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Comment by Francis Whitaker, on Julius Schramm
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The Artist-Blacksmith's Craft, published in 1935 and My Life as Artist-blacksmith,
published in 1941, are the literary legacy of Julius Schramm and offer a strong
encouragement for renewal here in the United States just as they did during their day in
Germany. This edition contains the text of both books. Schramm's words in The
Artist-blacksmith's Craft speak to blacksmiths today with just as much importance as they
did when he wrote them, at the age of seventy: Schramm's My Life as Artist-Blacksmith
provides us with the philosophy of his craft, sharing the integrity and enthusiasm that he
had for his work at the forge.
Francis Whitaker has been responsible for getting the Schramm books published; he
suggested the books be translated by Robert Ruhloff and be published by SkipJack Press.
Whitaker proudly carries on this tradition of blacksmithing gives us the final word on the
contributions Julius Schramm:
"We all took great pains to satisfy the master and in return had our own
satisfaction in doing a fine job. A year with Yellin, two years with Schramm, set the
pattern for the rest of my life. The pursuit of perfection."
Review by Diana Mead Jordan the "Anvil"
magazine, November 1996. TOP
When one knows who Julius Schramm was, one will deeply appreciate this book, which
includes Schramm's essay on the craft and his autobiography. He was in love with learning
and could not get enough of it in his lifetime. He was rich in knowledge and experience,
cultured and
dedicated to the art. Schramm reveals his integrity and his intimate relationship with
the iron. He describes his journey with respect and appreciation for every opportunity to
learn. Autobiographies of gifted individuals can inspire those who dream and yearn. This
particular edition is a culmination of effort by Francis Whitaker, who had the fortune to
work under this master and who had the foresight to bring Schramm's words to the
English-speaking world. Whitaker arranged for Robert Ruhloff to produce the translation,
which is elegant. And publisher Jack Andrews superbly preserves the style of the two
original German publications from 1935 and 1941. The result is a masterpiece.
On Forging TOP
Besides the hammer, the tools of the smith are chisels, tongs, and swages, which he
makes himself as needed.
The scroll is the shape to which the hot iron cries out, stretching from itself under
the hammer and the force of the smith.
Unlike painting or sculpture where it is a symbol or a decorative element, in ironwork
the scroll is a functional form of the highest, most adaptable, original and useful value.
Grillwork is the basic application of the blacksmith efforts, and in grills the scroll has
the function of filling and dividing the space. Scrolled finials are recognized as the
natural form for fastening elements together.
An infinite number of variations in the metal are possible by changing the dimensions,
by twisting, with smaller or larger radii; by welding on additional scrolls; by curves of
all kinds, or by floral, leaf, or rounded finials. However, all must result from the
hammer; dies and stampings are not permitted. All such variations must be nicely balanced,
and in counter point harmonize against and with each part: the strong and the delicate,
the fixed and the free, the straight and the curved.
If two pieces of ironwork must pass each other in the same plane, the technique of
piercing is used. In this, one piece is split, and opened out by drifting out and
upsetting the original opening. This is only possible in iron; the wood worker must
overlap beams that cross in the same plane, whereby each beam is weakened by half. The
smith opens a great arsenal of elements of form to express his creativity if he uses the
natural technique of piercing intelligently, for example, if he alternately pierces the
bars either flat, or across the corners, or first the horizontal bar, and then the
vertical.
In no case, however, may the limits of the blacksmith's technique be overstepped by
shoddy or unsolid second rate methods.
Besides the joining of parts by welding, parts may be a fixed by rivets or bands.
Riveting may only be used in accordance with the basic rules of all blacksmith art:
disguise nothing; do not hide any work process after it is done, or represent it as
another; do not try to make it invisible - in the case of rivets, by countersinking the
head. The head of the rivet remains visible, or may be emphasized by forging out to a
decorative form, as a rosette. The use of bolts or screws in place of rivets is not
permitted.
Bands, also made decorative by forging and profiling, are hammered while hot over the
cold parts. As the band contracts as it cools, it draws the parts firmly together.
Consideration of the drawing below of a branching workpiece produced by splitting off
and rolling up makes clear how a flat form, by forging techniques, and entirely of itself,
becomes a three dimensional object. The beginning shape is a piece of flat iron, that is,
a bar of rectangular section. The upper finial is forged out broadly against the wide
dimension of the rectangle, and rolled up. Thus the workpiece, from the two dimensions of
the plane entered the space of the third dimension. In the lower finial, two arms are then
split off with a chisel, and rolled up. The other branches on the upper edge are also
brought up, down and to the sides by splitting. Remarkable in the development of the
branch is the contrast of straight and curved, heavy and drawn out, dull and amusing.
One must realize as significant that the richness of form develops from two work
processes, which essentially come from the same root: working with the hammer results in a
broadening of the material; broadening results in thinning and then rolling. But through
broadening, and through thinning and rolling up, the workpiece arises from a plane into
three dimensional space. The process is repeated in the split-off branches.
In the art of blacksmithing, a simple, easy to visualize and replicate work process is
raised to the level of a branching and flowering peak. The observer, consciously or
subconsciously, takes part in this unfolding, and is pleased that it takes place so
simply, whether it makes itself clear or not. If the observer, however, understands the
how and why, he is doubly fortunate.
Hugo Kükelhaus TOP
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