Woodland Antics: Fernhurst Furnace 2009

Sunday, 4 October 2009

Fernhurst Furnace 2009 - The Blacksmiths

From the Fernhurst Furnace weekend, I can't really miss out the blacksmiths, they are going 'hammers and tongs' all day long down by the furnace site and anchor the show for the visitors. We are lucky in this corner of West Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire that we have a number of thriving blacksmiths. Robert and Carol Smith organise the blacksmithing at the Weald & Downland smithy, Nick Murray and John Cooksley run the Old Kiln Forge at Tilford, Mick Stanton (Fraught Wrought) an edge tool maker at Normandy nr Guildford, and the village forges in Chiddingfold and Midhurst are still going. But it's a case of use them or lose them...

As a gear freak I admire the amount of kit that Robert manages to spirit to the site for the weekend. Anvils aren't light, well none of the blacksmithing equipment is light. The hand turned forge blower is great, without the background of a petrol motor you can hear more of the metal being worked and the sound is a part of the magic.

With the portable forges and hand wound blowers it's not really possible to work on complicated pieces as well as talk to visitors. In the same way as I make a lot of dibbers and spurtles on occasion here Nick is making a leaf key-ring. It might not be high art but it does give people and particularly children the ability to see something they can appreciate and take away being made. First he hammers out the shape of the leaf from the solid bar

Then he puts in the veins using a cold chisel.

The leaf is almost life-like.

To finish the key ring the leaf is quenched and then cut from the bar. The stalk is beaten into shape and then formed into a ring.

We very much liked his bottle lanterns. The forged candle holder and hanger are cunningly fitted into a bottle with the bottom ground off.

Much more complex is Nick's helmet. The helmet is constructed in quadrants with each part hammered to shape over a former before being riveted together. You can contact Nick Murray (07702 114881) and John Cooksley (07759 044858) at the Old Kiln Forge, nr Farnham, Surrey.

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My Interests

Most of the posts on this site will fall into a few themes. I'll try to fit the title to the crime. But some posts and interests just won't fit into a box no matter how hard I try.

Polelathe - posts about polelathe turning and related topics.

The polelathe is a traditional foot operated wood turning lathe. You might have seen one in use at a show or a museum, in fact you might have seen me demonstrating one. The turners who used these lathes for making chair-legs were sometimes referred to as Bodgers. I have been a bodger all my life, but its only since 2005 that I have taken up bodging on lathes. I spend as much time turning as I can, and during the summer months it is my main employment, though I mix it with a number of small jobs of a woody nature.

I am fascinated by all traditional crafts and trades, especially those working with wood. For millenia woodlands have provided us with an amazing range of products for everyday use. It is only very recently that we seem to have lost touch with woodlands and their uses.

I only use local wood, very often it is wood that I have cut myself and would normally be an unwanted by-product of managing small, local woodlands or heathlands.

Commons - posts about the Lynchmere commons. The commons were purchased from the Cowdray estate in 1998 by The Lynchmere Society, a local trust, which now manages about 340 acres of mixed heathland, woodland and adjoining fields. The commons are located between Haslemere and Liphook on the Sussex, Hampshire borders. I first got involved with helping the society to manage the commons in 1999 and since then have gained a lot of experience working on the commons as a volunteer. I prefer to work as a woodsman but I also help to manage the commons.

I am very keen to manage the commons in a sustainable way and as a part of this am trying to use the traditional crafts and ways of working that helped to shape this landscape.

Greenwood - Posts on woodland and woody topics not covered in polelathe and commons posts. Greenwood is unseasoned wood, but I shan't be too choosy and will cover all manner of only slightly woody topics here

I have a tendency to be a jack-of-all-trades although I try to focus upon pole-lathe turning, charcoal burning and besom broom making. As a woodsman I help to care for local woodlands in the Western Weald. I often work at or teach tree felling, coppicing and chainsaw skills.

Landrover - I restore, maintain, use and abuse a number of slightly eccentric old landrovers. I will post about working on them and related classic (and not so classic) car work.

Crafty - covering a range of traditional crafts not immediately related to wood and my interest in brewing, baking and preserving.

Woodland Antics

Sunday, 4 October 2009

Fernhurst Furnace 2009 - The Blacksmiths

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