Fuji Shooter Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Our local village blacksmith retired a few years ago and non of his family look over the business even though it had been going for 100 years. His smithy is as he left it but the door was left open the other day and I grabbed a few pics. It was pitch black so excuse the poor photos. He used to makes great chain too. Real shame many of these skills are dying off. Used to watch him making horseshoes with amazement. Great selection of tools though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyska Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 You really need to start using colour images. I can see some of the depth of contrast, rust etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisdom Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Great photos. Crying shame that no one has taken it on.My local blacksmith is very busy.Doesnt shoe horses though.On reflection the mobile farrier is fully booked pity someone with the skills couldn't combine both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lord_seagrave Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 I did two weeks' work experience at a blacksmiths. The delicacy of the finished ironwork was astounding - the sheer strength and skill of the smith likewise. Great pics. LS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
la bala Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 It is a shame the art is being lost, magical place. Most of the tools would have been made by himself. I made many sets of tongs myself when i was into forgeing. Get lots more pics for local history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuji Shooter Posted May 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 It is a shame the art is being lost, magical place. Most of the tools would have been made by himself. I made many sets of tongs myself when i was into forgeing. Get lots more pics for local history. I am trying to get him to fire up one last time for a photoshoot but he hasn't agreed to it yet. Never thought to take any when he was doing it all those years - doh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pheasant Feeder Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 It is a skill I sometimes wish I had. The thought of a winters morning working by the forge does appeal. I have watched an old farmer friend making show quality shoes for shire horses, on a coke powered forge. I realised at the time that I was quite priviledged to see something made from scratch the way they had been made for centuries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curly87 Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 It is a shame the art is being lost, magical place. Most of the tools would have been made by himself. I made many sets of tongs myself when i was into forgeing. Get lots more pics for local history. I wouldn't say its being lost, just evolving. With modern farm machinery and the mobile agricultural engineers, the blacksmith has very much moved into the more creative artistic space. I've been forging for the last three years full time, and there is lots of new blood, like myself, getting into it. This was a piece from a young smith down in Devon that I thought was outstanding. Certainly a far cry from mending ploughs and making chains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 A local RFD to me is an outstanding 'smith. He has won numerous awards and has been the main man at various national and international events. There is also a travelling 'smith who sets up on the hill each fair week, and an artisan 'smith who works only two hundred yards away from our unit who sells her wares from a stall to all the wealthy people in Cheshire. I believe she is doing very well. I'm not sure if these type of skills are being lost really; there is a bloke in one of the local villages who has been making buck toothed rakes for most of his life, and his son has taken on the job also. They have been very busy for decades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekers Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Fascinating, love to watch the various blacksmith competitions at Country Shows, great skills! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickS Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 (edited) Great photos. Crying shame that no one has taken it on.My local blacksmith is very busy.Doesnt shoe horses though.On reflection the mobile farrier is fully booked pity someone with the skills couldn't combine both. A farrier uses the skills of a smith (or at least some) but a smith does not necessarily have the skills of a farrier: "To work as a farrier you must be registered by law with the Farriers' Registration Council. To register, you will need to complete a four-year Apprenticeship with an Approved Training Farrier (ATF). The Apprenticeship is a work-based Diploma which will involve college study and training on the job." http://www.farrier-reg.gov.uk/farriery-training/becoming-a-farrier/ Edited May 22, 2016 by NickS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekers Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 You really need to start using colour images. I can see some of the depth of contrast, rust etc Monochrome has its moments and can add effect, but so to does Colour! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Not lost at all. I am by original trade a welder fabricator although I worked for a firm that still had a blacksmith shop and spent time learning from an 84 year old guy who learnt from his dad before him Even my mentor admitted there was no need for some of the skills other than historic re- creation and renovation - but others are still widely used and practiced The art world has taken hold of blacksmithing and taken it to a whole new place - but making chain forge welding the links nah its crazy! I find a lot of clients for the one off forged items but not the everyday items the old Smith used to make. Skills are being lost far faster in drawing offices and regular fabrication work imo. Real wrought iron rather than forged mild steel? Well wrought don't realy exist unless a guy is working with reclaimed old materials Smiting has always evolved electric power hammers do the same job as a striker yet keep regular time all day long Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuji Shooter Posted May 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Sadly he had 5 daughters and no son but non of the girls wanted to know. He was the last village blacksmith out of the 6 surrounding villages. One amazing thing is his vegetable plot at the back of the smithy. The dirt is pitch black from 100 years of horse dung collected while fitting shoes. He wins the village fete veg comps every year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clakk Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Such a shame ,my metalwork group at school had to make a fire set using the forge,learn how to use a lathe making paint scraper,s ,solder n braze to make ashtrays<totally un PC these days>.Bet the elf n safetee fascists stopped that in its tracks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bantam boy Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Anyone know where the word smith comes from, as in blacksmith? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
four-wheel-drive Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Its a shame to see these old skills dyeing out but that is progress you will probably end up with university chap who thinks that he is going back to his roots by tacking up blacksmithing as a hobby pretending that he is preserving a way of life that has gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Anyone know where the word smith comes from, as in blacksmith? It comes from the old english word 'smythe' which means 'to strike'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welsh1 Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 I had to make a choice when i went on my trade course in the Army,we did a while in the blacksmiths and i had a real talent for it and the instructor told me i would be mad not to become a blacksmith,but i was a good welder and loved doing that as well,so going on the idea that welders would always be needed i became a welder.Welded for 6 months after i came out of the army in 96 and not since,and now blacksmiths are in demand and create some beautiful pieces of work.I found it very cathartic and loved it,maybe one day i will start to learn the art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 'Smite' ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felly100 Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 The Online Etymology Dictionary Search: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z smith (n.) Look up smith at Dictionary.com Old English smið "blacksmith, armorer, one who works in metal" (jewelers as well as blacksmiths), more broadly, "handicraftsman, practitioner of skilled manual arts" (also including carpenters), from Proto-Germanic *smithaz "skilled worker" (cognates: Old Saxon smith, Old Norse smiðr, Danish smed, Old Frisian smith, Old High German smid, German Schmied, Gothic -smiþa, in aiza-smiþa "coppersmith"), from PIE root *smi- "to cut, work with a sharp instrument" (cognates: Greek smile "knife, chisel"). Attested as a surname since at least c.975. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickS Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Such a shame ,my metalwork group at school had to make a fire set using the forge,learn how to use a lathe making paint scraper,s ,solder n braze to make ashtrays<totally un PC these days>.Bet the elf n safetee fascists stopped that in its tracks We have a wood and metal lathes, hand-o-matic milling machine, chip forge, brazing hearth and facilities for aluminium casting, as well as CNC routers and laser cutters. It has nothing to do with health and safety but costs and teaching skills. How much would a set-up like ours cost to put in? The other big issue is that there are few of us left who went through an apprenticeship before deciding to go into teaching as a second career so there are not those with the skills to pass on. Design Technology is becoming a subject of MDF boxes. I have fond memories of school woodwork and metalwork classes. In my first year, we had to make a pencil case out of a length of 3x2 - it had a swivelling lid but only held 3 or 4 pencils and was more like a dug-out canoe. Another wood project was a pipe rack. "Sir, my Dad doesn't smoke a pipe." "Never mind, boy, he can use it for his cigars." The award for Least Successful Metalwork Project goes to the paper knife that one boy used to stab his mate "to see if it was sharp". Times have changed.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lord_seagrave Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 'Smite' ? Yup, all the same root. Likewise 'smithereens' LS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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