Fort Vancouver Trades Guild Williamsburg Weekend Workshop October 28 - 30, 2010 | Calendar of Events Announcements | Forum

A change in demonstrators for the Williamsburg Weekend in October was just announced. Steve Mankowski has found himself overbooked, so he called in a relief pitcher from the bullpen. He was able to talk Jay Close into returning to visit us.

In 1975 Jay saw his first working blacksmith and a fire was lit that didn't go out. A couple of years later he finally had a chance to hold a glowing iron bar in his own hand and shape it with a legitimate, cross pein forging hammer.

By that time he was living in Kentucky, hooked on a variety of traditional skills including woodcarving and gunsmithing. He pursed these along with an industrial arts education degree and contributed "how to" articles to Muzzle Blasts magazine. In school at Morehead State University he began working summers as an interpreter at the gunsmith shop at Colonial Williamsburg. In 1986, at the end of his third summer , he had a chance to fill in at the Deane Forge blacksmith shop where Peter Ross was master. The ten week temporary position extended through the winter and became a fulltime interpreter job by the spring and an apprenticeship by the fall of 1987.

At that time, Colonial Williamsburg blacksmith operations had moved to the Anderson shop. There, Jay completed his apprenticeship and was promoted to journeyman in 1994. He also retained his interest in early American gun work and taught at the muzzle loading gunsmith workshops sponsored by the NMLRA,

Jay has been a demonstrator along with the rest of the Anderson shop crew at three ABANA conferences. He has demonstrated at regional gatherings like the Potomac Blacksmiths’ Guild Spring Fling, the Alabama Forge Council's gathering at Tannahill State Park , the Quad State Round Up, and a number of NC-ABANA get togethers. He has assisted both Peter Ross and Tall Harris teaching classes at the Campbell Folk School. In 2002 he was pleased to be first invited as instructor for the Peter Ross Institute of Higher Learning in Portland, OR and demonstrator for the historical smithing program at Ft. Vancouver.

Jay left Williamsburg as 1999 began after completing a project that had intrigued him since 1976: the construction of an 18th century printing press. "Job boss" on the project, Jay oversaw the construction of two presses, one for Colonial Williamsburg and the other for the "Newseum" Museum of the News in Arlington, VA. Among the many challenges of such a project that Jay tackled was hand cutting with hammer, chisel and file the three-lead screw that forms the heart of the press. The press screw was about 2.5” Dia and 5 inches long. The nut was brass and cast in place. Once freed from the screw core, that brass nut would screw itself down propelled by gravity alone. Pretty cool.

After Williamsburg, Jay relocated near Charlotte, NC doing reproduction ironwork for local historic sites and museums. He teamed with Tal Harris on an extensive architectural ironwork commission and on work for the Mel Gibson historical film, "The Patriot". In 2005 Jay was hired as the first "Professor of Forged Architectural Ironwork" at the newly formed American College of Building Arts in Charleston, SC. He was charged with putting in place the workshops and curriculum for a four years liberal arts degree centered on the skills of the architectural smith. He resigned from the college at the start of 2010.

Outside the classroom Jay continues his interest in blacksmith education. He was one of the original members of the Controlled Hand Forging committee of ABANA which produced a series of lessons on forging basics published in the Hammer's Blow. He is also currently active on ABANA's education committee.

Among other interests Jay plays the Scottish highland bagpipe and has recently taken up the banjo.