Gingar Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 I would like to start by saying a huge Thanks you to Shoot and be Safe for giving me the prize of a at the Pigeon Watch Charity shoot (after talking with him and Old Farrier most of the night about his trip down and where to start out blacksmithing). My weekend began on Friday 21st of August with a 4 hour drive down to Southampton to get the ferry to the Isle of Wight in order to meet up with Old Farrier. With the traffic on my side, I shot down south and got on the ferry and enjoyed some great views as I left Southampton on the Solent. When I finally arrived, 30 minutes late due to traffic in the town centre, I was greeted warmly by OF, his wife, cocker Nuggs, and an unexpected pet a huge white rabbit by the name of Parsley. We kicked off the first day with a tour round the workshop with a talk about what the plan is over the weekend, the basics of Blacksmithing and health and safety and set off for a tour round the island. After viewing some of the spectacular views and learning about the islands history we set back home for some food and much needed rest for tomorrow, The forge day. When I woke we went off for breakfast at the local pub then started up the forge to heat some metal. We started with some basics, Round to square and square to round to build skills with the hammer and began to put some spikes on the end to learn the angles needed to hold the metal, a slight struggle at first but I eventually grasped it. We moved on to some bending and shaping, I made some eyes After finishing this exercise we hit a brick wall.... my decision on what to make.. I have never liked making decisions and I had no idea what to choose from a vast variety of things to make. Some time went by and over lunch we decided to make a coal rake as I made my own forge (which I couldn't light Thursday night) and we thought this would help out a lot. We worked through some more techniques like twisting, flattening and bending to a 90 degree angle and finally, the rake was made! We then moved on to project to create a lead hook for my dog leads and whistles. This started with a bit of metal that needed splitting out and flattening to create a cross then shaping, stretching and flattening. This is what the project started as.. The end result! Finally we pulled a piece of metal from the start of the day to create my last item, a hook for my dad to hang his deer on to make skinning and butchering easier. On the Sunday we had a day out on a clay shoot with OF's helper, Corey, a boy of 15 who proceeded to beat us both.... but that's a story for another day.... The last day came and OF give me a lesson in tempering and my weekend was finished. To sum up I had a brilliant time, delicious food, great company and learned a ton of different things which will definitely help me in the near future on my homemade forge. I cant thank you enough Old Farrier for helping me get started with my new found hobby and for putting together a lesson plan which fell into place and connected everything we made! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosd Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 Great write up and an experience for you to remember. As always, OF sounds like a top gent, good on you!!! Cos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnphilip Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 That is a lovely write up great time you had loved the pictures both of the views, and your metalwork. I loved doing all that stuff at school. Thank you for sharing your great experience with us all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Good write up and sounds a superb experience, and hats off to OF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barney 66 Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 What a great opportunity you have had, that is one of those trades I always think I wish I had gone down that route, would love a chance to work with a blacksmith for a few days, may be I will put some effort to see if there is anyone local I could watch In some spare time, Nice one Old Farrier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Quality. Great scenes and great company. That shop looks great. No faces though :-( tax reasons I guess lol. ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigman Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Superb , Of do you ever forge the old blade? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moose man Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Great weekend , nice write up well done to all .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaun4860 Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Nice write up, Well done OF for such a great prize in the raffle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Nice it's a shame we lost a lot of the old skills and are still needing to re-learn them I was lucky enough to spend time working with an old blacksmith in his eighties in the 1980s he learnt from his dad At the time I was only interested in earning the highest hourly rate I could meaning forge work was a non starter. Wish I had listened more now That's a good standard of work if it's your first proper go Good write up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keg Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Brilliant work! and some great views as well, you have a skill there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flynny Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Well done bud, good work, ATB Flynny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigeon controller Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 The pictures took me back to my apprenticeship days , well done for the donation . Cracking report Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dougy Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Lovely write up Gingar. looks like you really enjoyed it, I bet your tempted to move over there now, mind you your Dad wont let you, he wont have anyone to fetch stuff for him if you leave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul223 Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Great write up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbiep Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Great write up, and some lovely pieces made. Many thanks to OF for offering this as one of the prizes on the Charity day - probably one of the most-wanted on offer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
