So, just in case you needed an excuse to fire up the forge tonight, Happy St. Dunstan's day! 

 

Honor May 19th, feast day of the patron saint (well, one of them, anyways) of blacksmithing, they guy reputed to have nailed a horseshoe to the devil himself.

 

Me? I'm gonna finish a spearhead I was working on this weekend and start a new pocketknife to replace the one I broke last week doing something stupid.

 

wish I had known earlier I am home from the shop now and it is some miles away and here it is evening

I'm going to ring the anvil in his honour---

 

St Dunstan as the story goes

Once pull'd the Devil by the nose

With red-hot tongs  which made him roar

that he was heard 3 miles or more

Yes, Happy St. Dunstan's Day!

Hmm, we have a local micro-brewery here called 'Silversmiths'. As good St. Dunstan is patron saint of that trade, I believe a celebratory pint of their fine brew may be in order today...

Print out the info on him and ask about their St Dunstan's Day Discount!

Now that sir, is a fine idea!

Dunstan is reputed to have nailed four crescent shaped, red hot shoes on the devil's hind, cloven feet. This was done after the devil had been led by the nose with red hot tongs to the work table where he was dogged down. Thence, he was released and led again by the nose to the shop portal where he was kicked out unceremoniously and told never to hang around smithies.

 

Sayings and Cornpone

What is the difference between a duck?

 

One of their legs are both the same.

Have a good one everybody 

George

You also..  weather is gonna be nice enough to fire up the forge...:)

St Dunstan, as the story goes,
Once pull'd the devil by the nose
With red-hot tongs, which made him roar,
That he was heard three miles or more.
 

or for an earlier take on this story:

(from stories of St Dunstan: http://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2012/05/stories-of-st-dunstan-4-dunstan-and.html  )

þe deuel he hente bi þe nose & wel faste drou;
He twengde & ssok hure bi þe nose þat þe fur out blaste.
þe deuel wrickede here & þere & he huld euere faste,
He 3al & hupte & drou a3en & made grislich bere.
He nolde for al is bi3ete þat he hadde icome þere!
Wiþ is tonge he strok is nose & twengde him euere sore,
Forte it was wiþinne ni3te þat he ne mi3te iseo namore.
þe ssrewe was glad & bliþe inou þo he was out of is honde
And flei & gradde bi þe lift þat me hurde into al þe londe:
"Out, wat haþ þis calwe ido? wat haþ þis calwe ido?"
In þe contreie me hurde wide hou þe ssrewe gradde so.
As god þe ssrewe hadde ibeo habbe ysnut atom is nose,
He ne hi3ede namore þuderward to tilie him of þe pose.

[He seized the devil by the nose and pulled very hard; he tweaked and shook him by the nose so that fire burst out. The devil wriggled here and there, and he still held fast. He yelled and hopped and pulled away and made a horrible commotion. He wished for all the world that he'd never come there! With his tongs Dunstan yanked at his nose and nipped him very sore, until night came on and he could no longer see. The villain was glad and happy indeed that he was out of his hands, and fled and cried out so it was heard all over the land: "Alas, what's this bald one done? What's this bald one done?" It was heard far around how the wicked one cried out. The villain had got such a good tweaking of his nose, he never hurried back there again to heal his cold!]

 

Heh, that's funny, I live in an area of Canterbury called St Dunstans. I'm not religious and didn't know he was the patron of blacksmiths.

The architecture in the area of St Dunstans in Canterbury is largely Georgian and I just made a couple gates for some neighbours who live side by side in a very pretty terraced row. I'm not really into traditional ironwork but you gotta make to suit the property.

One's got a curved top to suit the client's pretty rustic garden, that one I did first, then the neighbour got jealous and wanted one similar.

He was "a" patron saint of Blacksmiths, there are several others like St Clement, St Eloy, St Brigid of Kildare, etc

Good St. Dunstan's day here, sunny, warm and I got some done in the shop. Played with the dogs, talked to the folk at the neighborhood HVAC while on a quick run. 

Deb should be back any minute from a Nose Work trial, Baxter took his 2nd. Nose Work III title and 2nd. over all. 

All in all I think St. Dunstan was smiling today.

Frosty The Lucky.