We had a new three day course to introduce people to the Blacksmiths craft, there were five on the course (should have been six but one had a domestic crisis at the last moment and he had to postpone to another course)

The course covered the basic skills and joining methods required to make many objects, they can now go away and build on these basic skills.

The ladies had not done any blacksmithing before, others had differing experience, a carpenter, farmer and farrier.

Here is what they produced.


A very gratifying outcome for all concerned

I would say the smiles say it all. It must be very gratifying to see them.

Good jobs well done & the Guild doing a good job too.

brilliant john! they look very chuffed - the work looks good too! it shows what can be done with a bit of help eh? the guild Rocks :)

brilliant john! they look very chuffed - the work looks good too! it shows what can be done with a bit of help eh? the guild Rocks :)

Not much help Beth, just guidance.

but john, guidance IS quite helpful... ;)

Impressive amount of work to get done in 3 days.

The guy in the picture on the far right came to the animal heads course as well, with his son.
Nice bloke. Very chatty and handy with the hammer as well.

Hi Tom, Yes he is handy with the hammer, he is the farrier, but is finding this side of the business somewhat challenging, He had an operation some six moths ago and is only now getting back into considering working again, using this as therapy and a possible way to go as the horse work is becoming more difficult for him, also enjoying working alongside his son.

I'l try and post some pics from the animal heads course

I had a good chat with him about his farrier work and his son trying to follow in his footsteps.
Poor bloke had a terrible cough.

I look forward to seeing the pictures from the animal heads course. I will try and take some photo's of my stuff tonight.
I found my camera in the end, down the side of a sofa at home. Absolutely no idea how it gone down there.

Hi John, brings back many happy memories of the Guild. Glad to see it is so well supported. I would definitely recommend these courses to everyone. Great to see !

hi john you dont no me but i am here in Australia , I a friend of female blacksmith its good to see the interest in the smithing is still trying to forge ahead lolo
we here are hosting a gathereing on the last weekend in october here at my forge workshop we get about 30 or more attending we try to keep the spirit alive
the trouble here in australia is its a big country an a lot of travel is needed to attend the forgein that are held but we try to offer as much forge time to all
this year we are having a gas forge making demo by a registered gas fitter , and we will have tool making demos as well

keep up the forge classes

Thanks Moony, Say Hi to Denise for me, its good to hear she's still working at it, it's hard to keep track of her, but its always a pleasure when she does communicate.

We just had about 30 attending our AGM and forge in weekend, You too keep up the good work, hard, but enjoyable.

looks like a great class.
well done to teacher and students.