5D - New Course date added

Visit www.blacksmithingcourses.co.uk for details.

Don't forget our Art of Forging course The weekend on the 13th&14th June.  Only £225!

5C - Saint Dunstan

Saint Dunstan – The patron saint of blacksmiths, who died 998CE, feast day is celebrated on the 19^th May.  The church that overlooks our forge is dedicated to him, so why not pay us both a visit on that day.

One of the colourful legends about our saint is thus:  The Devil was annoyed at the healing properties of a spring, at Tunbridge Wells in Kent, and poked his nose right below the surface causing it to go red and taste of sulphur.  St Dunstan pulled him out by the nose using a set of blacksmiths tongs.  Those tongs can be seen at Mayfield Convent, a Roman Catholic boarding school in the village of Mayfield in Sussex.

It is said that he repeated the same trick at a forge when the devil disguised himself as a beautiful young lady to tempt him.  However he would not look up from his work and then noticed the hooves beneath the dress.  St Dunstan then grabbed the Devil by the nose with tongs again which caused the Devil to unfurl his wings in order to fly away in pain.

Most of the stories from the 10^th Century are said to relate to his time at Glastonbury Forge.  It is said that before being converted to Christianity, by St Alphege, his was a magician involved in the occult and had been ejected from the Kings court.

One last tale:  St Dunstan is reputed to have nailed horseshoes to the Devils hooves and refused to remove them until Old Nick promised to stay away from Blacksmiths.  It is also said that the legend of a horseshoe being lucky comes from this tale as the devil also promised not to enter a building with a horseshoe nailed above the door.

St Dustan is a real historic figure, he served as the Archbishop of Canterbury between 960 – 988, as to the legends?  Who knows?

5B - New course dates added!

Visit www.blacksmithingcourses.co.uk for course dates in May & June, including the Art of Forging course Sat 13th &Sun 14th June!
Places still available on the Tricks of the Trade course 4th-7th Aug!

5A - Art of Forging

New dates for the next Art of Forging course. - Saturday the 13th & Sunday 14th June 10am-5pm. email rp.artistblacksmith@gmail.com for details!

Our Trade is ancient & modern!

No5

Well I’ve been kinda lazy over the past few weeks as far as this blog is concerned!  Been building up twitter - @rp_blacksmith – and the courses Facebook page – www.facebook.com/blacksmithingcourses121

So what’s been happening?

The courses are going from strength to strength, with new types of courses added for this year.  We are even listed as No2 in Time Out’s 41 “rad” things to do in London!  Nope I haven’t a clue what that means either.  The course website – www.blacksmithingcourses.co.uk - is being re-vamped by the techie guys but still has all the info you should need when you wanna come and forge metal!  Here is a review left on our Facebook page:

– 5 star

So this was amazing. I spent the day at the forge; I managed to make an ornate hook and was introduced to 4 out of 7 blacksmithing processes. The experience was extraordinary and possibly the best thing I've done in years. The space is intimate, the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly and the hands on instruction is excellent. Blacksmithing is a tactile and beautiful thing. The end of the day left me wanting to come back, and not just once, but every day. Everyone should do this, it's accessible, and very very good.

OK, on the work front.  Lots of small jobs been done and a few jobs for the farm as well.  Think Katharine – the site manager - is getting tidy in her old age!

We have just finished a replica job for a couple in N16.   The clients had a photo of their house taken circa1912 with what appears to be a set cast iron railings & gate.  I say appears, as with the design it looked to us that it wouldn’t have been cost effective to of had them forged. The photos also show what looks to be repairs as well.  With the repairs and the quality of the photo it was impossible to locate a pattern, so we had to replicate them by hand.  The design and consultation carried on throughout the making process and we went through several design changes until we settled on one we all agreed with.  It is very important that the blacksmith & client can work together in this way as what the client wants is not always the best solution.  Happy to report that the working relationship was spot on!  A very enjoyable job.

Railings & Gate at N16

The farms education team has been working hard to secure funding for the NEET kids & Young Volunteers to have more sessions in the forge.  Fingers crossed this will happen soon!

