Volunteering and safety at the monthly hammer-in gatherings at the Expo hall. | Outreach Education | Forum

I and the other members of the Blacksmithing staff from Boy Scout Camp Hahobas have volunteered to help out at the monthly hammer-in events at the expo center. We'll be helping with setup and take down, as well as helping out during the event, so please don't hesitate to ask me or any of the Camp Hahobas crew for help with anything.

One thing that I'd like my group to do is help keep an eye out for safety issues, and ways that we can improve the safety and enjoyment for all involved.

Safety can be kind of a touchy subject with a group as diverse as this- we all want everyone to be safe, but most folks don't like being told what to do. Everyone has a different comfort level with risk management, and there are of course different ideas of what a proper level of safety means. For example, when I'm working with the scouts, I require them to wear leather aprons when working at the forge. That might be a bit much to ask of this group, but in contrast, I think that asking us to wear safety glasses is a reasonable request.

In addition, I suspect that a lot of the folks attending the hammer-in are used to working by themselves or with only a small group, so working in the close-quarters environment of the hammer-ins where we are often sharing forges and anvils might be a bit of an adjustment. There's certain things you'll see me and my staff do- like calling out whenever a piece of hot metal drops on the ground, or having a partner clear a path with them when moving hot steel. These are habits we've built by working in a crowded smithy full of youngsters, but are typically not needed when you're working alone.

As we'll have folks with all levels of experience and age levels participating, don't be afraid to step in and help someone out that's struggling with something, whether it's a safety issue or just a problem they are having getting the results they want.

I point all this out because I want folks to be comfortable and have fun while being safe. I'm asking my staff to help keep an eye out for safety issues, but they should all recognize that they're dealing with adults, not kids like they are used to. At scout camp, I'm perfectly comfortable telling a kid that if he doesn't do what I say, he's getting booted out of my smithy. If I did that at our monthly gatherings, I'd fully expect to get a well-deserved punch in the nose. 🙂

Please be patient with my crew if they bring some safety issue up, and please feel free to let us know if there is anything you note that we can do to improve the safety and the experience for all involved. We're not in charge, but we're happy to help however we can.

A couple of suggestions have already been made to me-

1. Get more quenching tubs so that folks don't need to move around as much with hot steel to get to them.
2. Try and set up the layout in such a way that there are walking lanes between the stations, so folks trying to move through can do so without getting in the way of those working.

Anything else you'd like to see?

Please feel free to do anything you think is appropriate to contribute to the enjoyment and safety of the group as a whole- we're all there to enjoy each others' company and enjoy the craft of smithing together.

And lastly, if you're curious, here's a picture of the safety rules we use at scout camp. Obviously this list is very specific to our environment there, but you might find it interesting:

Thanks,
--Tracy