Declan Kenny

Allow me to clarify- by wrought iron I was refering to the actual material itself, the iron. Is anyone in Ireland making puddle process wrought iron these days? Is it available to you from Norway or Sweden at affordable prices? Dan Hi, Not sure to be honest. I'm still on the lookout for a decent supplier of tools and I will be frequenting scrap dealers for stock of both mild and high carbon steel. I have quite a few odds and ends in the workshop, and as I hope to make woodworking tools, I will use old files. But if I was a betting man I would say no. Ireland has done away with many of these types of businesses, either by accident or by design. But someone may correct me on that. Declan

Hi, I managed to get some pics online of the forge; odds and sods as you guessed. They're in the gallery section under my name. Cheers, Declan

Hi Dan, I'm in County Kildare, in a town called Leixlip, which is about 18kms west of Dublin, or 11 miles in old money. There seems to be precious little traditional craftwork going on in the country generally, certainly on a commercial scale, and anyone who claims to be doing wrought iron (e.g. gates) tends to be using welders and grinders to do the work, and occasionally making (or buying) a few scrolls and baskets to give it that 'olde worlde' feeling. The big problem is that no-one would actually pay to have a pair of gates made in the traditional way, not here anyway. Having talked a few of these guys in the past, it seems some of them can do the blacksmithing work but it doesn't pay. I got most of my tools from a forge that was part of a woodworking/furniture factory up the road. They would have made and repaired all their woodworking tools themselves on site. But these days just about all our furniture is imported, so this factory along with nearly all the other manufacturing industries in our town closed down. Cheers for now - will sign off - it's beginning to sound like a Bruce Springsteen song...! Dec

Hi all and thanks for the welcomes. I'm using lumpwood charcoal which keeps you fit (dodging the sparks) but it seems to give a good heat for now, and I'm guessing doesn't give the same problem with clinker as coke or coal? The hinges are finished and one day in the not too distant future I will look back and laugh but for now I'm a happy camper. Made a few nails too; it's amazing how many bits of metal in the workshop with holes in never realised that they were nail punches! I'll work out the images bit and post a few pics tomorrow. Thanks again.

...okay, so I lied about the sunny bit. After several years of poking around and doing a couple of blacksmithing courses, I finally collected all the bits to build my own forge (and made a place to put them in). I have an old Champion hand-cranked blower (complete with bearings that are pretty shot) hooked up to an old tuyere/pot salvaged from an old forge. This all sits in a galvanised bin. The lid of the bin is the hood and a piece of 4 inch flexi pipe and an old computer fan takes out (some/most) of the smoke through a flue out of the roof of the workshop. A few firebricks surround the forge itself. I salvaged several sets of old tongs and sets, etc. plus a really solid blacksmith's vice, all from the same old forge. The anvil I bought in the north of Ireland. I fired it all up tonight and made one half of a hinge; the early mediaeval style hinges. Tomorrow I hope to finish the set. Then I just to have to make the chest, and a few nails, and... well, I suspect this is the beginning of a long and rewarding journey. If I can work out the technical bits I can put up a few images of the forge. If nothing else it's an interesting and cheap solution (though I was lucky finding an old forge in my village that needed to be cleaned out.) Cheers for now, Declan