Blacksmith makes his metallic mark

Blacksmith makes his metallic mark

By Chris Zoeller

Haley Woodward, a graduate student in metals from Philadelphia, uses a wooden mallet while hot forging a piece of steel Monday in Pulliam Hall’s L. Brent Kington Blacksmith shop. The piece is one of many similar others that will be combined for a larger sculpture. Woodward teaches a basic blacksmithing class and works as the shop tech when he is not focussing on his own sculptures. He said blacksmithing is a very unique and important craft that many other crafts rely on. “If a carpenter wants to drive a nail, he needs a blacksmith to make the nail and the hammer that drives it,” Woodward said. “Steel has a lot of neat qualities to it, and I find it very rewarding to work with. It’s a constant learning process, challenging yourself with a technical question and seeing how it applies to an aesthetic question.” Chris Zoeller | Daily Egyptian

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