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Hey Fellows! Those of you who frequently read my posts, respectively watch my videos, might already know that I try to work with as many blacksmiths as possible. Especially those in my youngster age. And also that I always have my camera at hand to capture the best moments for me and those that are interested in it as well. So was it that I visited Alec in England over the Easter holly days. I´ve already worked with him two times before and he is not only a colleague, but also became a good friend of mine. We had four days to work, but unfortunately I´ve been sick in the beginning, so we weren´t be as productive as we could have been. Nevertheless we made a bunch of very cool tools both for me and Alec and also some nice artistic items. Furthermore it was a good preparation for he demo at the NWBA in a few months. This is all we´ve produced (On the huge sledge I´ve only made a new handle): This is what I´ve taken home with me: Our last project: A Brazeal style fullering hammer (not a rounding hammer) from 40mm square 1045 steel: One day I was so sick that I could not forge. So I decided to film Alec whilst forging and we made a real little image film for his work. I put all my expertise and efford in the filming and the edit and I really hope it paid for it! (For who is interested: Camera: Canon EOS 650D (Rebel T1i), Lens: EF 24-70mm f/2,8 L II USM) But see yourselves: Last year Alec was on tour with the YoungSmiths, which is an international group of - who guessed it - youngs blacksmiths that was founded by Brian Brazeal. They traveled around the USA and gave public demos. I am always impressed, what skills this young lad, who only reaches up to my chest and is with 15 still three years younger than me, already has. This year I am supposed to also take a course at Brian´s and join the YoungSmiths as well! So my visit at Alec´s place also was meant as a preparation for summer. We also filmed a tutorial about how to forge cranes: There are some more video that are not edited yet. If I decide to upload them I´ll post them here later. I hope you enjoyed my little diary! I am looking forward to a lot of very cool experiences and good crafsmanship with Alec, Brian and the YoungSmiths in summer. This was it from me so far! Yours - Daniel

Hey Guys, during my autumn holly days I paid Julien Puy a visit in his shop near Dijon in France. I stayed with his family for four days. I helped him out in the shop, therefore he showed me some cool new stuff. He used to be a blacksmithing instructor for four years and did a lot of traveling around the world especially USA, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic. On the first day we made this clothes hanger: The second day we made two Brazeal style rounding hammers. One was for a customer of Julien, he was forging and I was striking. Here you can see a video of it: After that we made a second one for me. I forged and he striked. Unfortunately there is no video of it... Toolsteel with a carbon content of 0,48% was used, pretty similar to 1045 or C45 steel. The handle I made myself from African hardwood. The hammer head ways somewhat around 3lbs. It is hardened and partially tempered at the cheeks. The all-in-all price for that one was 150€ (~200$). The next day we made inter alia this axe blank from pure iron I will weld in a cutting edge and finish it soon: