Monster bellows

[jlfblacksmith]

Hi guys
I bought a new set of bellows for £34 and thought that when i picked them up they would be little hand pumped ones. Turns out i should have done my homework on them as we had to take all the seats out of our dwarfed reno and me just to fit the brutes in.

Dont be decived by the picture they really are huge. If i get down on all fours they are easily bigger than me.

Enjoy
James

 

[John Fenna]

Well - blow me down!
Sorry but that was the cleanest "comic" line I could come up with.....
They should get your fire going in a trice though - how do you work them?

 

[Toddy]

There's a lad does portable bronze smithing for craft events and the like, and he has two of these things. They're brilliant. His assistant stands and gently works the levers up and down, with occasional bursts of extra speed as needed.
For £34 you got a bargain

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Mirius]

He has two of those for portable smithing? What does he use for transport? An artic?

 

[jlfblacksmith]

Toddy is right you attatch the long rod found in the second picture and work it up and down. The true genius of the design though is that a vast amount of air is blown out on the up and the down stroke so its like a modern gas forge but a bit more work.
James
P.S. Mirius is right the smithy who takes thoses babies for a walk must have a lot of determination.

 

[jlfblacksmith]

Here arew some of the arrow heads i forged on a couse in dartmoor with dave budd. I highly recomend his courses by the way.
I am now making arrow heads in under 3 minutes thanks to him.

 

[Toddy]

He has two of those for portable smithing? What does he use for transport? An artic?

Nah, he's made wooden come apart frames for them and the bellows concertina down and are strapped shut for transport. It's a beautiful set up. I was well impressed. If I were organising craft days I'd employ him.

Dave Budd does get a good rep, doesn't he?

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Dave Budd]

Give them a clean up and check they are air tight and I reckon they shold do you very nicely! Very good find for £34, I've seen them for sale for over £200 in worse condition than that!

Here's a better picture of James' arrows and arrowheads. His are the arrows and heads to the right and mine are the sets to the left.We shot those arrows around my field course on a very damp february day and we didn't lose a single one, though somebody did get a branch from 40yds

 

[Nagual]

Give them a clean up and check they are air tight and I reckon they shold do you very nicely! Very good find for £34, I've seen them for sale for over £200 in worse condition than that!

Here's a better picture of James' arrows and arrowheads. His are the arrows and heads to the right and mine are the sets to the left.We shot those arrows around my field course on a very damp february day and we didn't lose a single one, though somebody did get a branch from 40yds

The next Robin Hood perchance? Probably a lot better than that the tosh that's on the TV just now..