[TheForge] Ironbridge!

[David E. Smucker]

Welcome to this group and best of luck as you take up blacksmithing.

Lots of things will work for an anvil until you can find a "real" one.  Have 
you checked out any scrap metal dealers?  Not sure what you call them in the 
UK today.  When we lived in Wales in the early 80's the local folks called 
them "tips" as the place you tipped the bin.  You may be able to buy a small 
piece of plate or other steel to use as an anvil.

I strongly agree that Ironbridge is a great area.  We spent several days in 
the area and I am always ready to go back.  The furnace you say that is 
about the size of a container is a puddling furnace for making real wrought 
iron from pig iron.  It can also be used to refine wrought iron to a higher 
grade.  As far as I know it is the last puddling furnace that can be 
operated anywhere.  If others know of additional ones I would like to hear 
about it.

A very good book on the history of industry in the UK is Neil Cossons's The 
BP Book of Industrial Archaeology.
ISBN 0-7153-8931-9  I got my copy while visiting at Ironbridge.  For the US 
folks I have only ever see this book in the UK but it is listed as also 
published in the USA too by David & Charles Inc.

Dave Smucker


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Graham Whaley" <graham.whaley at metagence.com>
To: <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2004 9:19 AM
Subject: [TheForge] Ironbridge!


> 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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