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Blades Are His Trade an Oven That’S Melting Iron Ore, Sand and Charcoal in Ceramic Crucibles

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Blades Are His Trade an Oven That’S Melting Iron Ore, Sand and Charcoal in Ceramic Crucibles erfront. erfront. SPARKS FLY as Ric finishes a knife blade. Students Greg Stolpe (center) and David Wise of Indianapolis watch. At right, Ric stokes Blades Are His Trade an oven that’s melting iron ore, sand and charcoal in ceramic crucibles. It will reduce Tis blacksmith turned swordsmith is world respected in an ancient craf. into a steel ingot to be forged into blades. By Tina Gohr, Kewaunee, Wisconsin pon of its time. Only a few elite warriors SHARP AT HIS CRAFT. That’s Ric Furrer for the piece, which is not for sale, but he Something great will happen today in Wisconsin. carried this high-tech weapon into battle above with a Viking warrior sword called an does take orders for similar swords. “TO MAKE a weapon from dirt is a pretty from 800 to 1000 AD. Ulfberht. At right, he guides student Greg Ric’s wife, Beth Lokken, helped re- powerful thing.” Strong, light and fexible, the sword Stolpe of Duluth in placing a hot ingot on search the Viking story; she’s a librarian So says blacksmith Ric Furrer in the was made of steel far advanced from the an anvil. It will be hammered into a blade. in Sturgeon Bay. With their two boys, documentary Secrets of the Viking Sword, soft iron of the medieval era. Only a few Henry, 10, and Bjorn, 14, they live a quiet produced by National Geographic Tele- skeletal remnants of Ulfberht swords exist. ingot using a replicated ancient oven life amid the hay and bean felds of Door dent David Wise of Indianapolis designed vision. The PBS program was frst broad- How did the early swordsmiths get their stoked to 3,000 degrees. County. The couple met at UW-Madison a steak knife in his weeklong class. cast on NOVA in 2012; it has aired often hands on such superior steel? The secrets Nearly 20 hours of pounding with a in 1989, where Ric studied history with an “Here you make the steel, then the since. of this weapon’s construction were lost for hammer was required just to convert the eye to become a high school teacher. knife,” David says. “In other classes, they This Sturgeon Bay blacksmith is now 1,000 years…could a modern blacksmith wad of pure steel into a blade. One mistake It was Beth’s father, Orrin Lokken, a hand you the steel frst.” so famous that he travels the world to re-engineer it and unlock the mystery? during this 6 to 8 weeks and Ric would gunsmith and blacksmith from Fitchburg, “People get to play with fre for a week speak about blade making. Students from It wasn’t easy. Even the Vikings’ rivals have to start over. who taught his future son-in-law the hob- here,” Ric laughs. “We use fre as a tool. I as far away as Brazil and Australia come to didn’t know how to make these swords. “The blade was a coming together of by that became his profession. Orrin intro- teach people how to do it safely.” his Wisconsin shop to learn. Ric joined forces with scientists, chem- various skills I’d cultivated over the years,” duced Ric to Paul Marx of Madison, who This year, Ric will travel to the Him- Sideline: Named for the fish-shaped bay it borders, Sturgeon Bay was settled in 1850 when the first house was built along the wat Ric uses modern steel to make deco- ists and historians from around the globe Ric recalls. The recipe itself was simple. immersed him in blade making. alayan kingdom of Bhutan to help rekindle rative gates and railings as well as precision to uncover the metallurgical mysteries. Iron ore is found in the ground. The trick From the Ground Up the ancient sword-making tradition there. stonecutter’s tools. But he uses iron ore, Involved, too, was the world’s largest steel is to add carbon from charcoal to the iron. Now Ric teaches others to create blades It’s being practiced by a lone swordsmith coal and sand to smelt his own steel to company. But not all steel is created equal. from ore, sand and charcoal. He’s one of now. Ric is going at the request of the make blades, and it was his blade-making Some Work Lay Ahead The steel within the Ulfberht blade is very few in the United States who offers king—one more crowning achievement reputation that led NOVA to call him at This was a process of reverse engi- high-carbon or crucible steel made by makes steel brittle. steel-making classes from raw material to for Wisconsin’s sharpest blade maker. Door County Forgeworks. neering for a modern-day blacksmith, and melting iron at temperatures much higher Ric’s fnished Ulfberht Sword weighs fnished product. They challenged Ric to re-create the it was daunting. It required 350 hours to than those used by early swordsmiths. around 2 pounds, the same as a baseball One of his classes, “Wootz Crucible For information, check online at doorcounty Viking Ulfberht sword, the supreme wea- build the perfect sword from a pure steel High heat melts away slag (impurities) that bat. He turned down an offer of $20,000 Steel”, results in 8- to 12-inch blades. Stu- forgeworks.com or call 920/824-5755. 16 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 17.
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