CRAFT-blacksmithing_031_CAG.TIF Eric Clausen splits the "horns" on a small dragon he is fashioning from a red-hot piece of iron bar in his Oakland, Ca., shop on Thursday, September 14, 2006. Eric Clausen is a blacksmith in Oakland. Clausen's metalwork

CRAFT-blacksmithing_031_CAG.TIF Eric Clausen splits the "horns" on a small dragon he is fashioning from a red-hot piece of iron bar in his Oakland, Ca., shop on Thursday, September 14, 2006. Eric Clausen is a blacksmith in Oakland. Clausen's metalwork can be seen all over the Bay Area. His gates grace the Shakespeare Garden in Golden Gate Park, as well as the arch to the California College of the Arts in Oakland. He did all of the ornamental ironwork for the Camron Stanford House on Lake Merritt, the only remaining Victorian on the lake. On a recent visit to his studio (in the Temescal district of Oakland), the center of activity is a white-hot propane forge, about the size of a breadbox but 1,600 degrees. Clausen thrusts a steel bar into the mouth of the forge, decorated with a smiling iron sun. Once the steel is glowing red, Clausen quickly removes the bar from the forge with gloved hands and positions it under a trip hammer, a power hammer using an engine and gravity to provide a consistent rhythmic pounding motion. Maneuvering the bar in and out of the hammer?s path, Clausen turns the metal into a narrower, textured shape as it cools. After a quick trip back into the forge to restore its malleability, Clausen pops the bar onto an anvil and chooses from a large stack of hammers. Photo by Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle Photo taken on 9/14/06, in Oakland, Ca, USA **All names cq (source) (Photo By Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)