Introduction to Blacksmithing

I had the opportunity to have a go at a little blacksmithing project at the R space Gallery in Lisburn run by Anthea McWilliams, it was just a brief affair to show a few simple techniques but which should stand in good use for any future attempts

Eamon giving a brief safety talk and a quick demo of various hammer techniques

They had a great set up with 6 forges all on the go at once, the idea was to make an ornament of some form, most people settled on a leaf

we used cold rolled mild steel to forge our leaf from

Angie and Graham with their "irons in the fire"

Chris demonstrated some of the more intricate manouvers that were needed

giving it some welly!

and my finished piece, there were leaves of all shapes and sizes made,but I wanted a willow leaf, maybe not botanically correct but I'm happy with my first attempt at forging. Maybe some day we'll progress onto firesteels, knife blades and arrowheads!!