Graduate students know what it's like to have too many irons in the fire. Sometimes we even get bent out of shape and lose our tempers trying to balance so many things at once. But this summer, nine UNCG historic preservation graduate students struck while the iron was hot and participated in the Preservation Technology Field School.

Cathleen Edge and Sarah Marion show off their repointing handiwork at the Korner's Folly privy

At the end of the three-week course, we all felt like we hit the nail on the head by getting hands-on experience in restoration technology. It's helped put us on the cutting edge and brought us one step closer to being the top dogs in the field after our mortarboards have been donned and we have walked across the stage to receive our diplomas.

To most people, losing your temper means getting angry and the underdog is someone who is at a disadvantage. Participants in the field school know better. Through trying our hands at traditional crafts, such as blacksmithing, woodworking and masonry, we learned the original meanings of these sayings and others that are commonly used today.

Our first week was spent at the Old Salem Museums and Gardens, a living history town that depicts the Moravian settlement of Salem between 1766 and 1840. At Old Salem, we learned about the building construction techniques that would have used in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Each of us practiced heating up a piece of iron and manipulating its shape in the blacksmith shop. This is where we learned about the origin of lose your temper and get bent out of shape. Metal is tempered to give it added strength and make it malleable enough to alter its shape. When it is heated too much, however, it loses its temper and can become bent out of shape.

We also had the chance to work with Old Salem's sawyers and carpenters to learn how to split and saw logs to create useable lumber. While learning about using a pit saw to cut a log, the meanings of top dog and underdog became clear. When using a pit saw, a hole is dug in the ground and one person at the top of the hole, the top dog, and another at the bottom of the pit, the underdog, hold the saw vertically to cut the log. The underdog had to endure all of the falling wood shavings and dust created by the saw would fall onto them. That is why today, we understand the term underdog to be the person who is at a disadvantage to the others while the top dog is the person who is above or ahead of everyone else.

Prof. Jo Leimenstoll is striking while the iron is hot

The second week of the course was spent at Körner's Folly in Kernersville the mid-19th-century home of interior designer Jules Körner and his family. Our group picked up where previous classes left off in repointing the masonry privy behind the main house with lime mortar appropriate for the historic brick. We worked with historic preservation contractor Dean Ruedrich to learn the proper way to mix lime mortar and apply it between the bricks to stabilize and preserve the privy. While at Körner's Folly, we also learned about repairing and reglazing historic windows, cutting slate and repairing historic grave markers.

The third and final week of the course was spent back at Old Salem where a hands-on investigation of the Stockburger farmhouse was conducted to see if it truly was a late 18th-century log home as family tradition held. Another Old Salem home was used to conduct paint analysis on the exterior so that it could be returned to its original color scheme. We also learned about plaster and stucco from plasterer Dwight Love, who helped each of us mix and apply plaster to a wall. Dwight taught us that a mortarboard is not just part of academic regalia; it's the large surface used to mix mortar or plaster.

The Preservation Field School not only gave us firsthand experience in traditional craft methods, it also taught us the meanings idioms we use all the time. Now we are armed with both knowledge and practical experience in historic preservation and are ready to take on the world one old building at a time!

Sarah Marion is a graduate assistant for Preservation NC. She will graduate from the master's program in Historic Preservation at UNCG's Department of Interior Architecture in 2010.