JOHN C CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL

Man what a school! I had the distint pleasure of attending John C Campbell folk school earlier this month. The class was taught by Jerry Darnell and he did a fabulous job covering 18th century hearth tools. The class was very fast paced and exciting. I have a better handle now on what to expect and I can't wait for the opportunity to return. Being from North Carolina, I was ignorant of what a wonderful asset that was just 2 hours from my hometown of Asheville. It was very hot during the class, hotter than I have been in a long time. I tried to soak up as much as I possibly could, but there was so much to see and observe. I met some awesome people from all over the country and the world. Not having access to the level of expertise that was present their made me really appreciate what those folks have done.

Being primarily self taught in this craft, I went to this class not knowing how to forge weld and first off Jerry starts talking about how we are going to foreg weld these billets onto these 3/8" rods.....I thought oh no! I can't forge weld........egads.....but Jerry and the rest of the class helped me overcome this obstacle and were patient with me. So I left the class completing the project and having made 5 successful forge welds. I called myself a welder before because I'm proficeint at TIG, MIG, and Stick.....but after this class I have reclassified what the term "Welder" means to me. So now with much practice I intend on mastering this process.

PS in the group photo above....I'm not there....why? The innocent bystander I recruited to take a photo couldn't get my camera to work. Also I took some video of the course, if I can figure out how to get it on here I'll post it!