Dagwood

Sounds good, I hope you get to finish. Sorry to hear about your friend.

I have only been smithing for a few months now but already I've had good and bad experiences with wearing gloves. Last week I managed to get a hot coal down my hammer hand glove. It must have been in there 2 seconds before I noticed. Now I have a very tender spot on my wrist! 

Other than that I think that wearing the gloves all the time gives you too much confidence in holding hot metal so the chances of picking up a hot piece with bare hands is always a risk if you are used to working with gloves. 

Any more progress Ivan?  Sounds like a great project.

Simon