About Choo Choo Forge
The group meets the first Thursday of every month at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s East Chattanooga station, 2202 N. Chamberlain Ave. A demonstration at 6 p.m. is followed by a brief business meeting and then a raffle of donated scrap iron.
As if the number and name on the mailbox isn't clue enough, the iron plant hooks, trellises, benches and other pieces of metal works strewn throughout the yard are enough to confirm that this is the home of blacksmith Ray Brown.
In addition to being home to several cats, the yard surrounding Brown's Ringgold, Ga., home serves as a display for the work he does inside his homemade workshop behind the house. Just a few feet behind the shop, a cow looks over a fence into the space, and chickens from a neighboring yard occasionally stop by.
It's not a big shop, probably 10- by 10-foot square, but it is filled top to bottom and wall to wall with a large foot-operated air-powered hammer, a forge, dozens of hand-forged tools and pieces of scrap waiting to be turned into knives, miniature horseshoes, wine racks or anything else Brown can conceive or copy.
On one table sits the beginnings of a hippopotamus. Except for the post leg vice, the anvil and the grinder, Brown made everything in the shop. He did so in part because to do so saves money, but mostly because that's how blacksmiths learn their craft.
Blacksmith Ray Brown makes a miniature horse shoe at the Red Clay Pow Wow at Red Clay State Historic Park on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017, in Cleveland, Tenn. Brown readily admits to not being an artist, but he is good at figuring things out.
"I've always thought that whenever I see a piece of equipment, someone made that, and if they can do it, I can make that," he explains.
Brown made his living as a millwright with Salem Equipment, where he spent years traveling the country installing new equipment. Before retiring, he decided it was time to pursue blacksmithing as a hobby. He visited a couple of fairs and festivals in the region and eventually hooked up with some of the club members in the Choo Choo Forge Club.
The club holds a formal meeting the first Thursday of each month, but secretary Larry Johnson says members can be found there each Thursday from about noon to 7 p.m.
"It's a place to come learn how to blacksmith, hang out with blacksmiths," he says. "We have all the equipment and all the shared knowledge you would need."
Blacksmith Ray Brown makes a miniature horse shoe at the Red Clay Pow Wow at Red Clay State Historic Park on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017, in Cleveland, Tenn. He says among the nearly 100 members are people from all walks of life.
"We have doctors, pipe fitters, a couple of carpenters and a couple of firemen. I've only actually ever met one lawyer who was a blacksmith, however."
Brown says he learned by watching and listening, but mostly by doing.
"When I first started, I made a whole bunch of junk," Brown says. "Seventy-five percent of it burned up. I burned up a lot of pieces."
He prefers working with iron, "because if I screw something up, I can weld it back together."
Finding scrap pieces to work with is rarely a problem, he says, though as blacksmithing has become popular as both a hobby and a vocation again, thanks in part to TV shows like "Forged in Fire" and readily available how-to videos online, prices have increased for things like anvils, forges and the big heavy-duty power hammers.
Blacksmith Ray Brown makes a miniature horse shoe at the Red Clay Pow Wow at Red Clay State Historic Park on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017, in Cleveland, Tenn. Brown built his air hammer. He says he is not sure how heavy the main striking piece is, but estimates it weighs between 85 and 100 pounds. It can turn a round piece of iron flat in no time, and it is a lot easier on a man's back and shoulders, Brown says.
While he does all kinds of custom work for people, he tends to build things in cycles. He started building smaller, wooden-handled forging hammers a year ago and has sold or given many to friends and family.
Brown does a couple of fairs or festivals each year, and among his more popular items are miniature horseshoes, about the size of a half dollar.
He recently finished an iron outdoor bench he'd promised his wife about three years ago. Brown says he does most of his blacksmithing during the cooler fall and winter months.
"I don't feel any need to come out here and sweat during the summer. I am retired," he says with a laugh.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.