It has become something of a summer tradition for us to travel from our home in Normandy to a Benedictine abbey tucked in the hills of Western Connecticut, where my husband Simon, a master blacksmith, teaches a workshop on forging iron. The students are of varying ages. Some are young people whose families have been visiting the abbey as guests for many years and have had blacksmithing lessons from the nun who has been directing the shop since forever ago.
The blacksmith shop plays a vital role in this abbey’s life. The smiths there are responsible for making items ranging from the practical, like hooks and handrails, to sculptures and ceremonial pieces.
Cross-pollination can take surprising forms. This summer, for the first time, students came to our forge from the Abbey. Drew, 16, and Curran, 21, two brothers who first took up their hammers at the Abbey many years ago, visited us for an intensive three-day ironwork course. Drew had already been in Paris on a student exchange, but we were astonished to learn that Curran had made the transatlantic trip just for this experience with us!
The Abbess’s enthusiasm for this creative exchange was palpable. “I tend to get carried away,” she wrote to us in an email, but I see this kind of exchange as what the world most needs right now. It is the best way of “forging” peace.”
Decades ago, I, like Drew and Curran, studied at the Abbey forge under the tutelage of the same amazing nun. Perhaps that is why we are of the opinion that learning a craft at the Abbey is about more than the craft itself. It’s about being open to every kind of experience; it’s about extrapolating the maximum good from each activity, whether that’s heating a bar of iron or throwing logs on a wood pile.
These photos show the students’ visit.
The Abbess expressed a hope that they learned a more crucial lesson than forging.
“Hosting these young men at your forge was more than just an educational experience for them,” she said. “It involved two nations, two cultures…. The work is timeless and universal.
And the hard work of forging iron offers a way to understand that peace is not something we can ‘will.’ Lasting peace has to be ‘forged’ like an unbreakable bond.”
1.Starting off
Day one at the forge. Curran, standing, and Drew, sitting.
2.Forge dog
Toby, our faithful “fire dog” looks on as Drew takes a heat on a bar of iron.
3.Directing movement
4.Simon’s hand and where to hit
“Precision,” Curran said was very important. “The level of accuracy and detail in a piece of work is something that was immediately apparent. Most of the work is knowing exactly how to strike and handle it so that you can produce the desired effect. Needless to say, this is much easier said than done.”
5.Perfect heat
“How hot does is it get?” This question is invariably asked by the student at the forge, as it was by me when I was a student. One fact I found particularly fascinating is that iron loses its magnetism at 1,400° F. At the bright orange in the photograph, the iron has reached a heat of about 1,700° F, and is ready to be moved!
Screenshot
Drew’s triumphant smile is the outcome of his perseverance. “I was struggling to find a rhythm at first,” he said. “My timing was off, and I second-guessed all my strikes. Instead of trying to force it, I kept showing up, watching Simon closely, listening to feedback, and focusing on small improvements. By the second day, things started to click. It wasn’t perfect but I found a rhythm I could build on.”
7.The finer points
“Patience and a willingness to listen,” Curran reflected were virtues learned at the forge. “No matter how precise I (or anyone) strives to be, perfection is unattainable. That’s where the importance of patience comes in.”
8.The satisfying process
“There’s a constant need to check your work to see how the metal is reacting and to fix any issues that arise,” Curran said. “It is all too easy to go one blow too far, or to use a little too much force, or use the wrong part of the hammer. When you pause to check on your work, your work will improve.”
9.The posture mastered
Curran is relaxed and focused, a good posture for smithying. “These lessons were noticeable after a few mere hours at work in Simon’s shop, but they apply to all aspects of life, and while they might seem obvious, sometimes it takes a completely different angle to remind your self of their importance.”
10.In tandem
To work together as a team requires extreme accuracy both in holding the hotset and being on point with the sledgehammer. Mutual trust has to be there. Here they are chiseling a fine line down each narrow side of the bar to create a simple decorative element to the final twist.
11.A well earned break
A well-earned afternoon break in our overgrown garden. “I found that being in the countryside was very grounding for me,” Drew shared. “Everything moved slower and I think it helped me in my work.”
12.The finished piece
On their first day, Drew and Curran practiced drawing down the bar to a point, spreading sideways, scrolling into a spiral and twisting. On day two, it was a tall order for them each to produce a letter opener using all of the disciplines they had learned, but the final results were a great success!
