Keen to continue my understanding of traditional crafts, Dad and I went down to spend the day with David Southgate, blacksmith and proprietor of Forge Four at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet.
Under David’s expert tuition, we learned about and practised drawing out of mild steel bars, tapering, bending, twisting, setting down, hot punching, templating and riveting. We made J hooks in the morning and then in the afternoon, we were possibly a bit too ambitious when we made a pair of tongues for the wood burner (I think David slightly regretted us asking to make these due to the time and complexity, but he didn’t complaint about helping us for an additional hour to get them finished, top man!).
We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and I’m looking forward to having another go when @WJ Conservation gets his forge up and running 😊
For some more photos, take a look at the Instagram post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGJkSH-onJY/?img_index=1
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