MacSmiths

Home is where the hearth is.

The journey of metal began with flame, and here at MacSmiths we carry the very same torch of tradition with a fiery passion.

It is the goal of our collective to educate how the historical traditions of blacksmithing still hold weight in today’s modern era. Often mistaken as archaic, working in the forge serves as much of a demonstration of physical metallurgy as a state-of-the-art laboratory. If principles of hot forging and casting seem remote to your interests, come instead for the warm company around the hammer and the anvil.

Shape and Structure

The study of Materials Science can be crudely described as an exploration of the relationship between structure-process-property of all matter.

In metallurgy, the internal structure, often referred to as the microstructure of metals and alloys is highly modifiable for a range of applications. Deliberate heat treatment coupled with hot or cold forming can induce local and global changes in hardness, yield strength, and ductility.

There are a multitude of methods to form metals and alloys such as hot/cold rolling, casting, forging, cutting and additive manufacturing to name a few. To reach these upper echelons of quality, the principles of hot forging techniques are employed by taking advantage of heat and hammer to recrystallize the metal into a more ordered structure. The resulting “wrought” structure is more desirable due to its vastly superior material properties as compared to a simply cast metal.

The physical metallurgy of the forge is defined by these very techniques and explores how they can be employed to maximize the potential in any ingot of cast material.

Projects

When one considers the possible works of a blacksmith, often the first tool to come to mind is a sword… a knife… a blade. This is a cliche, but one the MacSmiths fully embrace. Every other year, the team researches, designs, and crafts a blade to showcase and compete at The Minerals Metals and Materials Society’s (TMS) international Bladesmithing Competition.

This is a hotly contested event, where participants from India to Brazil, Mexico and more descend on a rotating location hosted in the United States at the TMS Annual Exhibition.

The MacSmiths have now competed in two of these competitions.

The first of which was a Tanto inspired Bowie Knife entered in the TMS 2017 competition. More recently at TMS 2019 in San Antonio Texas the MacSmiths entered a Roman Gladius forged from CPM 3V steel, with a cast-brass handle. This blade was the work of over ten highly dedicated graduate and undergraduate students and involved iterative heat treatments and material testing for both the blade and handle, along with SEM and optical microscopic characterization. This blade won 3rd place of 34 teams, and was commended specifically for the quality of materials.