[TheForge] Re: Demonstration and Pricing

[Mike Spencer]

> By the way, anyone know of any sheep related iron stuff?....
> Sheep bells?

    http://www.nocbay.com/store/bells.html

Somewhere around here I have patterns for ox and horse bells that I
got from Freeland Minard of Barss Corner, NS [1] in the early 70s.  I
should find those patterns, scan them and put them on the web.  RSN.
Sheep bells look to be about half way between them in size.

> Have often been asked to do spinning needles. A small(6" long) wire
> w/ hook on the end to grab the yarn and pull thru a small hole.

My wife spins.  She borrowed a pair of pliers and made her own.

Years ago, one of the guys here made an iron spinning wheel, quite a
nice piece of work, that was rejected at a prestigious show because
"spinning wheels aren't made of iron, you know."  


- Mike

[1] He was about 90 then and was the master that Arch McKnight of
    Milton, NS  apprenticed with.  Arch was closing in on 70 at
    that time.

    There are photos of both these now departed smiths in _Older
    Ways_ by Peter Barss but I'm pretty sure it's out of print.

    Photo of Arch McKnight's shop, now restored as a museum.  

        http://www.queens.ca/dynimages/photo-blacksmithshop.gif

    I believe they said they had cataloged 30,000 objects and still
    had boxes and boxes of stuff to go through.  Yup.


-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^