In other restoration news we have restored a base plate for the Kirkaldey Testing Museum.  The following is from their website - http://www.testingmuseum.org.uk/

David Kirkaldy's Testing and Experimenting Works at 99 Southwark Street set international standards in testing materials from which everyone’s everyday life benefits today. Today, this unique Victorian workshop keeps alive our direct link with Kirkaldy's innovation, at the heart of this bustling commercial district of London. The Kirkaldy Testing Museum preserves Kirkaldy's unique Universal Testing Machine - the huge hydraulic powered machine he designed and had built in Leeds - in full working order in the premises he built to house it. As well as presenting the story of the family who ran the business for almost 100 years and of the wider development of materials testing, the workshop and the Universal Testing Machine provide a unique crucible for new experimentation and collaboration - which can inspire future generations of scientists and artists alike to continue enquiring into the properties of the materials on which we build our lives. 

Base Plate for Kirkaldy Testing Museum

Easter weekend saw the Sheepy Shindig at Stepney City Farm.  So I decided to attempt to forge sheep heads. How hard can it be?  I teach blacksmithing, am a respected in historic ironwork restoration.  I bigger challenge than I thought!  The 1^st effort wasn’t brilliant, the less said about the 2^nd the better.  No3?  Yeah got there.  A few things to work on to perfect it for next year.

Sheep head No3

You may remember Billy?  Our volunteer?  Billy has moved on to pastures new and more permanent employment.  Wish you well mate, and you’re welcome to come and play at any time.

We now have a new volunteer – James. Since he started He has done bloody brilliantly in fabrication and hopefully we can spend more time with him forging.  He has a good eye and the right attitude to make a real success with blacksmithing.

Our New Volunteer - James - Working on bucket holders for the farm

We have our first Art of Forging course starting on the 18^th of this month.  We still have places on the Tricks of the Trade course in August.  Email me for details.

Do not forget to register to vote!  IT IS IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!

4B - New course dates!

New course dates have been added to www.blacksmithingcourses.co.uk  Hope to see on the courses soon!

4A - New Course @ The Blacksmiths Workshop

The Art of Forging - 2hrs a week for 6 weeks.  See www.rp-artistblacksmith.co.uk or email rp,artistblacksmith@gmail.com for details!

No 4 - Not gonna bother with silly titles anymore

Welcome to the first real blog of 2015.  Happy New Year!  Here is a blog by Neil Stuart reflecting on his first year at the forge.

 

Farming For Blacksmiths.

Just over a year ago Stepney City Farm invited me to set up my blacksmiths workshop in one of the 3 Rural Arts Centre workshops, this was an inviting proposition to me as I had just been asked to leave my workshop in Hackney due to re-generation (for the third time).

My first impression was the setting, in the shadow of the beautiful St Dunstan’s Church (one on the patron saints of blacksmithing) and Stepney Green.  Hard to imagine the farm is only a couple of miles from the city. The staff and management at the farm were welcoming and friendly.

Neil Stuart

The workshop proved suitable and I moved in and started work on 1st Jan 2014.  It seemed appropriate to be starting work on 1st. Jan the business and the farm were heading into a new year.  One of the first things to do once the workshop became functional was to decide the direction I wanted for the workshop in the future.  So it was decided we would have a kind of constitution.

·         To promote traditional values and techniques in blacksmithing wherever possible.

·         To actively pass on the trade through free courses, paid courses, trainee schemes.

·         To move the blacksmithing trade towards becoming a viable 21st century business.  Including small business management.

Well 1 year on how have we done?

We have had a good year in all three areas, we have had the opportunity to do a good selection of high quality traditional and modern artistic ironwork.

Richard Pace has become an associate of the workshop and is doing really well with the courses.  www.blacksmithingcourses.co.uk

Richard Pace instructing a husband & wife

 

We have two volunteer trainees one of which is starting his own workshop.

Billy Forging a Taper

Terry in Action

During our courses we pass on hints and tips to running a workshop in the 21st. century.

Neil Stuart forging a scroll iron

While we have been doing all this, vegetables have grown, lambs and goats have been born and the farm and the blacksmith have survived another year.

Neil Stuart Design Blacksmith

neilsteel@designblacksmith.co.uk - www.designblacksmith.co.uk

There are still places on the Tricks of the Trade 4 day intensive blacksmithing course we are running in August email – rp.artistblacksmith@gmail.com – for details.

I have also started a twitter thingy @rp_blacksmith if you are interested.