[TheForge] Ironbridge!

[Graham Whaley]

Hiya.
  First post, so I'd better do a small introduction...

  I'm just starting to try and learn some blacksmithing.  Using some space
at a friends workshop I have set up a very rudimentary forge using an old
cast iron BBQ and a leaf blower and a bag of coke.  It gets things hot
enough for me to practice hitting them on the pice of U-channel, mounted on
a fence post.  It's a start!

 I've recently aquired a rather large (for me) leg vice, weighing in
somewhere around the 150lb mark, and hopefully I'll aquire an anvil soon.

 I'm located in the north of England.  Hey, if anybody has an anvil you
don't want, and you are anywhere near Leeds .... :-)


 So, onto the subject of the post.
 I was lucky enough recently to be holidaying not too far from Ironbridge.
Of course, whilst in the area, I had to squeeze in a visit.

http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/

 It is an interesting place, and well worth a visit.  We spent most of our
time at the Blists Hill village.  Whilst there I saw the largest pile of
wrought Iron, in the form of old chain.  I believe it was being reworked
into bars for use/sale.  The furnace seemed to be running (VERY loud
whooshing noises, and lots of glow coming out of a box around the size of a
shipping container!).  There was a power hammer ABOUT THE SIZE OF MY HOUSE,
the one in the second picture from the bottom in this link...

http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/exhibit.asp?ID=st0023&Topic=Steam%20Machines&Th
eme=th0001


  So, I had a good day.  It would have been even better if the blacksmiths
shop had been open, and we had not turned up just after they had finished
pouring the moulds in the foundry!

  If you are planning on making a visit it might be an idea to ring ahead
and see what activities are available and when.  My day would have been even
better if I had gotten into the blacksmith shop AND seen the pourings in the
coke fired foundary.


   Graham.
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