Blacksmithing Experience

[thejollyroger]

Hey.
I spent a Sunday 2 week ago in a forge and thought I would share what I made.
The experience was a Christmas present and entailed 8 hours with tuition on a traditional coke fuelled forge. It was an amazing experience, one I would happily do again.
There was the right balance of direction and just having ago. It was just myself and another man with the Blacksmith teaching us, so there was plenty of time for one to one.
so here is what I made, two coat hooks, a bottle opener, knife and a poker.

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I made one or two other little things not shown here. A fantastic day over all. I hope you like and any feedback is welcome.

 

[ozzy1977]

Cracking job, where did you do the course?

 

[crowded-solitude]

Nice work. A friend of mine has a small forge I might have to ask him show me the ropes looks like fun.

Don't know if it has been filled yet but there is a sword smith apprenticeship going in Edinburgh. Would be a very cool job!

Keep it up. I enjoy seeing the fantastic things people come up with on the site.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Nice work.

 

[thejollyroger]

Thanks for the feedback.
The course was in Much Hadham, google it the man running the forge has a website.
Working with metal in this way is good fun and it is surprising how soft and malleable the steel becomes when heated in the forge.

 

[Clouston98]

That's brilliant mate! Loving the blade! Would love to do a course like that!

 

[oldtimer]

My daughter-in-law, currently on a blacksmithing week in Oxfordshire thanks to the kind member who flagged it up on the site, is looking for facilities where she can set up a forge near Oxford.

I'd love to hear from anyone who can help her with a place to work.

 

[John Fenna]

That looks FUN!

 

[Dreadhead]

very nice love the knife! its incredibly addictive

 

[Tor helge]

Excellent work. Everything looks good.
Have ment to take up smithing classes several times (knife smith) nut never "found time" for it.

 

[VaughnT]

As a practicing smith, I can say with certainty that you display a great eye and a smooth hand. The finish on your work is excellent, neither tortured with repeated heatings nor 'decorated' with a plethora of unnecessary hammer marks. Whoever you trained with must certainly be happy to have had someone with such inherent ability darken his doorstep.

That forge you're standing by is something of a curiosity. I've love to know more about that pot in the cubbyhole behind the fire, and why there's an air supply coming in from beside you and not using the piping built in to the forge body. Lots of oddities in a place like that, though. The stories such a smithy could tell.....

 

[thejollyroger]

Thanks Vaughn, its really good to get such positive feedback from a practicing blacksmith, and I hope to make more stuff in the near future and keep developing my skills.
The pot in the cubby hole is a small wood stove the blacksmith had started to make.
The reason the air is coming from the side is because the forge is still set up with hand bellows, you can see the handle sticking out near my head and for a beginner I presume the blower was easier. Plus when I asked he said not to pull the handle because he had a heap of stuff left on the bellows.
It was a fascinating place to be, loads of odds and ends all over the place.

 

[VaughnT]

Thanks for the info, hoss. You're truly lucky to have access to a shop like that, and a guy that knows what he's doing. When I first learned how to smith, it was with a guy that was more "artist" than smith and his shop was the open end of a dilapidated chicken house. Thankfully, the chickens were long gone, but the "open" part really sucked in the wintertime!

Keep at it, even if you can't get to a fire, at least be thinking about it. Oh, and grow your beard a bit more. Beards make a smith strong.