Talented Blacksmith Sought.......

[British Red]

I am looking to ay hands on a talented blacksmith who can make a freestanding three position chimney crane

Basically a free standing version of something like this

Do any of our historical / re-enactor members know anyone who is up to such a task?

Red

 

[hiho]

no pics showing this end...

 

[g4ghb]

Can't see the pics either mate but I reccon our own Dave Budd would be a good person to ask

 

[bikething]

I couldn't see it until i pasted the address into an empty browser window www.antiquedoorfittings.co.uk/siteimages/big7/57663/498546/f_120012.jpg

now it shows in the thread

clicking on the address above gives a no-show error... refreshing the page makes it show... wierd...

 

[Dave Budd]

I may be able to help, but I can't get the picture to work

 

[launditch1]

http://www.baba.org.uk/

Try these people.Theres a wealth of talent out there....Im a blacksmith also and thats something id love to do,but try them first!!

 

[g4ghb]

I may be able to help, but I can't get the picture to work

see I was right!

 

[launditch1]

It worked for me when i followed Bikethings advice...

 

[bikething]

a copy :

 

[British Red]

Thanks Bikething!

I just grabbed the .jpg address - weird.

Anywho, thats the puppy I'm after, but freestanding. Would need some sort of hefty feet since its designed to work with an open grate and would need to both get close enough to the grate to use and support a heavy pot on the end of the arm...........


Happy to explain the principle of it working if anyone can make one ???



Red

 

[bikething]

a slightly improved pic:

looks like more than 3 positions to me... how does it work? - i'm guessing there's a pivot in the middle of the bar with a hook on the end, and the right hand side is hooked under one of the pegs to set the height?

 

[British Red]

Its really "three dimensional"

The upright pivots allowing the "arms" to swing over the grate for cokking and out for stirring etc.

The top arm is extensible (you can see its in two parts) allowing the arm to reach further into or out of the fire (I'm less bothered about that bit)

The bottom arm is sprung (the fancy iron curls are the spring).The lever sticking out to the right can be depressed and raise or lower the bottom arm. it hooks under the "knobs" on the upright to secure it. Pots are suspended on the hook and chain and / or the scroll work and raised or lowered to adjust cooking time.

I'm not trying to re-create this one - just have something similar that allows a couple of pots to be pivoted over a fire and raised or lowered

Hope that's clearer?

Red

 

[Steve M]

I know a man in the West Country. If that's useful, please PM me.

 

[robin wood]

I am sure you will be able to find someone down your way through BABA, though many of them get a bit arty. If not I have a local guy who is very good. A farrier who can also make wheels, but specialising in good old fashined country blacksmith work of a kind that is quite uncommon these days.

He just did the hinges and catches for a gate I am working on.

The thing with a gate and with what you are after it really needs to swing sweetly, you need someone who understands how to make that happen.

When I visited his workshop recently I spotted this which he made from an old bit of wrought iron fence post straight off the hammer, no grinding.

And he does these

He is quite reasonable too at £20 an hour.

 

[British Red]

It does indeed need to swing cleanly Robin - and indeed the stand will need thinking about (but it needs to be freestanding as we will be moving in a year or so and I don't want to leave it)

You are spot on that it doesn't need to be too arty - attractive will come with the function in my eyes.

I may well come back to you on your contact

Thanks for all the input guys - I knew someone here would be able to help

Red

 

[mr dazzler]

Brian Russell
http://www.littlenewshamforge.com/Work%20Portfolio/Other Work
used to make things like that at demonsterations at country fairs when I was a teenager. He draw the shapes freehand on a steel table and forged and fit them together. He is top man one of the best in Britain. He isnt arty unless a client asks him but is alweays mega busy doing gates for stately homes and such. BUT he does like to do the ocasional nifty piece himself (there are about 3 trip hammers going and 5 or 6 assistants) and that might be such a one. He made my drawknife and scorps about 18 years ago they are still good

 

[Cobweb]

Looks intestering, but I can't help you out I'm afraid, good luck in your search though.

The reason why the pic didn't show up is because the site has anti-hotlinking.
By grabbing the jpg address you are hotlinking to the pic so when ever someone looks at this page or loads the image, their bandwidth gets used.
It's a big problem, especially if they don't have much bandwidth to start with or many images are used. It's more productive and polite to save a copy to your hard-drive, upload to a free image hoster like photobucket and hotlink from there.

 

[ForgeCorvus]

Looks like fun, I'll have to have a better look

 

[British Red]

Please do

I'm hoping one of the smiths here might be interested in taking it on...I grant you its a bit of history to recreate but I hope it might be something a little different for someone

If not I'll try to find someone local through Baba or work through the recommendations in the thread.

 

[launditch1]

Im puzzling over how this can be made freestanding so it will get close to your grate?...All the ones ive seen have been fixed to the the side of the fireplace.BTW they are called chimney cranes and i have a couple of books with lots of pics of these in.Ill see if i can get them scanned sometime.Oh and Bikething,You are spot on with how it works,although it has 6 positions and it swings out from the fire so you dont have to take the pot or kettle off over the fire.