True to its roots in metallurgy, DMSE has offered instruction in forge and foundry work since MIT’s earliest days. Prof. Sam Allen S.M. ’71 Ph.D. ’75 and Mike Tarkanian ’00 S.M. ’03 currently offer a freshman seminar, IAP classes, and hands-on blacksmithing opportunities for CMSE, 3.042, and the Archaeological Materials program.
Prof. Allen says, “My interest in blacksmithing was sparked by finding a wrought-iron candle stand in the loft of a barn on the property in Connecticut where I grew up, shortly before the property was sold in 1982. I also recalled my mother telling me about a smithy that used to be just up the road from the house where she grew up, and that it had a kind of magnetic pull to her and her siblings in their youth, despite being warned not to go there because ‘rough men’ hung out there. I realized that learning more about the craft of blacksmithing would satisfy my desires to add some useful craft skills, and at the same time introduce me to some important practice that eventually had evolved into my field of physical metallurgy.”
In spring 1984 Prof. Allen and Leonard Rubin ’87 constructed a forge in the physical metallurgy lab in CMSE (13-5016). They made a frame of angle iron, lined it with firebrick, and drilled holes in a nickel-alloy pipe that fed into the bottom of the firebox to act as a tuyere. A small fan salvaged from some electronic gear provided the air blast through the tuyere. Their initial fuel was anthracite “pea coal.”
Soon afterward, word of blacksmithing at MIT reached a Boston-area resident, Forrest “Chip” Whitcher, who had some training with professional blacksmith Francis Whittaker, plus quite a bit of equipment, but no place to use it. Mr. Whitcher made an extended loan of his equipment and provided significant hands-on training. With this solid background, in fall 1984 Prof. Allen launched an Undergraduate Seminar called “Modern Blacksmithing and Physical Metallurgy.” The seminar was offered as one of the six inaugural Freshman Advising Seminars in fall 1986, and has been offered annually almost every year since (excepting some sabbatical years).
To further his expertise, Prof. Allen enrolled in a three-week session on Blacksmithing at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in summer 1986. “This added greatly to my knowledge,” he says, “and I’m sure improved my teaching in the MIT advisor’s seminar significantly.”
After a few years, the program had outgrown its single forge in Building 13. Prof. Allen says, “We were very fortunate that MIT’s ‘Glass Lab’ in 4-003 was falling into disuse after Dave Kingery’s retirement, and that space became available for renovation in fall 1988. Michael Cima (who had recently joined the faculty) and I made a successful proposal to Gerry Wilson, then Dean of Engineering, to help DMSE pay to have the space cleaned out and renovated for joint metalworking and glassworking. We were able to move the blacksmithing to this much more appropriate lab with space for three forges and other metalworking equipment. In its current configuration we have three forges and six anvils, so that six people can be working at once, with two people sharing each forge.”
In addition to the Freshman Advisor Seminar, blacksmithing instruction has been offered to undergraduates, graduate students, and employees for almost every IAP since 1987. Since the mid 1990s, the space has been used for activities in the CMSE Summer Day Camp Program that brings Cambridge middle school students to MIT for a two-week period each summer. The campers enjoy the hands-on activities of blacksmithing and smelting copper ore. MIT’s program in Archaeological Materials also makes annual use of the blacksmithing lab in activities for subject 3.094, “Materials in Human Experience,” that involve smelting copper ores, melting and casting copper-silver and copper-tin bronzes, and hand-forging copper and copper alloys.
Over the years, students in the DMSE forge have worked on projects ranging from high-end Japanese swords to simple coat hooks and fireplace tools. According to instructor Mike Tarkanian, “access to the forge gives the students a chance to get real hands-on experience with the materials science principles they are learning about in the classroom.”