The Brazeal Legacy
Brian and Ed Brazeal are the original catalysts that sparked my interest in blacksmithing. They were my dad’s two best friends in high school, and although my dad never did get into blacksmithing or horseshoeing himself, that would visit our house occasionally and we even went out to a property that they own a little closer to the OK/AR border. On one particular occasion, they came out to our farm and set up their forge and my cousin brought them a bucket of railroad spikes, and we watched them make all sorts of things. That was quite a few years back.
The Videos
Brian Brazeal’s videos always stand out a little from the rest of the crowd. For one, the anvil and hammer are pretty unique to Brian’s style. If you can hear the talking parts of the video, he does a lot of explaining about why he does what he does, especially with regard to the angle that his hammer makes contact with the work, as well as its relationship to the top of the anvil. The former two points are especially crucial to note, for a person interested in gaining skill in the art of forging steel.
Anyways, enough of my yapping for now — Enjoy!