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I Forge Iron

Hello from the UK


DeBena

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Hello,

I'm Luke from the south east UK, 20 miles south west of London. Very interested in blacksmithing, mainly the blade smithing aspect from a historical/mythical/fantasy viewpoint, though the tool making and art aspects interest me also. Looking to take a class in a local area just searching for good places that do classes at the moment but very keen on starting Blacksmithing.

Anyways Hello everyone,

DeBena

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Welcome to IFI. :)

Given your specific interest, I'd definitely recommend you also join British Blades ( www.britishblades.com ).
As for classes - again given your interest the best in the area would probably be Owen Bush ( www.owenbush.co.uk ). He's on the other side of London from you. Not too bad on the M25 - at the right time of day! ;) (yes, I'm a Brit)

40mins SW of London? That covers a LARGE area - anywhere from say Streatham to maybe as far as Brighton depending on traffic. :D :P

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Hi Luke and welcome to the site, I too was going to suggest contacting Owen regardin lessons, Our Guild has some members in the South East, and also connections with other 'smiths in the area, check out our website www.blacksmithsguild.com and if we can help out we will try. You could also try Metalwizardry, Merv does great blades

Enjoy your endeavours

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Welcome to IFI. You dont have to go too far to meet up with some great smiths! I know, I did on my trips to your great Island. Do check out my mate Godfrey South WWW Darenth Valley Forge UK He is emmigrating to Canada and flogging his excess blacksmith tools.

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Hi Luke,
welcome to IFI .
I teach classes and so does Dave Budd in devon. we both have different styles and set ups so have a look and see what you like.
I would also recommend having a look on british blades ads there is an awful lot of UK specific info there.
There is a forge in happening at Jack Hobsons on the 23 and 24th of july near croydon and its a Hoot . I go every year. you will find info in the events section of british blades. its a very very friendly gathering .

regarding swords and knives.
in theory there is not a lot of difference between the process of knife making and sword making.
In practice there is .....although you are going through basically the same steps of forging, grinding, heat treating sharpening and finishing . A sword will bring up problems at each stage that a knife does not .its mainly a length issue and keeping a long piece of steel even , strait , balanced untwisted, strait .....(did I mention strait).......swords are challenging. but like most challenges they are a very satisfying object to make, there is something special about a well balanced well made sword that takes them a little beyond just being a mere object.....
If I can be of assistance feel free to email me .
All the best Owen

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Hi,

thank you for the reply, I was looking at your website and was very interested, however I can't afford the sword making course which I would love to do, so I was considering the knife making course and just checking the differences between the two. I will look around British Blades as well.

Thank you for the advice,

DeBena

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