CAPt AUY COUNTY MAGAZINE IP AUGUST 'tl

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25

Helper Learning, Enjoying

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By ED HARNETT Under the spreading chestnut tree The Village Smithy stands; The smith’s apprentice is a she, With rings on busy hands... (With apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Thalia, the Muse of idyllic poetry — the Greeks, being smart people, didn’t put a Muse in charge of doggerel). The smith, in the case at hand, is Tom Turtzo, and he is the village blacksmith, one of the craftsmen displaying skills at Historic Cold Spring Village. Stocky, bearded, and pipe smoking, he could have changed places with the protagonist of Longfellow’s poem without any difficulty. His apprentice is Mary Schaeffer. Her slender five feet, seven inches, blond hair over her shoulders, and blue eyes would scarcely fit the 19th Century poet's conception of a blacksmith’s helper. THERE IS. ALAS, no chestnut tree. The blight which hit American chestnut trees three generations back took care of that. There are lots of tall shade trees at Cold Spring Village. None of them shade the smithy. So, on a July mid-day as the temperature reached for 100, Mary’s brow, like that of Longfellows smith, was wet with honest sweat. So was the rest of Mary. Splotches spread on her long calico gown as she worked over the outside forge to fashion a seveninch triangle from an iron rod. Patiently, she thrust the rod into the glowing coals in the forge, turning the handle of the blower which substitutes for the traditional accordian-like bellows. As the iron was withdrawn, glowing red, it was hammered and shaped on the anvil. THE FORGE. Mary

lamented later, not only sits in the full glare of the sun, but is set up for a right-handed smith, who would use his ’’off” hand to operate the blower while he manipulated his work. On the happy side, Mary doesn’t have to change hands when she takes her work to the anvil. A southpaw, she just picks up her two-pound hammer and starts to pound the iron into shape. What emerged on this occasion, after 45 very sweaty, smoky minutes, was an equilateral iron triangle, with little curlycues ("scrolls”, in blacksmith lingo) curving away at the

apex.

As she poked the coals and hammered, Mary cheerfully answered the questions of assorted onlookers. This is not ideal blacksmithing, she confided. Distractions tend to let the iron get too hot while it's in the fire and cool too fast when it’s on the anvil. Concentration is very much the name of this

game.

Turtzo, meanwhile, was in the smithy taking orders for the light horseshoes which were to be stamped with customers’ names as souvenirs. WITH IMPECCABLE logic, Tom pointed out that only one could work at the forge at one time. Besides, he prefers to work at night, when it’s cooler. Also, he adds, it’s easier to gauge the temperature of the iron by its color out of the glare of sunlight. The solution to such little difficulties is to have more forges, preferably in the shade. Tom hopes to provide at least the forges, so he can take on a waiting list of students and give each adequate forge time. Anyway, Mary volunteered for that first demonstration, stint of the day at forge and anvil. She thinks it’s more fun than some of her work, such as cleaning up finished pieces with sandpaper to remove the oxidized metal sra*"

Mary Schaeffer at Forga

Dorii Ward

and leave them with the distinctive smooth feel of good wrought" iron. This makes for very dirty

hands.

Mary, born, in Easton, Pa., and a graduate of Lehigh University, was formerly a special education teacher, and still does occasional substitute teaching. She also does fiber work such as crocheting, which she finds relaxing after wrestling with iron. She has been with Turtzo four years. When they are not conducting a craft shop as at Cold Spring, they run the LaFona Forge blacksmith shop in Pen Argyl, Pa., and live in a converted chicken coop behind the smithy. BY WAY OF fixing its location, Mary offered hopefully that Pen Argyl is near Wind Gap, Pa (Both of these metropoli are in the general vicinity of Easton). ■ "We like it there," says Mary. "It’s so quiet in the winter." They’d love the winter in Cape May

County.

It may be noticeable that nothing has been said about horses, which usually come 1 ,to mind when blacksmiths are mentioned. There are many farriers still shoeing horses, even though the ponderous Percherons and Clydesdales which once dragged stone sledges and pulled stumps on farms have gone Hollywood and now make beer commercials. Turtzo and Schaeffer, however, specialize in another field. They make decorative and ornamental ironwork, gates and railings, window grilles, and sculptures. It’s an expanding field. The Artists Blacksmiths’ Association of North America. (ABANA), has grown in 10 years from 27 members to 2,000. It has ties to the British Blacksmiths Association, and has even reached behind the Iron Curtain (naturally), with representatives from Czechoslovakia at its conference in West Virginia

last year.

Its glossy publication, The Anvil's Ring, offers striking pictures of the work being done, ranging from 5,000-pound gates to lacy ornamental

scrollwork.

Can apprentice Mary Schaeffer look forward to a career in the field? Well, others of her sex have made it. The Anvil's Ring has striking illustrations of delicate iron jewelry, ornamental figures combining iron with other materials such as wood, brass, and hair, and innovative sculpture pieces, all produced by women

blacksmiths.

FOUR YEARS, of course, may not a master blacksmith make. Turtzo, ho’s been at it eight ears, says he's still learning. So is Mary. What’s more important, she’s ob-

viously enjoying it.

"It’s very satisfying," she says, "to turn out something you know will endure longer than you

will."

There have been, so far as she knows, no blacksmiths in her family. But she may figuratively have iron in her blood. Turtzo has run across iron creations bearing a

"Schaeffer" imprint. Mary could br carrying on a forgotten family tradition. Maybe that explains shy she could be so happy sweating gallons over a 3,000-degree fire on a July day with a cooling ocean only a short drive away.

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