Day two of my Mid Wales adventure

Well its been a long day and its all looking very positive which shows we've worked really hard. We got in to the workshop for 9.30 and within minutes had a fire going, I will admit I was hoping to have one of the hooks fully completed by the end of today but it is ready for construction which was a positive end to the day. We focused on getting the rest of the pieces in to kit form, to which we came very close and this means that tomorrow will consist of mainly drilling and riveting. Towards the end of the day it really started to show that we had brunt ourselves out, working all day and with very limited break times, we were very exhausted afterwards. All in all we got alot done and tomorrow being crunch time keep your fingers crossed, we should get this all done by the end of tomorrow.  !..!,    

1500 views

I've just seen that this blog has reached 1500 views and just wanted to thank everyone for support on this blog over the past eight months. Its been a bumpy couple of months as I've haven't been that active but things are looking up and I hope to have lots to update you all in the future... !..!,

Day 1 of my second mid Wales adventure

Well its day one of being back in the forge after nearly two months and I'm a little out of touch with my forging but even with this little set back today has been a very productive day. We only managed to get in to the workshop for five hours after travelling around picking up steel, tools and fuel but in those five hours we made some real progress.

This is Nick's new workshop with more space and he has some new toys too! With a much bigger forge it can easily have two people working comfortably from the same fire and thanks to Matthew another fellow Blacksmith graduate Nick has a vast section of tongs and hammers to play. One of his toys hasn't changed and I was very happy to see which of course was his blacker, which will make all the forging so much easier and quicker.

We managed to to forge out and bend 1/3 of the components and should have one fully made by tomorrow lunch time and the rest of all the components forged out and partly bent by the end of the day. Its really great to see the pieces of my design coming to together and by tomorrow to have one finished is going to be great. I hope to have more pictures of what we've been forging for when I update you all tomorrow.
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Back in mid Wales for another forging adventure

Its been almost two months in the waiting but I'm finally back in mid Wales to forge these guitar hooks that I designed. I now have three days to complete this task but with the help of Nick I'm sure we can get this done, I've been looking forward to this for ages now and can't believe it finally time. I will be posting all the details and hopefully some pictures of the hooks in progress as each day goes by, so please look out for my future posts.

I also have some great news its taken a month and a half of negotiating I have finally put a deposit down on a workshop space Yay!!!!! So when I get back there's alot of work that needs doing and alot of things that need moving like the power hammer and flypress which will take some extra work but it'll fun to see how it goes.  

Little finds... so fun

Every Sunday I like to keep an old British tradition and go car booting. It way seem silly to some but I really enjoy travelling out of Bristol to car boot, this Sunday was different as to make a change I found myself at a flea market in Ashton court which I have to say was really fun looking at old antiques and collectables. There was a huge range of jewellery but the one area that really took my fancy was of course the vinyl's where I picked up some amazing one to add to my collection. (Jimi Hendrix, Motorhead and Queen) I was very happy with my purchase there.

But this is what really caught my eye and what I wanted to show everyone, I'm a little upset I didn't buy it but it would have been for a novelty than practicability but this little mini anvil with vice I thought was amazing. I think this would have been used by a jeweller due to the size been very small. I really wanted it but I resisted spending all my money as there were also many other things that could have drained a hole in my pocket.

   

A update well needed

First I'd like to say sorry for that lack of posts I've done and I felt its time to update everyone on the past couple of weeks.

First off my new power hammer is awesome!!! I went up to Didbrook to see it working and also to see how I'd get it back to Bristol. It will have to be dismantled in to three pieces so it can be brought back, which brings me to the second update. I'm still in the process of negotiating for a workshop space but I hope to have it all settled in the next week or so. Until I have a workshop space the power hammer will have to remain in Didbrook.

Another bit of news, I had to move all my stuff out of storage as it became to expensive so I found another place to store all my equipment until I had a workshop. The one catch was moving it all which wasn't much of a problem until it came to the fly press, last time I transported it, it took four people to get it in to the back of a car. So transporting it wasn't going to be easy, without the help we couldn't get the fly press could go in the car so I came up with the idea of using a sack truck to transport it around I have to admit it was alot easier said than done (I forgot how heavy it is) but long story short I ended up sack trucking it from the storage to my house which could have been the death of me.

I know its not alot of news but I have been working hard to get myself set up and its been alot slower than expected. I hope to be posting on my blog more often now.

Thanks for your patients  !..!,

A Jump in to the deep end with a big purchase.

Well I can say that the past week has been very interesting and I have lots to talk about. First I will start by saying that my trip out looking for a future workshop was quite positive after talking to the owner of a large area of unit buildings he was confident that he could find me a space by the end of the week for a good price. So I hope to have that sorted out very soon because I will need it after my latest purchase. I've just spent £1,250 on this helve power hammer which I found on ebay, its somewhere in the middle of Gloucestershire. To me this is a very important purchase and is also the most I've ever spent on ebay haha!

  

Over the next couple of weeks I will be planing to go up and have a go on my new hammer before it is dismantled and ready to be taken back to Bristol to which I hope to have a workshop for it to be set up in, which is going to be the hard part but I'm so excited at the moment this was a huge step to take as well as a huge investment. This is it, be a Blacksmith or fail trying, do or die time. 

This wasn't my only purchase of the week I like to poke my head around all the local car boot sales as you never know what you'll find and I managed to find a little gem, a bouncy castle fan. I've been looking for a fan to blast air into my forge and I was told that these are a great for starting out with. Yes I will need to adapt a way of connecting the two together as well as adding a way of controlling the power of the blast of air but this can be done very easily. I will be sorting all that out when I have a workshop space.   

Other purchase I made was this amazing looking bench pillar drill, Its a very old vintage drill which has had some modern touches made to it over the years I was told that it was over 70 years. I picked it up from Bargoed, Caerphilly which is west of Newport on top a very tall valley. One of the additions that I really like is the grind stone attachment for sharpening the drill bits, its fantastic and works beautifully!  

 

There are still a few more pieces of equipment that I need to get hold of and the most important on that list is an anvil once I have this and a workshop to work in I'll have all the basics to get me started.