George Dixon!
written by Scott Little

It was bitterly cold the weekend of Feb 17-18 2001 but that didn't stop Balcones Forge members from coming out in droves to see George Dixon demonstrate at Larry Crawford's Hammerfest Forge in Marble Falls Texas.

Basically, George is just a fantastic blacksmith.  In addition, he has soaked up so much lore about blacksmithing that he can keep up a non-stop delivery of fascinating anecdotes about all aspects of blacksmithing, including his unique experiences at Samuel Yellin Metalworkers.  I was particularly enthusiastic about George's demonstrations because every one of them involved really old and traditional techniques, which is a primary interest of mine.

Those who were there will remember this scene well because George spent almost all of his time in front of the treadle hammer.

He brought a lot of samples of his work with him and spread them out on this table.  Also visible in this photo are the "little monkey hands of death" tongs that Bill Bastas presented to George as a present.

Below are closeups of some of these pieces:

This last piece is an example of George's excellent chasing work.  After trying a couple of similar pieces myself, this item now strikes me as a masterpiece!  Note how uniform the texture is on the background metal immediately surrounding the moon.  All that metal had to be pounded down to raise the moon up out of the surface and all those tool marks had to be carefully and patiently worked out until the entire background assumed the uniform appearance you see above.

Thanks, George!  We loved it.