A Visit with Pierre Nadeau: Researching the Japanese Forge
Concept rendering of the finished blacksmith shop with guest loft, inspired by the traditional buildings which line the main street to the Ise shrine in Japan.
The idea started with several conversations with fellow woodworkers and attendees at the Maine Japanese Woodworking Festival, namely: “wouldn’t it be cool to build a traditional Japanese blacksmith shop and host blacksmiths to show tool making demonstrations?” In my mind, it seemed that to engage in the process of researching, designing, and ultimately building not only a traditional building, but also a traditional forge, would send the message that we were serious about the craft and perhaps convince a blacksmith in Japan that it would be worth his time to visit. If you build it, they will come, as the saying goes.
It was important to have a cohesive design for the whole building early on so that it could be built as a timber frame for the summer 2025 large Japanese timber frame workshop, and then finished ahead of the following year’s festival. The building itself, about which I plan to go into greater detail in a future note, would have a first floor layout largely driven by however the forge and blacksmithing equipment is arranged. So even if the forge itself would not take shape for another year and a half, it would very much fundamentally inform every aspect of the building design.
Recreation of a historic blacksmith shop at the Takanaka Carpentry Museum, Kobe, Japan. I love the teapot hanging over the forge.
An elegant cabinet and window holds tools to the left of the smith, the stone wall protects the wooden bellows from the fire.
I began my research by surveying every image or video I could get my hands on of what blacksmith shops look like in Japan, both modern and historical, identifying patterns in design, layout and equipment. And it was during this process that I discovered Pierre Nadeau. Here was a blacksmith who had studied the craft under several masters in Japan, and built his own traditional charcoal forge, in his own timber frame workshop, and he was only 3 hours away in Quebec! It did not take much correspondence before it was clear the two of us were kindred spirits and shared some mutual acquaintances. He kindly invited me to visit his shop and we hatched a plan.
The goal for the trip was to pick Pierre’s brain across several subjects detailed below, really just absorbing as much knowledge he had on the subject in the time we had available so I might confidently plan a Japanese forge and the building in which it was contained. Those subjects were: 1) forge size, measurement, features, and layout, 2) bellows / fuigo design, construction, and measurement, 3) sourcing a Japanese power hammer, and 4) general building features. Our conversation meandered through these and a whole variety of topics from the practical to the philosophical, we had much in common, agreeing that to truly enjoy the journey in craft, you have to really love the work rather than the output; you “gotta love the suck.”
A variety of tongs, hammers and brushes.
These pots hold clay slurry used in the sword making and forge welding process.
Very rare and prized tamahagane, bloom steel, the raw material for a sword.
Detail of the antique fuigo bellows, made of vertical grain sugi, air is pumped through the hole at the top down into the belly of the forge.
Forge Size, Measurement, Features and Layout
Pierre’s forge is set up as a traditional sword makers forge, following the same general layout I had gathered from my research, the primary elements of which surround a sitting area above a pit in the ground. There appear to be a couple different variations of this design. Some smiths sit on stools in the pit, some sit right on the ground with the forge at ground level, and some, like Pierre sit on a floor over the pit. Much craft work in Japan is done from a sitting position, and the early forges developed right at ground level, as trenches in the earth.
The forge itself is a long trench in the ground with a wall separating it from the fuigo the wooden push-pull bellows that feeds air to the fire through the bottom of the wall via a metal tube terminating in a tuyere. Above the forge is a large hood to catch the smoke vented through a 12” pipe to the outside. Pierre advised both a large chimney and a carbon monoxide detector, as without sufficient draft, the fumes won’t be evacuated which could lead to carbon monoxide poisoning, something with which he, unfortunately, had a close call.
All the tools surround the working smith to economize movement, from the fire, to the anvil to the power hammer with a rotation of the body.
The long pit is filled with fine charcoal shavings to form an insulating bed for the charcoal forging fire contained between the two hummed walls.
Centered around the pit to the right of the forge, working clockwise, are the anvil, a power hammer, then around to the left side where tools are stored, pots for clay slurry, then the bellows and back to the forge. The idea is that the smith, centered around these elements has efficiency of movement between heating the material, forging, and operating the bellows. The anvil in this case is a large rectangular block of steel, which I was told could be as simple as a large 1045 steel block or boat keel. Pierre offered two areas of improvement to the layout, firstly, spacing the power hammer a little farther away from the sitting area to give more elbow room, and secondly, lowering the position of the tuyere in the forge pit, to send the air from somewhat below its current position.
Pierre shows me where he’d prefer to have a lower tuyere entrance to the fire area. I may bring mine down and forward.
We discussed locating the power hammer to improve movement, as Pierre shows where his elbow comes a bit to close to the hammer.
We spent some time brainstorming ways to make the forge build multipurpose, as not all Japanese blacksmiths use the traditional sword forge for their work as toolmakers. Pierre noted that many tool smiths use coal forges heated from below, and we considered the possibility of building a stainless steel insert, of thick material, that could allow for conversion of the pit area into something more suited to tool making. Along with this, having a way to swing in-and-out a modern gas forge into the area above the coal forge could also allow for an alternative heating method. It’s my desire to have my forge build be rooted in the traditional, but elegantly adapt to modern practices so we might host a broad spectrum of blacksmiths at the property.
