Visit with Howard Clark at Morgan Valley Forge

Hey guys :)

Utopian and me visited Howard Clark at his Morgan Valley Forge in Runnels Iowa yesterday. :)
As some of you know Howard Clark is known not only for his sword making ability but also for straight razors and knives.
He has been doing this some 23 years full time. I really wanted to pick his brain about forging razors but time was not on our side yesterday.
While we were there he helped me dress the face on 6 different hammers, described to us the building details of his new propane powered, air blown forge, discussed other forges, looked at some of his WIP swords, he explained polishing swords a bit, etc etc. etc and did a bit of razor honing! :)

Ron will post a few of his pics later, here are a few of mine.


Some in-process swords




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Nezel power hammer, approx. 300 lbs on the ram

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Forge



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Anvil

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a few tongs

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more pics ..........


Salt pots

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a work bench


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another workbench


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and his 3 home built grinders


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Thanks for giving me an insight into this skill trade,,,:tu

:) If I had taken pics of all his tools etc and posted them here it would take a looooooog time :)

I look forward to visiting again and I hope he has a weekend class some time soon. :)

When Randy told me he was going to Howard's place I simply assumed that I was going too. Eventually I was in fact allowed to come as well and am very glad that I successfully invited myself! It would have been great to have spent a month or so watching Howard in action but for a first exploratory trip this was pretty great.

I'm about to weld up a forge and so I really wanted to see Howard's newly made forge. It is quite unique, for me at least, with a brilliant air/gas mixing chamber and a huge flame inlet into the forge. This allows for much more uniform heat distribution.

Anyway, Randy faced his hammers under Howard's tutelage, we got to see a great shop with so much home built equipment, and most importantly we got to spend time with a premier bladesmith. I hope that we can go again soon for a longer time so that we can see Howard at work.

Here is the forge.
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Here is Randy facing his hammers.Attachment 215894

And here is Howard getting in the way of my taking a picture of his Nazel hammer.

I don't know, maybe the hammer was so heavy that it caused my photos to rotate. I don't know what caused it or how to fix it.Attachment 215895

By the way, Howard is a smart guy. He placed that hammer on a six and a half foot deep footing and then built the shed around it!

makes my shop loook like im working in my living room tho im sure he has a clea shop and a hot shop

I am not sure I have anything you would call a "clean room". It was good to have you guys come and visit, and I am sure we will do it again. I might even be able to be talked into hosting a meet-up and cook something at some point. I also brew ales and mead. It would take a bit of planning and coordination with the boss, but it is within the realm of possibilities. Glad you enjoyed the visit, and it was good to see you both again!.

Randy and Ron thanks for the look into his shop , and thank you Howard for the maybe invite for a meet , I,m sure the turn out would be substantial, and I myself would be interested in that myself. Good job guys. Tc

Randy, Ron

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for inviting me, too! JK :cry:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Howard Clark

I am not sure I have anything you would call a "clean room". It was good to have you guys come and visit, and I am sure we will do it again. I might even be able to be talked into hosting a meet-up and cook something at some point. I also brew ales and mead. It would take a bit of planning and coordination with the boss, but it is within the realm of possibilities. Glad you enjoyed the visit, and it was good to see you both again!.

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At the Iowa meet Howard brought two tanto blades with him, I looked at them briefly and they were exceptional.
A meet up would be awesome, I would love to see some good equipment and take some ideas on DIY grinder for example.

Glad that you guys had a great time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by L R Harner

makes my shop loook like im working in my living room tho im sure he has a clea shop and a hot shop

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Yeah, I think Mike Blue was accurate with his dirty and dirtier areas.

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Originally Posted by rolodave

Randy, Ron

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for inviting me, too! JK :cry:

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I detest the acronym "lol" but it was accurate in this case!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Utopian

I detest the acronym "lol" but it was accurate in this case!

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I was not Laughing Out Loud

Yes, but I was!

There weren't enough pictures of the new forge...and I have some trouble believing that the old forge finally burned up. But, anything is possible. Howard is a rare human being.

Actually I took several more photos of the forge but considered them to be redundant. I can post more if desired.

Of course they'll probably be sideways too.

It's okay Ron, I'll see him in February and can pester him about that if it's needed.

Sideways pictures are not so bad. It implies inflexibility on the part of the viewer and sometimes a different perspective can illuminate things not seen otherwise.

FYI Howard's facebook page has some photos of his forge including the foam mold he made for casting the refractory cement. It's pretty freakin' cool!!!

Mr. Clark is truly a great artist AND a mad scientist to boot. he is the only guy that I have ever heard of who will put a clayed up blade in a high temp salt pot and not only survive to tell the story but do it over and over again. :)

And he makes beer!