MANSFIELD For Ken Davis, the most intriguing thing about having an antiquated hobby is its challenge. Owner of the East Street Art Gallery in Columbus, Mr. Davis has had to learn about blacksmithing on his own.
By: David Koch, Staff Writer
MANSFIELD For Ken Davis, the most intriguing thing about having an antiquated hobby is its challenge.
Owner of the East Street Art Gallery in Columbus, Mr. Davis has had to learn about blacksmithing on his own.
"Its the challenge," said Mr. Davis in a large garage that he converted into his framing shop. "After you figure how to make something, its time to make something else."
Of course, Mr. Davis transformation into the areas only blacksmith didnt happen overnight. In fact, it initially took the Cold War to even point him in that direction.
For 15 years, Mr. Davis was a manufacturing engineer in the micro-electronics field.
When the Cold War ended in 1991 and many military contracts dried up, Mr. Davis decided to open his own business.
He and his wife, Mary, bought an abandoned garage on East Main Street and turned it into the East Street Art Gallery.
He said the gallery really began with Ms. Davis, who ran a craft supply business.
"I did picture framing for her, and that became a business," said Mr. Davis. The shop the Davis bought on East Main Street in Columbus had been abandoned for at least 15 years.
But in 1912, it had been the thriving Joe Jones Blacksmith Shop, one of two blacksmith shops in Columbus.
"The blacksmith was the original technologist," said Mr. Davis.
Besides forging hooks, horseshoes and candlestick holders, blacksmiths were also responsible for building the original steam locomotives, said Mr. Davis.
The shop, originally owned by Mr. Jones and his partner, Joe Kline, had been an operating blacksmith shop until the 1950s when the age of mass manufacturing came and wiped out the traditional country blacksmith.
By the early 1970s, Art Taylor bought the garage and used it for farm equipment and auto repair. Throughout the 1980s, the old garage stood vacant and forgotten.
When Mr. Davis purchased the property in 1990, he bought a shop with its roof sitting on the floor.
Today, the East Street Art Gallery is a quaint business that does picture framing and displays local artists work.
But like a character from a Stephen King novel, Mr. Davis became possessed by the buildings past.
"Just owning the building sparked the interest in blacksmithing," said Mr. Davis with no pun intended. One year after buying the property, Ken Davis started to rediscover the lost art of blacksmithing.
He converted a small wooden shack in the back of the gallery into an old country blacksmiths shop. After reading every book in the library on blacksmithing, Mr. Davis said that it took him five years to be consistently able to build even the simplest things.
"My aim in blacksmithing is the country blacksmith, not the sophisticated blacksmith who had the power tools," said Mr. Davis.
And just like the old country blacksmiths he tries to emulate, Mr. Davis built everything on his own. He had to build a chimney for the blacksmith shop to allow smoke to leave from the dimly lit shack.
Then Mr. Davis had to build his own bellows, a large compressor that pushes air into the forge to get the hot coals to burn at 1,800 degrees. Mr. Davis had to also build the forge himself, using old designs he found in books.
Replicating the turn-of-the century blacksmith in every way, Mr. Davis also built his own tools. Everything, from the tongs used to pick up hot metal to the grinding wheel he needs to sharpen his instruments.
Mr. Davis built them all except for the heavy hammer needed to smash and weld a hot piece of metal. He said that he still doesnt know how to punch a hole in the metal needed to make a hammer.
Except for a blacksmith he watched for a few hours at a local fair many years ago, the only resources Mr. Davis had were old books and trial and error.
"Figuring out on my own is what I enjoy the most," said Mr. Davis. "Its most fun having no idea when you start, and at the end of the day figuring something out."
Three forges and 10 years later, Mr. Davis has now hammered, welded, and created hundreds of objects.
Of course in the beginning, it was just simple metal hooks. Then it was hooks with twisted metal ends. Next came metal hooks with a leaf design at the end.
Finally, Mr. Davis forge was busy with the clanking of metal as he designed door knockers, candleholders, whisks and holders for paper towels and toilet paper.
But the project that Mr. Davis said hes most proud of is the black metal chandelier that hangs above the register of the East Main Street Art Gallery.
Its his favorite, he said, because the welding was the most challenging. Four separate rods had to be bent and then welded together in to one main piece to create the chandelier.
Then at the end of each of the four rods, a large chunk of metal had to be hammered into a smooth, round candleholder.
Mr. Davis said this is only a hobby that he does on the weekends, usually on Sundays, and more often in the winter than in the summer due to how hot it can get from working with a forge.
But when Mr. Davis does blacksmithing, he works for eight hours at a time.
Very few people have ever worked in the blacksmith shop with Mr. Davis, except for his two brothers and an old friend. Even, his wife wont do blacksmithing work with him.
"Its really a lot of hard work," said Mr. Davis. "Its hot, its smelly, its dirty."
Still, he said, "I have to carry on the tradition. "I have to do this my whole life."
He said that when it is time to sell the place to another buyer, he hopes that he or she will also keep the fires burning.