Published in the September 2017 issue of the Kerby News
Dave Richards: Manufacturing Engineer, Off-Road Driver, Car Guy, Blacksmith
Story and photographs by Tim Johnston
Sitting on a bench along the inside wall of Flett’s Blacksmith Shop in Heritage Park,
I listen to the stories being told to visitors by the blacksmith and his apprentice.
I learn a little about horseshoeing and the important place the blacksmith held in early communities by keeping the motive power and the implements of prairie sodbusters in good condition. The “smithy” shows examples of metal work produced in the shop while the apprentice works the fan on the forge and heats metal to a malleable state.
Five visitors from New Zealand enter the shop; a grandmother, two daughters and two granddaughters, I think to myself. Thumbs hooked in the bib of his denim overalls, the blacksmith speaks with them as though he is truly living in his shop in Airdrie 100 years ago. “I’ve got this wonderful comb that would do wonders for your hair,” he says. He holds up a small metal garden rake made in the shop. “Know why the shoes had to be nailed onto the hooves of horses?” he asks. “Cause horses don’t know how to tie shoe laces.” Gentle laughter from the visitors.
Other people enter the premises and soak up the ambience of the place. Some have questions about the metal work and others just want to look at the extraordinary collection of period tools that the shop contains. Their first encounter is with the forge, usually with the apprentice turning the fan that blows oxygen into the glowing coals. Then come the anvils, one very large one in particular, donated by the Canadian Pacific Railway from one of its shops. A single cylinder naphtha-fueled antique engine spins a flywheel to which is attached a heavy woven belt driving a steel shaft overhead. The shaft, in turn, spins pulleys that power grinders, drills, presses and trip hammers, all of which helped early blacksmiths and machinists repair or produce a wide range of agricultural implements.
More people arrive. Four young folk, two of whom tell the smith that they plan to get married in a couple of years. From a wooden box on his bench, the smith picks out an “Alberta Diamond Ring” and passes it to the young man. “If a fellow of your age couldn’t afford a real diamond back in the day, he might have come to the blacksmith for one of these,” says the smith. The fellow slips the ring onto his girlfriend’s finger and her face mirrors her delight. The ring, of course, is a horseshoe nail that has been formed by the smith to resemble a diamond ring, with the head of the nail bent up to form the “rock”.
I introduce myself to the blacksmith, Dave Richards, and explain my mission. In turn, he introduces me to his apprentice, Amy Nagle. Amy attends the University of Alberta where she is studying paleontology, a subject rather remote from the blacksmithing she is learning as a summer student at Heritage Park. While Amy is just starting out on a professional career, Dave has completed one as a manufacturing engineer. He earned his engineering degree at Utah State University and has worked for firms in Calgary ever since, most recently as an inspector for the International Organization for Standards (ISO). Now retired, Dave volunteers as a docent in the blacksmith shop on Wednesdays during the summer months and in the Gasoline Alley automobile museum one day a week throughout the year.
Why the blacksmith shop, I ask. Dave explains that his career had him figuring out how to manufacture goods in the modern age. “I kind of liked the idea of ‘reverse engineering’ that took me back to the way machines were invented and applied in the time of blacksmiths.” He said he also very much enjoys the casual interactions with visitors that the blacksmith shop seems to encourage.
We left the shop and walked down the hill to see the cars and trucks in Gasoline Alley. Dave spoke of his enjoyment of cars, how he had modified his Jaguar saloon by dropping in a Chevrolet V-8 engine and how he enjoyed off-roading with his Jeep YJ. Then he took out his cellphone to show me a short video of another of his vehicles. “Know what this is?” he asked. I may have gained some “cred” from Dave by identifying the vehicle as a World War II Bren Gun Carrier. Dave told me the old military tracked vehicle had sat on a friend’s farm in southern Alberta for years. “Had a tree growing right up through the bottom.” He took it to Calgary where he overhauled the transmission and tracks and installed, what else, yet another Chevrolet V8 engine. The movie clip on Dave’s phone showed the little armored vehicle charging around some farmland, happily driven by the man who rescued it from oblivion. Kind of an ultimate sport utility vehicle, I thought.
