Johannes

wow, nice ones richard!

just my trusty stiff farriers apron, and for bigger work/fire, i aditionaly wear a heavy sleavless leather vest top of it.

i agree woth frosty, more vines, !! but verry nice work altogether, like the shape and proportions.. but i don't really see the practical use of the object... or is it more ornamental...

hi Keith, i'm not much of a religious person myself, but i must say I really like your crosses, verry elegant, original and serene...verry nice work!! kind regards, Johannes

Thank you all for you hartwarming sympathy and good advises... I spoke to my teacher in farrier school, and luckely i can post phone my final pracktikal exams to nex year. I 'v decided that i'm going to clean up my smithy and improve smoke evacuation on my forge (right now i get complaints from the neihgbours when the wind coms from the wron direction..), also i'm going to make a list with project i wand to do, en dmake the design and research work for them ready in difirent files, also some scrouching for stock will be a good investment... i'm going to try and do some work with my left , but only verry light work, it is as fosty and as Rich said, turning twisting holding firm.... al thing to avoid ... never taught about working silver wire..maybe a good idea to visit an old lady friend of mine who's a jewelery designer... thanks guy's, i was feelling really down about not beeing abletograduate,and to work the forge... but your kind words and good advise has helped me see things more positive... I'l keep ya'l informed about the progress, and i'l be posting a tread here soon for my smoke problem, as soon as i can get some pictures to explain the specific situation. kind regards, and best wishes, Johannes

hi all, I't been a while since my last post, but i havn't been doing any blacksmithing work , i had a little accident, and broke my wrist, an injury called a scafoid fracture, after 5 weeks cast it is still not healed properly, i have to wear a removable support for an another 4 weeks, and then the doctor will decide... but whats even worse is, that i won't be able to do any blacksmithing work for at least an another 3 months (the pounding of an heavy hammer would be devastating)... so now i am thinking about trying to blacksmith with my left arm (I have done the same with my day job, but that is more drawing and computer work)... anybody ever done this? and also, does anybody know of any interesting projects for me to do when i can't smith... things that will help me in my education as a blacksmith? I'm already doing allot of reading. well ,any suggestions welcome! kind regards Johannes

hey chris, welcom to the club of aprentice farriers! I'v been at it for a while now, and after 2 years of shooling i hope to graduate this june, here in belgium we still have an oficial scholing systhem for farriers. so thats my advice, go find a good school, and lean as much as you can about the anatomy of an hoof, but also practise, practise practise! regards, en all teh luck in the world!

really nice !! one of the best, if not the verry best gate designs that i ever saw!!! how did you come up with the idea? did you make drawings forehand? can we see them? really congratulations,.. i'm in full ahwwww!

lots od greath info in this post!! my plan is to combine blacksmiting with working as a farrier, that was a traditional combination around here, do ornamental and general repair work in winter time when the work on the horses is slow, but make your main income out of shoeing horses in summer en spring... its just a plan, don't know if it will work, so for now i'm still keeping my dayjob as a designer. annyone around here who combines blacksmith and farrier?

I hope for you that that farrier is one who uses old fashioned rasps, cause the newer and cheaper ones ar'n good quality steel, but instead just case hardned mild steel, you could make a thing or two out of them, but they'l, be no good for a knife. regards

those daimondback forges look realy nice.. but shiping to belgium is a bit costly.. :-( so i'l be building one myself some day....., when i have scrouched all kind of scrap to use as meterial for this project.. :-)

I use a shield as my oficial logo, but its partely our historical family shield, so i have bound the layout to the ruels of ofcial heraldy, i'l post a pic of it here as soon as my external hard drive is working again

casting a sword... take anny object in cast steel that is thinner than 1 cm, hit it with an hammer and it(l break... cast isnt flexible like forged, a zword need to be a bit flexible and hard at the same time...

annybody ever tried taxus?