Gobae and Aeneas,
was just reading through this thread and saw the comments about having to forge on knees vs. squatting position-
I have experience working in India using an earth forge, very similar to that pictured. The Indians always worked in a squat position and were incredibly adept and nimble at forging in this manner. They could jump up and displayed amazing agility in this position.The anvil was sometimes raised and strikers would stand depending on the item being forged.
If you look at societies (tribal) that live very close to nature, you find that many of them adopt this squatting position. If you watch babies and children, it is a natural way for the human body to move, we westerners tend to lose this way of using our bodies because we do things like sit in chairs, etc. I found it ridiculously difficult at first, but soon got used to it as the muscles/tendons in my legs stretched.
Ancient Celtic society and these blacksmiths in Rajasthan may be very different in culture and very far away from each other in geographical distance, and I am also no expert but the similarities struck me when I read your posts.
Oh, and regards to using cloth for a sun shade, you can buy flame retardant sprays to treat the cloth (I used to use a product called Flamebar on canvases I painted with good results)
- Colleen