AdrianWood

Many thanks for your comments guys, much appreciated.

After spending a day or so digging for foundations and pouring concrete, we chose a beautiful day to fit the gates. The client was delighted with them and is now eagerly awaiting his next set!.

I got into it about 11 years ago. I did a fine art degree then went to work at the V&A museum London. I was visiting my Brother in the North of England Who incidentally is a Farrier. I went with him to one of his friends forges, he let me hit a piece of hot metal, from the moment i hit i knew i wanted to be a blacksmith. Got back to London on the monday handed in my notice and started looking for Blacksmiths shops. I started at a forge four weeks later for a guy called Don Barker of York. I then moved to a general Fab shop. Then i was asked to work for a guy called Brian Russell of County Durham. He taught me a huge amount, i owe him big time, he is also a big smithing hero of mine!!! I was then given the opportunity to set myself up in business about 5 years ago and here i am!!

Welcome to IFI post some pictures of the work you have done, we love to see pics!!!!

Many thanks for the comments guys. The clients were over the moon with the basket. They were amazed how much heat the fire now gives out!!!

Fire basket and fire tools recently made. the back plate is 25mm thick plate about 1 meter x 700mm. Almost too heavy to comfortably lift!!

On some of the hammers i use less frequently i use tennis racket tape. it is very good at gripping, absorbs some of the shocks and so far i have had no blisters, cuts or abrasions. Seems to work ok for me, i guess it is what you get used to.

lovely lamp it looks like porcelain, what is the finish on it?

I would like to thank you all for your comments, they are greatly appreciated. Do any of you guys have any projects on the go at the moment? I would love to see what you are all up to, please send some pictures.

Just thought i would post some pictures of recent projects, there is a broad range of work completed showing the vastly different tastes of our clients. Thanks for viewing Adrian.:)

I have a friend called Jon Hall, who is a practicing smith in New Zealand, his site is Jon Hall Forgework Hope this is of some help.

The name of the book is " all the pretty horses" by Cormac Mc`Carthy

Here are a few more details and close up pics of the gates and railings

The book bag is based on an old style leather school satchel. It is made from 3mm sheet steel, and made slightly oversized to the original. The strap is made from 30x8mm flat bar fullered down the centre to give it a rounded shape. There were even some buckles that were made from 6mm round and had 30x8 as buckle straps.

Just thought i would post some images of a recent commission , i fitted the gates at Christmas but the weather was too awful to take photos, so i went back to touch up a few bits and take some pics.

Hi thanks for the compliments, the screws are bought straight from a fixings company, over here in the uk they are called square head coach screws, i believe in the states they are called `lag screws`!? They are zinc plated, all i do is use a triangle file on its edge, and file in the v shape. You can use a sharpened chisel and put the screw in a nail header tool and forge the pattern in. This is my usual method, but i was in a rush and the fire wasn`t on!! I used the torch to burn the plating off and just polished them up afterwards.

Just thought i would post an image of these coach screw heads. they were made for some acorn coat hooks i made for some oak doors and the client wanted something different to attach them to rather than plain standard screws.