The Ron Carey automobile collection in Gasoline Alley is like a little piece of heaven for car folk. Dave walked me past some of his favorite vehicles, posing with “Old Scruffy”, a 1930 Nash that had been completely restored mechanically but with the body left in its original dilapidated condition. “It’s the sort of car that Saskatchewan farm families might have used to flee the province during the dust bowl of the Great Depression,” he said. I sensed that Dave appreciated how the old car displays its life of hard use in a way the pristine restored cars in the collection, while beautiful to behold, do not.
We walked back up the hill to the village and Flett’s Blacksmith Shop. Across the street the Club Café beckoned and Dave and I sat down for some refreshment. Afterward, an orange soda found its way over to the blacksmith shop and to Amy, who had kept the forge fire burning in Dave’s absence. I expected she might open the bottle with a shop-crafted opener but I was a little disappointed when she just twisted off the cap. Note to Amy: stay in period character.
It was a grand visit to a superb Calgary facility in the company of a gentleman who, while formally retired, is fully employed in a life of experiences and activities that he completely enjoys. Dave and Amy make quite a team. It was a lot of fun spending the afternoon in their company. I recommend a visit to see them and the other volunteers and staff that bring their own personalities and characteristics to their roles as interpreters at Calgary’s Heritage Park.
I welcome your comments. Contact me at bcatp@hotmail.com
1098 words
Cutlines for Dave Richards Story
1. DSC.6458 Dave Richards provides an “engagement ring” for Ryan Norris to present to his fiancé Robyn Mathewson. Looking on are (left) Kathryn Gough and (right) Elizabeth Merrill.
2. DSC.6464 Dave poses with the Auburn cabriolet in Gasoline Alley.
3. DSC.6469 and DSC.6470 On the main floor of Gasoline Alley with the 1918 International “Coffin Nose” truck and part of the “Petroliana” display of automotive signs and gas pumps.
4. DSC.6480 Dave poses with “Old Scruffy”, Gasoline Alley’s 1930 Nash sedan.
5. DSC.6488 and DSC.6495 Amy and Dave working (wraughting) hot iron.
6. DSC.6496 Dave demonstrates the “timing candle” that he designed and made in the shop.
7. DSC.6499, DSC.6501, DSC.6505 and DSC.6506 Details of some of the shop’s 1920’s production tools.
Dave Richards: Manufacturing Engineer, Off-Road Driver, Car Guy, Blacksmith
Story and photographs by Tim Johnston
Sitting on a bench along the inside wall of Flett’s Blacksmith Shop in Heritage Park,
I listen to the stories being told to visitors by the blacksmith and his apprentice.
I learn a little about horseshoeing and the important place the blacksmith held in early communities by keeping the motive power and the implements of prairie sodbusters in good condition. The “smithy” shows examples of metal work produced in the shop while the apprentice works the fan on the forge and heats metal to a malleable state.
Five visitors from New Zealand enter the shop; a grandmother, two daughters and two granddaughters, I think to myself. Thumbs hooked in the bib of his denim overalls, the blacksmith speaks with them as though he is truly living in his shop in Airdrie 100 years ago. “I’ve got this wonderful comb that would do wonders for your hair,” he says. He holds up a small metal garden rake made in the shop. “Know why the shoes had to be nailed onto the hooves of horses?” he asks. “Cause horses don’t know how to tie shoe laces.” Gentle laughter from the visitors.
Other people enter the premises and soak up the ambience of the place. Some have questions about the metal work and others just want to look at the extraordinary collection of period tools that the shop contains. Their first encounter is with the forge, usually with the apprentice turning the fan that blows oxygen into the glowing coals. Then come the anvils, one very large one in particular, donated by the Canadian Pacific Railway from one of its shops. A single cylinder naphtha-fueled antique engine spins a flywheel to which is attached a heavy woven belt driving a steel shaft overhead. The shaft, in turn, spins pulleys that power grinders, drills, presses and trip hammers, all of which helped early blacksmiths and machinists repair or produce a wide range of agricultural implements.
More people arrive. Four young folk, two of whom tell the smith that they plan to get married in a couple of years. From a wooden box on his bench, the smith picks out an “Alberta Diamond Ring” and passes it to the young man. “If a fellow of your age couldn’t afford a real diamond back in the day, he might have come to the blacksmith for one of these,” says the smith. The fellow slips the ring onto his girlfriend’s finger and her face mirrors her delight. The ring, of course, is a horseshoe nail that has been formed by the smith to resemble a diamond ring, with the head of the nail bent up to form the “rock”.
