Old Mill Site Hosts Specialized Craft Classes

Old Mill Site Hosts Specialized Craft Classes BALE HANDLING Tunnel Mill Crafts is the place to go to learn a new craft or fine-tune your expertise Classes can be as simple as learning the basics of tinsmithing relief sheet metal work painting barn quilt blocks candle-making and woodworking However they’re as likely to take the participant from iron smelting and blacksmithing to fine knife making “One of our classes this year was a combination of woodworking and metalworking ” explains Carol Adams Tunnel Mill Crafts “Participants made a wooden chest starting with rough boards and metal hardware they forged and hammered out themselves We had eight students and three instructors here for 12 days ” One of the instructors was Tom Latané He has taught a variety of classes at Tunnel Mill including a 3-day class in intricate lockmaking This time lockmaking was just one aspect of the 12-day class At his Pepin Wis workshop Latané uses traditional tools and techniques to forge locks hardware tools and candle fixtures The artist-blacksmith is also a skilled woodworker He and fellow instructor Paul Nyborg split logs by hand to make sections which they hewed out to form crude boards before turning them over to the class “Students used a hewing hatchet where necessary and planed the boards smooth ” says Latané “We showed them how to process the two end pieces which are the smallest pieces and they constructed the chests around them with more boards they processed themselves including a thick piece they rounded for the top of the chest ” Latané Nyborg and Derek Olson led the intensive class Olson was the lead woodworking instructor while Nyborg led hinge hasp and nail forging Latané taught forging locks Latané notes that the students were not beginning crafters “All had experience with either wood or metal and some with both ” he says “One young woman was a woodworker but had never handled hot metal before and she really got into it ” Although the class was designed as two 5-day classes with a weekend in the middle work on the chests proceeded into the night and through the weekend Three days were scheduled for woodworking two for hardware forging and making and five days for forging lock components “We knew the woodworking could not be finished in three days ” says Latané “We planned to work on it evenings after daytime forging sessions ” Students and instructors worked on their chests throughout the day and into the evenings One of the things Latané appreciates about Tunnel Mill is that students and instructors can stay on-site and share meals The property hosts a dormitory-style room that sleeps up to eight guests and a private room for two It’s equipped with restrooms and showers The old mill is where students gather to relax and share meals Over the years other buildings have been added including one for “Not Hot Metal Working ” “When we bought the old mill it was pretty dilapidated ” says Adams It had sat empty since the 1930s and the building had been used as a barn We did quite a little restoration ” John Adams had a welding business in nearby Rochester Minn and had become interested in blacksmithing Offering classes in the craft gave him a chance to learn from experts without traveling to other states Instead they came to him He set up a complete blacksmith shop Costs vary by the class materials used and the length of the course A 3-day quilting retreat includes five meals snacks and light beverages with dorm-style housing for $175 A 2 1/2-day iron smelt has a price of $275 Room and board six meals is an additional $75 A two-day tinsmithing class that includes lunches costs $275 while a 3-day Damascus knife with handle-making class costs $450 with materials The 12-day chest-making class was priced at a little over $1 000 including materials fees For details and photos of the chest-making class visit Tom Latané’s Facebook page He has posted dozens of photos with explanations of what the class members and instructors were doing Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Tunnel Mill Crafts 28036 County Road 1 Spring Valley Minn 55975 ph 507-289-4189; www tunnelmillcrafts com or T & C Latané 412 2nd St Pepin Wis 54759 ph 715-442-2419; tclatane@gmail com; https://www spaco org/latane/TCLatane htm; Facebook: Thomas Latane

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