female_blacksmith

I really like your shoe. Love the quality, the style, the techniques used, your imagination and your skill ! Mmnnn... I rather fancy having a go at making one. You have inspired me.

wow ! I love all the texture and everything about them really. Would love to have seen the demo for sure. Just out of interest, how long did it take you from start to finish to make this deer antler ?

I am envious of your ' big boys toys ' Spears and I really like the idea of using the sheet metal cutouts to create texture in a medallion form, and the fact you can pump them out in large nos. ( good ' bread and butter money ' ) I also really like your lollipops chyan.... The primitive look really appeals to me, they are such fun.

Loving the clean, crisp, manicured look that the leather adds. Can not wait to see more photos as it progresses.

I have a single burner Tabasco forge from 2006 and love it. Their customer service then was superb and recently contacted them with a query. I got an answer the following day. I would thoroughly recommend Chiliforge and would even buy another forge from them; but I do not need too because mine still runs beautifully !

I have just booked my flights. I am definitely coming. Yeah, can't wait !

Hi Phil, Moonies definitely current in my mind, looking forward to it ! Will look out for AoCs trad tools forging day too, not that I know what Aoc stands for ?

Hi Larry H, great to see the video and much prefer the forged look to a stamped out version. My gas forge is too small to fit a shovel blank in but I heated mine up in a friends wood feed ceramic forge outside, pulled it out and hammered it around a log lying nearby. It was then curled up enough to fit through my small forge opening and texture it on the anvil and then use the last heat to open the shovel to the appropriate size. I was very pleased with the result. Thanks for sharing your ideas too !

What a great idea. I really like them !

Hello drax, Welcome ! Where abouts are you based in Australia. I live in Townsville.

I really like your door knocker and would love to see you carry on and forge all the components to attach to the horseshoe for the next one you make. How will you fix it to the door ? The size is wonderful to me, makes a real statement !

Hi John, brings back many happy memories of the Guild. Glad to see it is so well supported. I would definitely recommend these courses to everyone. Great to see !

Great video, fast pace very appealing to me, watched with a big grin on my face. Liked your forge work too !

Lol...I love it ! That snow backdrop is pretty impressive too.

Randy, I have a copy of that book too, must refer to it more often. And Beth, I love what you have done so far. Very jealous you have a power hammer !

Wow, this took some reading and thank goodness we are all so different and all react in different ways to the same questions. This site is new to me and not being very computer savvy I do struggle to find information at times, but I am trying to check in every day and find out new things. More so because I work alone and know no other blacksmiths nearby so this site is invaluable. Being new, I am also extremely grateful to every single person that has posted an answer to my questions.
For myself personally, I love to share my knowledge with anyone that is interested and infact, if I see metalwork that I think would benefit from forging skills and would really improve their design and open up their world to even greater things, I speak to that person and ask if they would be interested in learning basic forging skills and offer to teach them. I really do not mind if they take what I know and go on to do even bigger and better things than me. I really want them too. I want them to share what I know with the world so that ' pure forge work ' never dies !

Hi Dale, I am really hoping to come though not decided on how to get there yet, still costing up my options and thank you to Matt for your kind offer. it will involve flying though so limited in equipment again !!

I shall look forward to that...great

Hello again, just thought I would say I have moved to Townsville, Nth Queensland incase there is any budding blacksmiths, enthusiasts etc. that live nearby and would like to get together.

Hi Ian, been on holiday hence the delay in responding back to you. So glad you introduced yourself, I would never have guessed who you were. Lol. Thanks for the website info. I shall investigate. My finishes should be much improved with all the information I have generously been given on this site. I shall look forward to seeing some of your work too. Happy with the positive comments I have had on my fire sets, was a little unsure. May even contact the customer to let her know I have finished them. It must be starting to get chilly in the evenings down your way now. Lol..... love the tropics here.

Hello to all. Have been on holiday so just catching up with the extra posts. Thank you so much. it has been a really steep learning curve and I really do appreciate everyones suggestions. So much still to learn ! I love this site and I love all your generosity. Now I must get on and try some of them out.

Possibly, though I do not fancy driving from Townsville. I did it once and that was enough.......... Never again !

Does this mean I can not put on a hot wax finish and clear coat it afterwards ?

I love how you have made the free flowing movement in the mane. How have you made your horses head so shiny and what finish have you put on, how are you going to wall mount it ? I would feel very pleased with myself too if I had made it.

When I lived in UK I went to a lot of these shows and I loved every second of being there. The fabulous thing for me starting out was that it cost me nothing other than petrol to get there and a trailer turned up with all the gear on board to set up. it really does not matter how little you know and you will get in lots of practice, practice, practice ! The public love to watch even if you are only putting a point on the end of something and the other blacksmiths there always knew more than me so I never tired of anything to learn and discover. It was also good to sell a little hook or two or sometimes more. Hope this post encourages people to take the plunge and get involved. You will not regret it and it would be terrible to lose this ' free ' facility !