There will be more details shared as I design the forge to be built in the blacksmith shop, but until then, and to leave as much flexibility, the initial building foundation will be built with a large sunken area to accommodate the future seating area, power hammer, and forge pit.
Making Fire: Fuigo Design, Construction and Measurement
This traditional forge is fueled by charcoal, the manufacture and nuances of which could be a whole separate project. I was surprised to learn that the preferred wood for the required charcoal was red pine, whereas I had assumed some sort of hardwood such as oak. Fortunately, there are several red pines on the property, many of which need thinning, so I’ll need to start stock piling and drying the wood for later processing into charcoal using something like a Lee Sauder retort, or perhaps a barrel retort, or even some cool earth kiln.
Looking down into the open fuigo, the bottom is actually lined with glass to aid in motion. The valves are wood with paper gaskets, and the piston is sealed with fur. Notice the little control panel for the hidden electric blower and work lights.
To supply sufficient oxygen to the charcoal to attain forging temperatures, some sort of blower is required. I was very fortunate to inspect and measure Pierre’s two antique Japanese bellows. These are wooden boxes with flaps to act as one way valves and a racoon or badger fur sealed piston. Drawing the handle back pulls in air through one flap while at the same time pushing air on the other side of the piston into the fire. Pushing the handle does the same through the opposite set of flaps. Thus there is always air blasting into the fire except for the brief moments of direction change. The air is sent through a wooden plenum to a metal pipe, bent in a way to prevent direct infrared heating of the wooden bellows by the hot fire. Finally the air exits through he cast tuyere into the heart of the fire.
The groove that holds the sidewalls is curved inward so that they hold tension against the piston, this clever trick keeps them from expanding outward resulting in a loss of air pressure.
This little angled “roof” covers the plenum where a second set of flaps allow air to flow into the forge.
I plan to build a traditional fuigo closely following the two I measured, as well as copying a clever trick Pierre showed me, namely, plumbing an electric blower into the air path, so that for the long pre-heat periods, the blower could do the work traditionally done by the shop apprentice while the smith ate breakfast. It seems very likely that we’ll hold a class in 2026 to study and build fuigos, and I hope to release a set of plans as well, The measurement and design of the fuigo deserves an entire notebook entry of its own, there are many details that would not be apparent just from seeing a picture of one, and I’m very grateful to Pierre for allowing me to sit up in his office and measure and photograph every nook and cranny.
The Power Hammer
An obvious centerpiece to a blacksmith shop is the large mechanical power hammer, which, converting rotating inertia into oscillating strikes can accelerate the forging process and replace the cascading blows of several apprentices with large hammers. During my time in Baltimore I was able to use a Little Giant power hammer at a maker space, and even the small ones are quite impressive machines. Pierre is blessed with two, one set into the ground near his charcoal forge, and a second in another area of the shop where his coal and gas forges live. The two makes I’ll be looking for to source one for our blacksmith shop will be either a Fukuda or Terasawa; this is a long shot both because of rarity and cost, and so the back-up plan will be either something of American manufacture or a home built tire hammer of sorts. I’ll shamelessly ask anyone who’ll listen if they know someone who knows someone who can help get a power hammer for the shop.
A conical friction clutch engages the constantly spinning flywheel with the hammer linkage.
The anvil is set into the floor as part of the forge working pit, a foot pedal engages the hammer clutch.
As the flywheel rotates, this leaf spring causes an oscillation what snaps the hammer head down with great force into the work.
Building Features
Interspersed throughout our many conversations, we discussed elements of the building Pierre built to house his forge: a very cool timber frame, with natural, peeled roof beams, the thick walls packed with hempcrete. The material, which I had only heard about in passing from a few friends, is a aggregation of the help “shiv, ” the woody fibrous parts of the stems, with hydrated lime and brick clay. It seems like a very cool material to form the substrate and insulation of a natural wall. Something I might explore for the insulation of various timber frame buildings on the property, or the blacksmith shop itself.
Peeled, I believe Hemlock, natural roof beams, I personally love the accumulation of soot on the top.
The exposed hempcrete walls, offer great insulation and thermal mass.
Pierre shows me the wood hemp stalk from which the hempcrete is produced.
Pierre’s shop was chock full of metal working equipment and it was clear a good deal of thought had gone into the layout and workflow processes. I came away from the visit chock full of ideas and inspiration. It was wonderful to hang out with Pierre and his family and I sincerely thank them for allowing me and my wife and children to occupy their Saturday. I’m looking forward to working with Pierre on future projects related to the blacksmith shop and forge build.
Pierre forging some log dogs at his gas forge and western anvil. In addition to sword making, he is heavily engaged in historic restoration metal work, as well as producing earthen bread ovens, the doors for which are shown in the bottom, right corner above.
