April 30, 20251 yr The bellows drive in the forge illustration isn't a million miles from a flatrod system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatrod_system
April 30, 20251 yr Thanks Mike! I'm more than a little amazed with the flatrod mechanisms. The Wiki article has animations and videos of them in action. Transmitting mechanical power kilometers from the wheel to the mine or whatever. I'll probably be reading about these for some time. Very cool engineering. Frosty The Lucky.
May 1, 20251 yr I've seen a couple of restored ones operating in Sweden. Walking around a corner (so to speak) and seeing something I'd had no idea existed was pretty memorably
July 13, 2025Jul 13 Been down at a four-day drill with the guard...but picked up my copy of Theophilus and it had some cool illustrations, and then I went full rabbithole. Found a cool set of 15th century watercolors from the Mendel Hausbuch; if you google it, they're not all under "blacksmith", but rather smith, nailmaker, armorer, etc. This one technically isn't blacksmithing, it's a 16th century goldsmith shop, but...
September 12, 2025Sep 12 Without getting into the artist's interpretation. It has me wondering about the characters in the painting. Mostly the person sitting down in the left foreground. Is he an apprentice watching the master, hoping to get the chance to try it himself (etc.?) Or is he the customer waiting while his knife, axe, etc. is sharpened? Hmmmm? Frosty The Lucky.
December 11, 2025Dec 11 While visiting a donor to discuss a number of artworks he’s interested in giving to our art museum, I spotted this nice chalk drawing of a blacksmith at work. With the kind permission of its owner, I took this photo. The artist is Henri Gervex (1852-1929), a native of Paris, France.
February 7Feb 7 The bookplate of Ukrainian Oleh Bonkovskyy includes an image of St. Dunstan shoeing the devil.
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