Forging like the Company Founders
Back to the roots. The forge is fired up, the first round bar is brought to a glow, and the forging process begins. The Hirschvogel Group has launched a very special apprenticeship project at its Bavarian sites. On three days per week, three apprentices at a time head out with their trainers to metalworker Franz Jäger in Denklingen to discover the fascination of the traditional, manual forging process – on the original anvil of Anton Hirschvogel, one of the founding members of our family-owned company.
The first task: To forge a nail from round steel. It quickly becomes apparent that what Franz Jäger accomplishes with a few seemingly effortless hammer blows is actually a real physical challenge for untrained arms. Sometimes the steel is too cold, sometimes too hot, and just like that – a brief moment of inattention is all it takes – and the metal is already burned. It takes a while to find the right rhythm when alternating between heating and striking the steel. With every stroke, it becomes clearer what forging really entails and just how much force modern presses must exert when manufacturing steel components, given that even small nails are so difficult to shape.
Boom, boom, boom. A few rounds – or rather, a few forged arrows and flower petals – later, a mechanical forging hammer sets the pace. Now the task is to hold, guide, and turn the red-hot workpiece on the anvil – which dates back to 1951 – until the steel “modeling clay” takes on the desired shape of a crane garden stake, a knife, or something similar. What a day, what fun, and what sore muscles!
The project was initiated by CEO Matthias Kratzsch. For Hirschvogel, tradition is not a thing of the past. Rather, it is the foundation upon which our company is built and, as such, the foundation for our future. Anyone who has ever forged metal with their own hands gains a unique appreciation for the craft and, as a result, develops a deeper understanding of our modern manufacturing processes.