Anvil Shooting - Independence Day

U.S. Independence Day, July 4th 2001

Display by Jock Dempsey Video by Jim "Paw-Paw" Wilson
July 4th, 2001


		Anvil Shoot at 1999 Spring Fling, BGOP	Anvil Shooting has been a part of American Independence Day celebrations since the founding of the United States. Today, only blacksmiths carry on this old tradition. It is OUR fireworks display. It is a symbol of the ideals and freedom that exists in few other places the way it does here. Blacksmiths! Keeping our traditions alive.

		Anvil Shoot Setup	The setup here is well practiced. The heavy plate under the "base" anvil keeps it steady and prevents it from being burried in soft ground. The "fuse" is an angle iron ramp that is securely held in place. Both anvils are old wrought iron types that are unlikely to fracture due to brittleness. A small measured quantity of black powder is used for the charge and the fuse. anvilfire! NEWS Volume 12 - Page 8, Spring Fling, April 1999

		Preparing to light the fuse	Once Setup and the all clear is given the fuse is lit.

		Fuse Burning	Black Powder makes a great cloud of white smoke! On this setup a small piece of fuse leads to the blackpowder to assure sufficient time to get a safe distance away.

		Anvil Shoot at Spring Fling, BGOP	Boom! We tried to photograph the shoot three times this day. The explosion makes you flinch even when you know its coming. Paw-Paw expecting the anvil to fly high in the sky jerked his video camera up nearly vertical the first time!. Since we were looking through the lens each time it was difficult to know the peak height. It turned out to be 20 to 25 feet on this day and we both caught it perfectly on the third try!

		Anvil Shoot at the South Eastern Regional Blacksmiths Conference, Madison GA, 2001

		IN Spite of anvil shooting being a long standing blacksmithing tradition the shoot above in Madison resulted in a controversy that took years to settle. ABANA (the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America) has had long standing rules that outlawed shoots at ABANA sponsored events. For more information see our NEWS coverage anvilfire! NEWS Vol. 30 page 8. Ironicaly, the first anvil shoot I attended was at the 1982 ABANA conference at Cedar Lakes West Virginia.

		NOTICE! These are NOT instructions on how to perform an anvil shoot. Any activity using explosives is inherantly dangerous and should only be carried out by trained personel. Use of pyrotechnics may be regulated in your locality and be ilegal. Do not attempt this at home! DISCLAIMER - LEGAL

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