A DAY FOR FIRE AND HAMMERS THE KOWHAI FORGE
DEEP IN RURAL WAIKATO, THE ANCIENT SKILLS OF BLACKSMITHING ARE BEING KEPT ALIVE
It was a sparkling day in the Wharepapa countryside, with views for miles around the hilltop site of the Kowhai Forge.
The Kowhai Forge is a blacksmithing school located in the tumultuous landscape between Kihikihi and Arapuni in south Waikato, where the ancient art of Vulcan himself can be seen on every side. The school is run by Arja and Rob Pinkney and provides tuition in the old, and disappearing, skills of the traditional blacksmith.
Originally from the Hokianga, Rob was apprenticed as a farrier and general smith under master tutor Malcolm Telfar and started work in the equine industry around Matamata. He was then invited to Japan, also to work in the horse industry, and spent 14 years smithing on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido where, despite Japan’s long history in steel, the art of working hot metal by hand was fading.
The well-equipped forge
Rob met Arja when he was asked to act as a presenter at a farrier and blacksmithing conference in Holland about 12 years ago. The couple bought a patch of scrubby hilltop from Rob’s brother-in-law. An old woolshed was converted into a house and Rob’s smithy was erected nearby.
The shed contains a blower-driven forge stoked with the best West Coast coal. Seven anvils are strategically positioned, along with a large gas-fired forge and a wardrobe of handmade tools and hammers essential for grasping and working the hot metal. A hefty power hammer that shakes the whole place and a quenching trough,
A variety of courses
Rob tutors a half-day taster course, at which students can make a variety of simpler items, and a fullday programme that covers knife making, the forging of a small axe, door knockers, and garden and fireplace tools.
On a steel-topped table is a display of artefacts — door handles, rings, fire pokers, corkscrews, decorative flowers — all forged in steel.
The early morning teaching session focuses on knife making, which is the most popular subject. Knives come in many styles, depending on their intended use. There are culinary, skinning, filleting, and sticking knives. Knife-smithing is a skilled art and Rob’s approach is to finish as much of the blade as possible by hand-forging, with grinding kept to a minimum. Students select the style they want and work from a blank piece of 5160 spring steel between 7 and 10 inches long. A ‘golden ratio’ is used as a guide to ensure that the knife is properly balanced.
Making your first knife
The students start on the blade at the coal forge under the guidance of Rob or another staff member and then move to the gas forge to shape the handle. They return to the main forge to punch and drift the holes that will allow a wooden handle to be fitted later. Back to the fire again and the tip of the blade is ‘bumped up’ — a process that lessens the potential for defects in the point.
The student then takes the work back to the main fire, where the smith holds the ‘top tool’ on the blade while a ‘guest’ thumps it with a sledgehammer to create the distal taper and set the bevel on the cutting edge.
“The blade is refined almost to the point of a complete working knife; we’re down to less than 1mm in the edge,” Rob explains.
Following morning tea — a yummy selection of country-made goodies — the raw blade is ground, tempered, and polished. Later in the morning, work begins on the next project: making axe heads in the traditional Viking style.
A decent axe
Rob explained that today’s commercially made axes — the sort you’d buy in the hardware store — are punched out by big industrial drop presses. Of course, early smiths didn’t have this type of equipment; they made everything by hand.
To make an axe head by the old ‘folded axe’ method, Rob starts with a strap of mild steel, which he heats in the coals until it is red hot. The strap is then formed into two matching halves, which are folded together. A section of spring steel is inserted between the two sides, which are then fire welded together. The glowing metal is worked by hammer around a mandrel to true the ‘eye’ for the wooden handle. Hardening of the edge is determined by the colour of the metal.
For handles Rob uses robina, a variety of hickory, milled by Apperleys Custom Timber in Ōtorohanga and shaped by the members of the Tauranga Men’s Shed.
That mystical spirit
Rob provided some of the items used in Hobbiton and knives, shovels, picks, and strongboxes used in the movie series The Luminaries, set on the wild West Coast of the 1860s.
There is a spirit involved in smithing, almost a mysticism, Rob believes. Written on one wall of the forge building is a Maori saying, “Kaore te kumara e korero mo tona ake reka” — “a kumara does not say how sweet he is. It’s all about humility” — a good smith never brags about his work; to do so is to invite calamity.
“It takes three lifetimes to become a good smith. Every day you try to perfect the craft but you’ll never become a master in one lifetime,” Rob says.
On the international front, Rob is keen to get back into the big European traditional smithing competitions, including the Biennale Europea d’Arte Fabbrile, which is held in Italy, but would need some sponsorship to do so.