Please Note: As part of accepting an OBG scholarship you must agree to do a newsletter article, A demo at a monthly OBG meeting and give an article for the auction. Below is an article from Doug Furman one of the Scholarship recipients.

Advice For Beginners
By Doug Furman/HASA Ironworks
Recipient 2003 OBG Scholarship

To begin I could probably ramble for hours on LITTLE things but, I will try to hit some of the things that come to mind. I have found that there are 12 different ways of doing any Smithing task. You must play with them to find the one that works for you. Some will be like the proverbial grain of salt you throw over your shoulder. Coal or Gas? Both have there advantages. Gas works well for predictable temperatures and heat over more of the steel. It's great for production work. Coal, while it smells good (only to a blacksmith). It reaches higher temperatures especially for forge welding. By the way forge welding is not that hard. So learn from someone who knows how and just keep trying. You'll get it sooner or later and hopefully sooner. Supplies, try the internet. It's a great place to see others work and hook up with suppliers. Try Blacksmithing supplies or tools. Anything on search with Blacksmithing will yield lots of sites. A great place to start is www.Anvilfire.com. . Coal can be found at there coal shuttle and can be delivered to your door via U.P.S.. Bookstores can find you books on our subject or try Amazon.com and punch in Blacksmithing. Gone are the days of not being able to find coal or info on Blacksmithing. Well I could go on for hours. So as I heard just get out there and do it. Only with experience and practice will you become a master at anything.

I would like to take just a few lines and tell everyone in the Ocmulgee Guild how grateful I was to have won the scholarship to John C Campbell Folk School. It was a great learning experience. I can not wait to win another scholarship HahHah! ! It is an unforgettable place for any Blacksmith. We can all learn from it. I can not wait to go again and hope to take the family.

Hit It While It's Hot,

Doug