Forge A Memory, Macinac Island MI

Very cool!
Good on you for being a a good dad.

If you get the opportunity I recommend the experience

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I too recommend Macinac for the experience and would certainly be a better place than TX to be playing with fire this time of year.

Mackinac....Mackinac.... I used to work there.

That looks like a fun thing for the kids to do. Glad he's got such a fun and educational program for them, and the parents, to enjoy.

HSO bring up a good point about hot weld slag/scale falling in shoes or on other body parts. Ten years ago I was welding up a bracket and had a little weld bb slide down my welding glove and burn the snot out of my hand. A very dear friend tells the story of his father doing an Irish jig when a piece of weld slag fell into his shoe. My friend found it very funny, his dad not so much. We both follow the rules with respect to hot metal and safety gear, burning flesh hurts and stinks.

Hot slag inside the boot had me "dancing" years ago. Still have the scar...
HSO makes a good point about the safety aspect.

Did you pick up some fudge while you were on the island, too? (Michiganders know what I'm talking about ... you gotta buy fudge when you visit the island)

Seriously, though, what a great idea. Every kid I've seen who's been exposed to the knife-forging process has been hooked. Too bad I won't be back there until after the season closes.

I’m going to Mackinac next week! I will absolutely do this!! Thanks!

That's a very cool experience. A friend of mine made a bottle opener from a railroad spike. I'll post a picture later.

Man I was there last summer and had no idea such an event was offered. I would have been all over it. The Blacksmiths forge was one of my favorite parts of the island.

As for hot embers down the shoe, I can attest. About 7 years ago, my daughter (3 years old at the time) was using a sparkler on the 4th of July. Completely supervised, of course, she was waving it around. As she waves it with gusto as it burns to nothing, about 3" of it burns off and lands in the top of my sports sandal and begins to fuse itself with the flesh between the ball and heel of my ankle.

My dad, whose house we were at, jumps up to my aid in order to make sure his oldest son is OK....just kidding.
Dear old dad points and laughs while I jump around like Yosemite Sam getting the hot foot from Bugs Bunny in a Looney Toon.
I still have a pretty a gnarly scar I tease my 10 year old daughter about.

Hot metal and exposed legs and ankles dont mix.

Kind of funny, I came across a knife I made from a railroad spike and too much spare time, years ago.

It was an old spike I found walking the railroad and I’m not a blacksmith so it’s less than impressive for even a kid made knife.

I don’t know what metal they use in railroad spikes but I have had better luck using old leaf or coil springs as a base metal.

I have some of the “voodoo” in the form of Kasenit, using it for surface hardening but I was long past that project by the time I started using it and I think it has been off the market for more than a decade now.

Speaking of forging, I've been enjoying watching this guy in the far east forging items from scratch - and doing many other interesting things: