GNJC

I have not refurbished steels, but I have made a couple of them. Both were pretty course since the best ways I could come up with to create the grooves was to repeatedly pull the steel along a fine cut saw or the edge of a file. I have a particular interest in old (18th Century) cooking gear and have not come across any instructions for or records of the making of butchers' steels. I guess that file cutters may have made sharpening steels too, any info' or thoughts on this from anyone?

The Thame Show was good, lots of interest in blacksmithing and the Guild - so there will be new students for courses at Westpoint & future members. Many thanks to John B for coming and to a new member also called John (surname unknown by me). People not called John are also welcome to attend shows, in fact I would encourage them to do so. (I am not anti-Johns but I do feel that the Guild shouldn't restrict itself to such a limited class of member.) The next show will be at Mapledurham House in Reading on the 4th, 5th & 6th of May. I will post reminders as these dates approach.

Yves, this chap is somewhere near you, any traditional suggestions?

Thomas, do you mean anywhere or for within North America?

Check your PM. Email me if you need more info. The book you mention is new(ish) and not entirely accurate in some of its depictions and text, although not bad overall. The best book is Seymour Lindsay's 'Iron and Brass Implements'.

Only a relatively basic use of language is necessary to learn the basics: hit it here / there; like this; harder / softer; turn it over / around / X degrees; lift it; yes / no; wait; stop; darker / lighter; quick / slow; now etc. If you can understand these you should be fine.

So far I have confirmations from Guild members Tom and Igor that they will be joining me at Thame on March 31st - April 1st, which is good news. Any others will also be very welcome to do demo's or just chat to the public. Remember, skill level is not an important factor here (or I wouldn't be going!), whether you are a master or a beginner you will still be able to pass on some knowledge and enthusiasm to the public which will all be to the craft's good.

That's good news Tom. I'll be in contact in a few days. Anybody else who is considering coming, please do! The more the merrier and the more that is learned.

Here are the entries for May 1905.

I've purchased an old smith's ledger covering from April 1905 to September 1906. It has no owner's name in it or location, however I have done a location search for the clients' names (e.g. Madgwick & Pickard) and there is about a 90% chance it is from Yorkshire and about a 10% chance it is from Devon. It has entries for all sorts of work, as you'ld expect for a rural smith, but it's the prices as well as the variety of work that I find interesting e.g.: four shoes two shillings & 8 pence; shovel repair 6 pence; barrow wheel 4 shillings; new end to chisel 2 pence; repair candlestick & poker 1 shilling. Four shoes for named horses are typically 3 shillings (preumably because the named horses were bigger working beasts). At the back of the book are some entries for 1937, by then four shoes were 7 shillings - inflation! If anyone out there is researching such information I'll be happy to supply pic's of the pages.

Hmm... I was under the impression that you were doing things on a (semi) commercial basis. If it's a hobby, unless you are creating a significant nuisance via noise or fumes, there is no chance of being told to stop at all. Given the location and distance from a neighbour I'd say that you've nothing to worry about. The footpath is an irrelevance, if your 'friend' - or anyone else - can only experience a nuisance by stopping on the footpath across your field (which theoreticaly they should not do, since it is a right of way with no right to stop for any extended period) it is not a nuisance, since they are imposing it upon themselves.

Are you a 'sole trader', if so, it would make your position much more tenable.

Thanks for that Owen, I'll let you take a look as and when. I've been doing a bit of asking around and have found a farrier / smith that this has happened to as well. As I wrote, I'm going to try and get a fully forged one. If they were still mking them I'd do by best to afford one.

Common sense already posted above. I was involved in a fair number of planning / licensing applications (professionally in my ‘real’ job). I think that before you approach the council you would be well advised to look at their ‘strategic’ (Ha!) plan for local development. And then, from the start, frame your application around whatever will fit best with their plan, be it as light industrial, a rural craft, a creative art or what have you. Once you have got something you think they will like, follow John’s suggestion and have a chat with some of the staff at the planning dep’t – face to face if possible. Don’t waste money on legal advice, or from any other ‘expert’ regarding the paperwork; it is usually bulky, but it isn’t complicated and the council’s staff are there to help you through it – get some tax back!

Hmm... Thanks for that, I had no idea that there even was a weld there until now and I think it a bad thing that there is. In fact, I think it is daft to have a weld at all and especially there since that's the place (just above the collar) subject to the most stress. I've got no gas / electric welding kit, so it will have to go off elsewhere to be fixed; I'm sure it will be good for a while once done. But I need a vice now! I'll trawl through the nearest ones on ebay and grab a replacement a.s.a.p.; if possible I'll get one that has a one-piece forged jaw/leg.

I bought this vice five years ago, I don't think it was very old then, and have used it for 'normal' work. Today I put a piece of steel in it to file the end and noticed that the jaws were vertically mis-aligned. This seemed odd and a quick examination revealed why... anyone else had this happen?

There's more than one size and type of knife! What about small skinning knives, kitchen knives, spoon carving knives (twca cam - in Welsh), or chisels and gouges? Smaller files could be used for any of these.

Hello all, The first show I'll be attending on behalf of the Guild this year will be the Thame Country Fair - at Thame, Bucks - on 31st march -1st April. All are welcome and if you have current guild membership (a bargain at £20 per year) it costs you nothing to have a table or two at the show to sell your ironwork and promote your skills. Come for either day or both days, do demonstrations if you want or just chat to the visitors. This goes for the other shows we'll be attending too and I shall be posting the dates and locations for those in the coming weeks. If you want to come along please let me know. Giles

I had a conversation about this with John B a few months ago and he made the point that - in the UK anyway - almost all work a blacksmith now does is a 'luxury', fabricators being able to make most things quicker and cheaper. On consideration, I think he was pretty much right. The trade is certainly not dying, far from it, but I guess that its size will rise and fall with the spending power of the middle clases.

I'm not going to advise you in re' smithing itself or courses because I'm an amateur, but on the business side... Make the most of the re-training courses you'll be offered, particularly book-keeping and small business management. Initially, it would probably be better for you to work for someone else; that way you can get your hand back into the type of work necessary and see what the market offers you for various kinds of work. After that, if you really think it's viable, you could start you own business. Do be careful with your redundancy pay and any resettlement money you get; don't invest any more than a small part in your business until you're sure it's a winner. Don't take out long rents or contracts for anything - the terms may seem better, but if your business sinks the last thing you need is to see money going to things no longer needed. Whereas, if the business flies, the slightly higher prices paid short-term won't really hurt and you can change to other deals when you like. When / if you start don't get anything on credit, cash or debit only. Most important of all, don't take out any more than a bare minimum of money from the business when you start. Best of British.

Albert, take a squint at John B's post 'Introduction to blacksmith's tools' in the tools I.D. section. It shows a butcher and its follow-up tool the side-set hammer. I think he as also done a tutorial on tenon making showing their use step by step - but I can't find that. I only started using a butcher last summer and only made my self a side-set just before Yule. (In fact, in my case it is a front-set, more helpful for me for various reasons...) Both make a huge difference when forging rivets, tenons and so forth - the job is quiker and simpler.

I used a hand-cranked blowe for a my first few years and it was fine on all fuels once a fire was started; but, getting coke to light was a real effort (in every sense of the word!). The price sounds fair. Use a good grease once you get it and it will be fine. I did find that a 'shroud' over mine made a big difference, since it seemed to attract more forge dust than I'd have thought possible. Keep hunting for the retiring smith, there could be a bargain mine and if you don't the stuff will either be poshed or scrapped... both awful fates for good tools. If you find him and there are things you don't want or can't take, please let us know about them to avoid said fates.

There is an enormous amount of information available to you on the internet, nowhere better than this site though. Some of the demonstrations on youtube are good, some are frighteningly dangerous, but then so are some smiths! I don't think anything will be better than face to face instruction but... there is a very good book, and accompanying DVD, by Peter Parkinson. The book is called 'The Artist Blacksmith' and the DVD is 'Artist Blacksmithing'. Everything is well illustrated / filmed and explained in simple terms, progressing from first principals upwards. Don't take too much notice of the word 'Artist'. Both book and DVD are all about conveying the information necessary to a beginner and cover the tools used, how to use them and then the building-block techniques of the craft: upsetting; drawing down; cutting; punching; twisting; bending; joining (rivets, welds, tenons etc.).

There was a film on youtube from Jack Hargreaves' series 'Out of Town' that showed a more modern version of this in the UK in the 1970s. I've tried to find a link but it seems to have gone.

Yves, don't put too much trust in info' from Bealer about historical cooking equipment. I've been studying the subject for years and have only ever come across one reference to genuine antique skewers in that style (shown in 'The American Hearth' by Barons & Card). All others I have come across in colonial North America and the Old World at that time were flat. I do a lot of meat cooking with fire and can tell you that the benefit of flat skewers is clear, they don't twist and come loose in use. The only exceptions to flat skewers are presentational ones, usually with decorative ends, and those used in hasteners (Dutch ovens) which were more like substantial wire and fitted into one of the small holes running along the internal spit. For illustrations a good book to start with is 'Iron and Brass Implements or the English and American House' by John Seymour Lindsay. But, guessing you are francophone, a better book for Quebec might be Lecoq's 'Les Objets de la vie Domestique'. (Expensive because hard to find) There is a Canadian book 'Hearth and Home' by Fiona Lucas, that shows many implements, but I can't see any skewers clearly pictured. If you want some info' from Lecoq's book, p.m. me an email address and I'll scan and send some to you.