stephen Furley

I've never actually seen a Striker hammer, but there's a video of one on You tube, and it sounds very noisy even when it's not actually doing anything. It looks and sounds very similar to the Alldays and Onions hammer at the forge where I did the course recently, and that one is certainly very loud; I don't think you'd want to work with it for long without ear protection. YouTube - Striker forging hammer Nice hammer, but note how the operator is having to shout to make himself heard even when the hammer isn't actually hitting anything.

There are about three or four trains per day from London to Telford, no doubt more from Birmingham, but the journey onward from there by bus seems to be difficult. From London there are several trains each hour to Birmingham, from there frequent trains run to Kidderminster, and from there, at weekends and certain other days, the Severn Valley Railway run steam trains, a few times each day, to Bridgnorth, but the railway no longer goes beyond there. There are buses from Bridgnorth to Ironbridge, but they seem to be slow, infrequent and irregular, and it's just about impossible to do the trip from London in a day. Since Ironbridge is supposed to be a major tourist attraction you'd think you would be able to buy a combined rail, bus ad admission ticket from London, but you can't; and why the place doesn't have a decent bus service, I don't know.

I've never been to Ironbridge; it's quite difficult to get to. There are some videos of it here: YouTube - Blists Hill Ironworks, Ironbridge April 2008 YouTube - Blists Hill Victorian Town Ironworks The hammer is quite small by steelworks standards, but very large by blacksmiths standards. I don't really like the way they run around with the iron between the furnace, the hammer and the rolling mill. Maybe it's historically accurate, but it looks distinctly dangerous, and I can't see any need for it; a lump of iron that size keeps it's heat for quite a while, and a few extra seconds to walk with it wouldn't make much difference. The hammer seems to deliver single blows, unlike a modern air hammer, and needs two people to operate it. There's a small steam hammer at the forge where I did my one-day course recently, but it's long dis-used, certainly since the '50s when the chimney was demolished and the boilers scrapped, but possibly since the '40s, when the steam pumping engines were taken out of use. One of the engines was run occasionally in the '50s, so at least one of the boilers must still have been usable at that time, but having to fire up a Lancashire boiler just to do a few minutes work on a small steam hammer obviously wouldn't have been an attractive proposition.

Make sure the end of the bar is cut square, and file a small chamfer around it. Make sure that you do this evenly around the bar. Small threads like this are normally cut with a one-piece split circular die. The die-stock for these has three screws; the center one has a point which goes into the split in the die, and the two side ones fit into small depressions in the die. Start by loostening the two side screws and tightening the centre one to open the die as far as possible. After taking the first cut try the fit, and if too tight then loosten the centre screw slightly and tighten the side ones. This will close the die slightly and you can take another cut. Repeat until you get the fit right. Always cut the female thread first, as the size of this will be fixed by the size of the tap; only the die is adjustable.

It's been almost two months since my day at Kath's forge, and almost as long since I've been here; pressure of work. Things are starting to quieten down a bit now, so I'm going to write to Kath this weekend and try to arrange another day soon. I'll post some pictures of what I make.

Does anybody have a steam hammer, still running on steam?

I think I've only ever seen one bottom blast one, and it was an unusual design. It's in the lifting shop at Didcot Railway Centre, and it's circular, with the conical smoke hood suspended from the roof, and not attached to it in any way, so it's clear to work right around it, 360 degrees.

I think I've only ever seen one bottom blast one, and it was an unusual design. It's in the lifting shop at Didcot Railway Centre, and it's circular, with the conical smoke hood suspended from the roof, and not attached to it in any way, so it's clear to work right around it, 360 degrees.

I think the next time I go back the poker will be going with me for a bit of 'tweaking'. I would definitely recommend Kath's one-day course to anybody in the London area who wants to have a go at blacksmithing; the forge is very well equipped, and Kath is a good instructor. When I did it the cost was 90 pounds, which included material, coke, instruction and loan of protective equipment if required. I had my own boots, but needed apron, goggles and gloves. I'd prefer to work without gloves, but got a blister at the base of my thumb. I've found the other member who did the same course; it was Bob JS. His review of it is here: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/my-first-tongs-day-tuition-10774/ As can be seen, his poker was better than mine. Kath does not run these courses on a regular basis; she only takes two students at a time, and will run one when she has two people waiting who can make the same day, and she is not too busy with her own work. I first contacted her on 26th of June, and she was able to offer me a place on 15th of August. It is probably best to contact her by e-mail; her address is in the magazine article which I linked to in my first post in this thread.

I think the next time I go back the poker will be going with me for a bit of 'tweaking'. I would definitely recommend Kath's one-day course to anybody in the London area who wants to have a go at blacksmithing; the forge is very well equipped, and Kath is a good instructor. When I did it the cost was 90 pounds, which included material, coke, instruction and loan of protective equipment if required. I had my own boots, but needed apron, goggles and gloves. I'd prefer to work without gloves, but got a blister at the base of my thumb. I've found the other member who did the same course; it was Bob JS. His review of it is here: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/my-first-tongs-day-tuition-10774/ As can be seen, his poker was better than mine. Kath does not run these courses on a regular basis; she only takes two students at a time, and will run one when she has two people waiting who can make the same day, and she is not too busy with her own work. I first contacted her on 26th of June, and she was able to offer me a place on 15th of August. It is probably best to contact her by e-mail; her address is in the magazine article which I linked to in my first post in this thread.

I was looking at Vaughans site this afternoon, ant it struck me that most things there seemed rather expensive; the tuyere gaskets in particular.

Hi Beth, My father was from Gloucestershire, Stroud, but he moved to London after the war. I went to the house in Stroud just once, while his mother was still living there, but I was only about three at the time, and don't remember anything about it. I've been to Cheltenham twice recently, and if I go again I'm going to try to find time to go to Stroud. I'm going to try to get another day at Kath's forge towards the end of October. It's a nice setup they've got there, very well equipped. Shelly wasn't there the day I went, I think she does mainly furniture, while Kath does just about anything.

I'm Stephen Furley, from London, England. Age 52, work as an I.T. Technician in a large College. Last month I did the one-day beginners' course which Kath Shortland runs at her forge at Kew in West London. I believe that somebody else here has done the same course, but I cannot remember their name. Mainly interested in architectural ironwork. There's an article about Kath here: Westside - Features This is the poker which I made on the course, and also a small 'S' hook. It's not as good as the one which the other member made, I'm not really happy with the shape of the crook, and I got the metal a bit too hot, and burned it. It's not too bad as a first effort though; the twist is ok, and there's always next time to do better.