5 days in the Bushfire Forge, 4-8 March 2024
I took a week off from my “retirement” (being busy on writing a white paper on glacial engineering) to fly to the UK for a visit with my friends Magnús and Karen, and to visit Owen Bush’s forge in Wickham. I split my time between Magnús’s house in Over (outside of Cambridge) and a nice hotel in Bexleyheath.
Magnús at the Bushfire forge.
The first two days at the forge were spent setting up and casting bronze guards and pommels for my sword, Magnús‘s sword, and a few extras for the forge. The design was based on a sword in the British Museum:
IGLERII sword found in the Thames river
The work started with wood fittings and to-size replicas of our sword’s tang and the tang-blade junction. These were then used to create hollow sand molds (with graphite tang replicas). Finally molten bronze was poured into the molds.
The final cast pieces on my sword.
My sword blade is blue because it was heated to take out a slight bend. Blue is the first layer of oxidation.
Blue oxidation.
we plan to finish the handles next year on a return trip.
The 3-day axe class
the final 3 days at the Bushfire Forge were spent with other students learning how to make Viking style axes. Both Magnús and I used wootz material made years ago at the DoorCounty Forgeworks. I made a bow tie wrap around style axe and Magnús made an axe out of a bone ingot.
