posted 11-30-2009 11:38 AM            

Hi all -

I'd like to introduce myself to the group and let you know I'd be happy to answer any questions about Porter Blanchard, Lewis Wise, George Porter Blanchard, Alan Aldler or myself ... Randy Stromsoe.

I was Porter's last apprentice and then went on to be superintendent of Porter Blanchard Inc. I have been an active silversmith since age 19 and continue to work in my 3,000 sq.ft. studio on the central coast of California. My shop is much like a working museum in that I have most of Porter's original tools, templates, etc. I am currently making a Chino flatware set for a client in NY. I lived and worked in Porter's Pacoima/Arleta silversmithing compound as a young man and know all branches of the family quite well.

I would be thrilled to share any info. that may be of interest to your members.

posted 11-30-2009 12:01 PM            

I am sure many other others here would join with me in saying that I would love to see some photos of a few of your favorite pieces of your own work, and any of Porter Blanchard's as well. Posting photos on the forum is not difficult if you follow the directions by clicking on the button above on how to post photos here.

Regards,
Kimo
Contributing Editor

posted 11-30-2009 12:07 PM            

Also see:

• Centerpiece Bowl on Three-legged Stand

• Randy J. Stromsoe

posted 11-30-2009 12:18 PM            

I will second Kimo's ask if you would be comfortable posting images of your work, I know we would be interested. Also how and why did you apprentice at 19 and was it full time?

posted 11-30-2009 12:48 PM            

Thank you for joining us!

posted 11-30-2009 10:28 PM            

If I may ask could you please tell/ show us the hallmark you have on your pieces? Perhaps even describe it, if you cannot post a picture.
I too have problems with posting pictures etc. but I am sure one of our members would be happy to help you!

Thank you kindly!

posted 12-04-2009 07:24 PM            

We have spoken before and you own the Blanchard tools.. I would still like to talk to you about the tall vertical flatware anvils.

posted 12-06-2009 11:15 AM            

Hey fellow smiths Rob and Fred. Happy to share anything you want to know. To answer a few questions posted above:

I met Porter during a studio visit by my jewelry class at Valley College with instructor Zella Margraf. Porter demonstrated and used a few of the guys in the class to show how to hand raise a vessel. When the demo ended and our class was leaving he pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to work with him. I was 19, said "sure". Have worked full time as a smith ever since.

As for the question about signing my work:

Early years with P.B. company I'd put an R to the left and S to the right of Porters logo. We wouldn't sign some of the production work but any special pieces were signed by the individual craftsmen. My first personal stamp was RJS, RStromsoe and then Randy Stromsoe Cambria Ca. (cursive) and I also used our logo which is a stylized block S with two square dots in the upper left hand corner.

posted 12-06-2009 11:38 AM            

Thank you for your reponse regarding your
signing your work.

Interesting to hear about your early years as well.
You certainly sound as if you made a great choice early on.

Have a great day!

posted 12-09-2009 05:11 PM            

I know your name from talking to Fred Zweig, and knew you had the Porter Blanchard tools but was not aware that you had apprenticed or worked with him. I am a silversmith with Old Newbury Crafters, now in Amesbury, MA. I've been here thirty-eight years. I don't know if you know of the connection between ONC and Porter Blanchard, but the ONC founder, Elmer Senior, trained under George Blanchard at the same time as Porter was training. Elmer and Porter married sisters, so Elmer's son, Reynolds, who I knew in my early years here, was Porter's nephew. Reynolds went out to California in the 1930s to work with Porter and he told me some stories of the time he spent there. He said that in the evenings after work, when they were sitting around, Alan Adler would challenge Reynolds to arm wrestle and Reynolds would always beat him. That would frustrate Adler no end, because he was a very competitive person. Reynolds told me that Porter had changed some aspects of his hammering from what he had been taught by his father, going more for a heavily hammered look, even choosing to hammer all pieces hot, hoping for a speedier completion. Did he still hammer hot when you worked for him? Reynolds said that one day Porter said to him, "You hammer very smoothly, like my father did." Reynolds was, indeed, a very smooth hammerer.

We had a visit a few tears ago from Lewis Wise's son who is a fireman in Anchorage,AK. He said he worked for a time with Alan Adler, but I don't believe he ever became an accomplished silversmith.

Your mention of tall, vertical flatware anvils made me wonder if yours are like ours, blacksmith anvils with the horns and tails cut off. The result is a rather tall and verticle anvil.

Randy, I'm pleased you've joined our community of silver nuts here at smpub. Hope to see more of your expertise.

posted 12-10-2009 08:13 AM            

This is a detail from a photo I took some years ago of my spoon maker friend in London and I wonder how his anvil compares with those under discussion? Are there particular benefits in different styles of anvil?

posted 12-10-2009 04:20 PM            

The spoon forging anvil your friend uses I have always called a Tease stake or block and I have one that came from the American company Towle when they slowed down in the 50-60's. I got it from a great jeweler whose husband ran Towle, Margaret Craver in the 80's.

So my stake and the London style are very similar. Towle traces its lineage back to colonial times when the Boston smiths were basically London trained. So I think the tools even in the 19th c. when mine was probably made are much the same.

Lets see what the real spoon makers say.

By any chance was your friend the late great William Phipps?

posted 12-11-2009 05:55 AM            

Alan is always ready to help and educate folk like me with an interest in silver. He works in a tradition that is not universally followed. Thus, for example, he tells me that while other silversmiths sit down, the spoonmaker always stands up to work.

posted 12-11-2009 11:17 PM            

Smi'�s are now the exception. Now I understand that the Goldsmiths Company (the guild) is paying firms to take apprentices, otherwise there would bee none?

The other shame is the habit of companies that absorbed other businesses never let the tools go so that it was always a challenge for young smiths to outfit a workshop.
What happened to all those tools?

Thank you for introducing us to Alan and yes Bill Phipps was a lovely character and original craftsmen whose silver eggs and spoons as well as other articles are one of a kind.

posted 12-12-2009 12:54 PM            

That anvil your friend Alan has appears to be a larger version of the anvil we take out to shows and demonstrations. Alan's appears to have a tang or stake which goes down into the wood block, as is the case with ours. Ours also has a square hardy hole in one side, perhaps for holding a horizontal stake on which small shaping or raising could be done.

We at ONC must be lazy forgers because we always sit down when hammering. I wouldn't care to stand all that time. We once had a woman who was trained in Denmark come and apply to work here and she also maintained that "real silversmiths stand up".

It is a shame that all those silver shops in England, as here, have dwindled down to so few.

As to Agleopar's dig, we New Englanders are a cold bunch, so we should forge silver cold.

posted 07-03-2010 04:10 PM            

Link: portfolio