la bala Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Looks like you had a great time and learnt a lot. Forge work is magical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reggiegun Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Thanks Nigel for spending time with my Lad, thanks also to Sabs who gave him the raffle prize and thanks to PW for the charity shoot, we both have attended twice and won some excellent raffle prizes. Only trouble is he now keeps lighting his home made forge next to the conservatory, so I better check my house insurance :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoot and be safe Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Great report of your time with Old farrier Alix I know how much you wanted to get this prize at the PW charity shoot and it was a pleasure to pass it over to you. I knew you wouldn't be disappointed as I certainly wasn't when the good lady arranged for myself to have a day with Old farrier. Again well done to OF for the generosity of the raffle prize. You sir are a legend Again PW at its best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grrclark Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Great to read about a really enjoyable experience and one that obviously meant a great deal to Gingar and i'm sure OF felt the same way in being able to share his experience and knowledge with his guest for the weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshwarrior Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Very good write up and a great gift of his knowledge from OF. Well done and a present for Dad for making all your ammo for you 😝 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old farrier Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Oops What have I done all these wonderful comments from the members 😋😋 I think your proberably going to want my take on the day 😗 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoot and be safe Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Hard hat at the ready Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshwarrior Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Oops What have I done all these wonderful comments from the members 😋😋 I think your proberably going to want my take on the day 😗 Alix is ok just don't stand downwind of him! Hot close workshop you'll be buy shares in glade air freshener. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reggiegun Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Great report of your time with Old farrier Alix I know how much you wanted to get this prize at the PW charity shoot and it was a pleasure to pass it over to you. I knew you wouldn't be disappointed as I certainly wasn't when the good lady arranged for myself to have a day with Old farrier. Again well done to OF for the generosity of the raffle prize. You sir are a legend //<![CDATA[ (function(){var g=this,h=function(b,d){var a=b.split("."),c=g;a[0]in c||!c.execScript||c.execScript("var "+a[0]);for(var e;a.length&&(e=a.shift());)a.length||void 0===d?c[e]?c=c[e]:c=c[e]={}:c[e]=d};var l=function(b){var d=b.length;if(0<d){for(var a=Array(d),c=0;c<d;c++)a[c]=b[c];return a}return[]};var m=function(b){var d=window;if(d.addEventListener)d.addEventListener("load",b,!1);else if(d.attachEvent)d.attachEvent("onload",b);else{var a=d.onload;d.onload=function(){b.call(this);a&&a.call(this)}}};var n,p=function(b,d,a,c,e){this.f=b;this.h=d;this.i=a;this.c=e;this.e={height:window.innerHeight||document.documentElement.clientHeight||document.body.clientHeight,width:window.innerWidth||document.documentElement.clientWidth||document.body.clientWidth};this.g=c;this.b={};this.a=[];this.d={}},q=function(b,d){var a,c,e=d.getAttribute("pagespeed_url_hash");if(a=e&&!(e in b.d))if(0>=d.offsetWidth&&0>=d.offsetHeight)a=!1;else{c=d.getBoundingClientRect();var f=document.body;a=c.top+("pageYOffset"in window?window.pageYOffset:(document.documentElement||f.parentNode||f).scrollTop);c=c.left+("pageXOffset"in window?window.pageXOffset:(document.documentElement||f.parentNode||f).scrollLeft);f=a.toString()+","+c;b.b.hasOwnProperty(f)?a=!1:(b.b[f]=!0,a=a<=b.e.height&&c<=b.e.width)}a&&(b.a.push(e),b.d[e]=!0)};p.prototype.checkImageForCriticality=function(b){b.getBoundingClientRect&&q(this,b)};h("pagespeed.CriticalImages.checkImageForCriticality",function(b){n.checkImageForCriticality(b)});h("pagespeed.CriticalImages.checkCriticalImages",function(){r(n)});var r=function(b){b.b={};for(var d=["IMG","INPUT"],a=[],c=0;c<d.length;++c)a=a.concat(l(document.getElementsByTagName(d[c])));if(0!=a.length&&a[0].getBoundingClientRect){for(c=0;d=a[c];++c)q(b,d);a="oh="+b.i;b.c&&(a+="&n="+b.c);if(d=0!=b.a.length)for(a+="&ci="+encodeURIComponent(b.a[0]),c=1;c<b.a.length;++c){var e=","+encodeURIComponent(b.a[c]);131072>=a.length+e.length&&(a+=e)}b.g&&(e="&rd="+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify(s())),131072>=a.length+e.length&&(a+=e),d=!0);t=a;if(d){c=b.f;b=b.h;var f;if(window.XMLHttpRequest)f=new XMLHttpRequest;else if(window.ActiveXObject)try{f=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP")}catch(k){try{f=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")}catch(u){}}f&&(f.open("POST",c+(-1==c.indexOf("?")?"?":"&")+"url="+encodeURIComponent(b)),f.setRequestHeader("Content-Type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded"),f.send(a))}}},s=function(){var b={},d=document.getElementsByTagName("IMG");if(0==d.length)return{};var a=d[0];if(!("naturalWidth"in a&&"naturalHeight"in a))return{};for(var c=0;a=d[c];++c){var e=a.getAttribute("pagespeed_url_hash");e&&(!(e in b)&&0<a.width&&0<a.height&&0<a.naturalWidth&&0<a.naturalHeight||e in b&&a.width>=b[e].k&&a.height>=b[e].j)&&(b[e]={rw:a.width,rh:a.height,ow:a.naturalWidth,oh:a.naturalHeight})}return b},t="";h("pagespeed.CriticalImages.getBeaconData",function(){return t});h("pagespeed.CriticalImages.Run",function(b,d,a,c,e,f){var k=new p(b,d,a,e,f);n=k;c&&m(function(){window.setTimeout(function(){r(k)},0)})});})();pagespeed.CriticalImages.Run('/mod_pagespeed_beacon','http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/index.php?app=forums&module=ajax§ion=topics&do=quote&t=319438&p=2892872&md5check=b9933aff49f778c1985fce55be956214&isRte=1,l8PuqRhht8,true,false,EhvNXEh2AYI'); //]]> Again PW at its best Tee shirts for next charity shoot Mark, do you know any tee shirt printers?. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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