Well I hope you have had good Christmas, I did. Me, Bronson (the forge cat), a piece of steak
and peace & Quiet. What more could
you want?
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| Bronson |
On the subject of Bronson, his face swelled up at the
beginning of the month which meant a trip to the vets! I should explain. Bronson is named after “Charles Bronson”, not the actor but Britain’s most notorious prisoner
and self-proclaimed hardest man. Bronson
was thrown over the fence of the farm one night about 5 years ago in a cat
carrier. When they tried to get him out
he attacked claws, teeth the whole 9 yards, then refused to go near anyone. I think he was abused, not found out by who
but I never give up hope. With a bit of
patience, after about 2 years I could finally stroke him. Now he lives in the forge and will get on my
lap. He will still avoid most people and
will not be in the same vicinity of kids for any reason. But I cannot pick him up, so taking him to
the vets is a challenge! Good news, the morning of the vet trip the swelling
had gone down. Thank God for that. I should point out that he isn’t
violent. He runs away.
Well December went well, bit quiet on the work front as we
needed to finish all those small jobs before Christmas and have clear run on
the several projects we are starting in the New Year, but boy was I busy with
sending out gift vouchers. Very popular
this year so our courses – www.blacksmithingcourses.co.uk
– over the next couple of months should be packed.
On the subject of courses great news. At the end of February we will do our first
course with Not in Education Employment or Training (N.E.E.T) kids! For years many of us have tried to get these
kids into the Forge and Rural Arts Centre, but have always met with resistance
for some reason or other. These kids
tend not to like authority or formal education (wonder if that reminds any of
my old teachers of anyone). The forge is the kind place that has a great
chance to make a difference to their lives.
Having met a couple of them recently they are good kids, a little
mis-guided perhaps, who can be an asset to our community. We will run this
session free of charge, so a big thanks to all who have attended a course, and
to those who will in the future. You
have made this possible. Also a huge THANK
YOU to Fiona, Stepney City Farm’s new education officer, who approached us straight
away to see if we could help.
Ah yes, I mentioned last month about the railings (Stairway
to heaven coming out the speakers at this very moment – Loud but not enough to
annoy the neighbours (I hope) – There are some benefits to the missus being
away) at St Johns Church Hampstead. Quite
a straight forward job on first inspection, clean up the wrought iron top rail,
repair the cast uprights and back stay……. Voila job done! Yeah if only life was like that! This has to
be the hardest cast iron I have ever come across, even Neil – with 50 yrs
experience – was surprised. As with all
jobs like this, cast that has been smashed is like jigsaw puzzle. It also means that we weren’t always able to
use all the original materials as too many joints weakens the uprights, so we
have had to strengthen with new steel. You may wonder why we do not just have new
upright cast. Well we always try to use
as much of the original as possible. Our
repairs are also visible as this helps to date the ironwork and also, as with
all historic structure, tells the story of the church. Me And Billy spent two days doing the install
and it was awful couple of days. The job
went well but it rained constantly! The
new railings were fixed using traditional lead pouring at the bottom and lead
fixing at the top. One problem
though. Hampstead is expensive! Never thought I’d say this, but the cheapest place
for lunch? Starbucks! What’s the world coming to? On the positive side the insurance company
paid out in record time. Have also
surveyed the rest of the ironwork at the church that need some TLC or repairing
correctly in some cases, so hopefully in the very near future it will be back
to its former glory. I love my job:)
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| Repaired Railings at St Johns |
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| Lead Pouring |
The Rural Arts Centre had its Christmas Crafty Saturday at
the beginning of the month and a very busy day.
A little story about Jack. He is
the eldest son of one of the farms trustee’s, Richard, who for some strange and
unknown reason told me that I was a bad man and Santa was only going to bring
me coal for Christmas! One thing Jack
I’m a blacksmith. Things that I can burn
in the forge – Good. Jack, along with
loads of other kids, young & old, played in the forge. Jack has now decided he’s going to be a
blacksmith and work in forge.
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| Jack in Action - He's the little one |
And that’s all that happen this month. Looking forward to Lizzie coming home and
another exciting year in the forge. I
hope you all have enjoyed the festive period and have a peaceful and happy 2015.
STOP PRESS - Clear your diaries on 4th-7th Aug 2015. Planning has begun on a 4 intensive blacksmithing course at the forge. Only 3 places will be available. Keep an eye in this blog and www.blacksmithingcourses.co.uk for details in the near future.
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