs and hammers that one fellow brought for the show.
A hot piece of steel is being shaped by hand with a hammer on a large anvil.
   Another booth had very few tools but was demonstrating that you could build them as you go.  Here a "forgeron" is making a set of tongs. I've tried this on my own but didn't get it right.  The trick is to start at the head and get the shape of the jaws and pivot right.  Then rounding out the handles to suit the head is easy.  I started with the handles.  It's not fast, it took this guy all day.
A display board of old anvils with about 15 small and medium sized anvils of various specialized shapes--all rusted but oiled and clearly being cared for.
   Some antique anvils with specialized shapes.   As I felt very comfortable amongst fellow tool lovers I ventured to talk.  Fortunately, one Norwegian spoke both French and English so he and I went visiting some of the other toolies.  Language isn't really a barrier amongst craftsmen because the subject is mostly physical anyway. 
A young boy, dressed in protective leather apron and gloves,is turning the crank on a blower for a small forge.

  They had a special booth for kids.  Here Aidan is operating a forge with a hand-cranked blower.
A young boy removing a glowing piece of steel from a coal fire with a pair of tongs.
   Each child got to forge a small piece of iron.
A small girl is using both hands to hammer a hot piece of metal as an adult holds it   Several trips from the fire to the anvil were required to put a point on one end of the pencil sized piece of steel.  Note the particularly beautiful anvil of some 300 kilograms and dated 1901.  Anvils often get melted down for various war efforts.
A small girl quenches a hot piece of steel held in a long pair of tongs. Steam rises from the water. Her prtective leather apron nearly touches the ground.
   Leila quenching her piece.
Adding steel spines to a chainsaw-sculpture of a hedgehog. The young boy uses a pair of tongs to hold his newly forged steel "quill" as he hammers it into one of many pre-drilled holes.
   The finished points were driven into the wooden "hedgehog" sculpture.
A young boy and a small girl hold their "diplomas" for completeing the "mini forgeron" course.
   Each child received a diploma and promise of a reward.
A large man seems small compared to the screw operated mechanical press mounted on a wooden bench. The press and bench are freshly painted blue and red.

  The reward was to get to make a small coin in this press. 

Leila is removing the pressed ingot with tongs (guided by the hands of the operator).
   The kids got to move a red-hot ingot from the furnace and quickly place it in the press.  Then the big fellow in the previous photo swung the crank a half turn to emboss it.  This done, the hurrying stopped.  The kid removed the ingot and quenched it. 
Two hands, one a small child's, the other the dirty hand of an older child. Each is holding a square "coin" of iron that has been pressed.
   Here are the reward "coins" that Leila and Aidan made.  By mid-afternoon, the fair was on kid number fifty.  I didn't try to sign up myself--the mustache probably would have given me away.
A variety of iron sculpture was presented on wood pedastals.
   In addition to the demonstrations there were exhibits of works by some of the forgerons.   Two in particular caught my attention.  This one of spheres inbeded in a heavy plate...
forged sculpture of an angle of death (in rusted iron) holding a mirrored sphere.
 ...and this scary piece. 

24 Septembre 2005

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