bruce wilcock

there are no trees in Shetland,so no tree stories, :cry:

the only one i missed out on ,is the 8 in line starting parafin engines with a burning rag putting corks into motorbike cluch plates

been away for a week and still to catch up ,on the posts well as to following home i went to a yard and saw a big fly press oa its side with weeds growing through it ,so i got out my rule and gave it once over ,there was no one around so i found a bar and stood it up ,i had a horse to shoe so i went to shoe the horse thinking to grab it later .Got the shoes on the nag,went back and the press had gone// well nothing for it but go home ,all the time wishing i hadnt stood it up ,for the world to see .back at the smithy stood infront of the door ,the fliy press, i had to move it to get in. a day or so later a man that worked at the yard told me the boss saw me ,and told them to take it my budding smithy ,to stop me from pinching it ,and if i had he wouldnt let me in the yard again , he never charged me for it and never spoke about it, until i mentiond it and he told me he thought i was going to take it the way i was looking around, and didnt want me to get into ,bad habits,

yes the job looks right, the tube i use is a lot heavier more like hollow bar, the forge is a pan about 1 ft deep and 3ft or so sq i make them 3 by 5 ft ,, the smallest would be 2 ft sq 1/ 8 plate will do set the pipe about 3-4 ins down from the top of the sides ,8 ins spacer under the pipe welded to the pan bottom to hold it in place place fire bricks on the pan bottom 3-4 ins thick no need to cover all the bottom if you havent the bricks 18 in sq under the pipe will do then fill up with sand old foundry sand is the best but any sand that will ram up will do damp the sand and ram it in make the nest as you spoke about leaving a covering over the bricks under the pipe and ram a bank with the pipe poking out 1 ins the sand will come to the top of the forge at the sides then lay a pice of plate from the edge sloping down on the sand at the side you work 6 in or so wide and 2-3 ft long to give somthing to slide your work peice down into the fire aim it to be ,mid way from the pipe and the forge pan top so the job will be steered into the center of the fire and thats it all sand ramed hard 1/2 a hour s work and your away the clinkers lift of and if you want to go down the purist uk throw broken fire bricks or soap stone 3 ins deep shovell sand in then dig a turf with short grass on turn it over and make the harth bed with that and cover with soil make the nest and away you go suprising the number of worms and so in a sq yard of sod but it works well this has definetly taken longer to type than do and proberly made a pair of shoes in the fire as well

managed to set a glass fiber three wheel reliant car on fire, it was going to be renovated for a colection, well i changed that idea, when we saw it afire the man that was striking for me tipped the slack tub over it and put it out .we just told him we were there first, and he could see what we were doing, and dont park cars with leaky gas tanks so close

now you have choked us all with the pic of your new shop,and shook me into reroofing the big hammer shed after 30 years of rusting, you should go all the way and make a brickwork chimmney brest and stack ,and then a smart brickwork forge with brick arch and canopy it would make a great focal point to a splendid job ,

irnsrgn beat me by a nano second thats why i have a beard,i can shave no bother its keeping the mirror still , a coopers horse for making barrell staves is a usfull tool we still have one ,the problem is it gets buried and unless you have a lot of work for it its as easiy to use a vice than dig it out of the pile of wood that grows over it

we used pine saw dust in drop hammer dies the entire works got full of smoke on a still day and if you got to mutch on the forgings had a pitted finish and the dies opened like a bomb ,terrible stuff,fine if some one eles is using it and you are paying them well to use it