Cold Day / Hot Forge
Friday - January 19, 2007
K and K Forgeworks
About 20 degrees and icy here, in the old industrial section of North Portland.
"It’ll warm up as soon as we get the forges going," says our host, Fergus Galway. Fergus and his biz partner, Arnon Kartmazov began K&K in 2001, soon after they saw each others’ work. Fergus began working in iron around 19 and learned from the best he could find. Arnon started in his teens in Israel, then moved to Japan to work with the unparalleled masters of bladecraft. He set up shop and stayed in Kyoto for seven years, eventually making his way to Portland. Their work ranges from the raw and powerful to the understated and sublime.
It was fun and LOUD! Fergus fired up a long forge that they built to heat up long steel rods that they would be shaping to create the vertical elements for a railing. John Logue ( a terrific animation director) came along as our videographer for the day. John took advantage of the heat source.
Check out John’s_website to see some examples of his animation work.
One of the more classic moments of watching Fergus and Arnon at work, was when they were working together doing "dual striking." Here, Arnon pulled the heated steel from the forge and placed it on an anvil. Then both of them worked simultaneously on hammering a piece into shape. The advantage of forging an object as quickly as possible, is to reduce the number of "heats," or number of reheatings. This reduces the incidence of corrosion. Here they are in action. We also taped it - their rhythm is something to see and hear.
The blurs are a ten-pound sledge in Fergus’ hands and a five-pound hammer in Arnon’s.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Here are a few more examples of their handcraft.
A railing and…
a very cool door handle with a beak-like device holding the bar.
Check out their work: http://kandkforgeworks.com/