I introduce myself to the blacksmith, Dave Richards, and explain my mission. In turn, he introduces me to his apprentice, Amy Nagle. Amy attends the University of Alberta where she is studying paleontology, a subject rather remote from the blacksmithing she is learning as a summer student at Heritage Park. While Amy is just starting out on a professional career, Dave has completed one as a manufacturing engineer. He earned his engineering degree at Utah State University and has worked for firms in Calgary ever since, most recently as an inspector for the International Organization for Standards (ISO). Now retired, Dave volunteers as a docent in the blacksmith shop on Wednesdays during the summer months and in the Gasoline Alley automobile museum one day a week throughout the year.
Why the blacksmith shop, I ask. Dave explains that his career had him figuring out how to manufacture goods in the modern age. “I kind of liked the idea of ‘reverse engineering’ that took me back to the way machines were invented and applied in the time of blacksmiths.” He said he also very much enjoys the casual interactions with visitors that the blacksmith shop seems to encourage.
We left the shop and walked down the hill to see the cars and trucks in Gasoline Alley. Dave spoke of his enjoyment of cars, how he had modified his Jaguar saloon by dropping in a Chevrolet V-8 engine and how he enjoyed off-roading with his Jeep YJ. Then he took out his cellphone to show me a short video of another of his vehicles. “Know what this is?” he asked. I may have gained some “cred” from Dave by identifying the vehicle as a World War II Bren Gun Carrier. Dave told me the old military tracked vehicle had sat on a friend’s farm in southern Alberta for years. “Had a tree growing right up through the bottom.” He took it to Calgary where he overhauled the transmission and tracks and installed, what else, yet another Chevrolet V8 engine. The movie clip on Dave’s phone showed the little armored vehicle charging around some farmland, happily driven by the man who rescued it from oblivion. Kind of an ultimate sport utility vehicle, I thought.
The Ron Carey automobile collection in Gasoline Alley is like a little piece of heaven for car folk. Dave walked me past some of his favorite vehicles, posing with “Old Scruffy”, a 1930 Nash that had been completely restored mechanically but with the body left in its original dilapidated condition. “It’s the sort of car that Saskatchewan farm families might have used to flee the province during the dust bowl of the Great Depression,” he said. I sensed that Dave appreciated how the old car displays its life of hard use in a way the pristine restored cars in the collection, while beautiful to behold, do not.
We walked back up the hill to the village and Flett’s Blacksmith Shop. Across the street the Club Café beckoned and Dave and I sat down for some refreshment. Afterward, an orange soda found its way over to the blacksmith shop and to Amy, who had kept the forge fire burning in Dave’s absence. I expected she might open the bottle with a shop-crafted opener but I was a little disappointed when she just twisted off the cap. Note to Amy: stay in period character.
It was a grand visit to a superb Calgary facility in the company of a gentleman who, while formally retired, is fully employed in a life of experiences and activities that he completely enjoys. Dave and Amy make quite a team. It was a lot of fun spending the afternoon in their company. I recommend a visit to see them and the other volunteers and staff that bring their own personalities and characteristics to their roles as interpreters at Calgary’s Heritage Park.
I welcome your comments. Contact me at bcatp@hotmail.com
1098 words
Cutlines for Dave Richards Story
1. DSC.6458 Dave Richards provides an “engagement ring” for Ryan Norris to present to his fiancé Robyn Mathewson. Looking on are (left) Kathryn Gough and (right) Elizabeth Merrill.
2. DSC.6464 Dave poses with the Auburn cabriolet in Gasoline Alley.
3. DSC.6469 and DSC.6470 On the main floor of Gasoline Alley with the 1918 International “Coffin Nose” truck and part of the “Petroliana” display of automotive signs and gas pumps.
4. DSC.6480 Dave poses with “Old Scruffy”, Gasoline Alley’s 1930 Nash sedan.
5. DSC.6488 and DSC.6495 Amy and Dave working (wraughting) hot iron.
6. DSC.6496 Dave demonstrates the “timing candle” that he designed and made in the shop.
7. DSC.6499, DSC.6501, DSC.6505 and DSC.6506 Details of some of the shop’s 1920’s production tools.