Blacksmithing

I am very interested in a lot of things, and have spent a lot of my time in London devoted to improving my art skills and also trying and learning the more traditional craft skills. One of which I have always wanted to learn is blacksmithing. Imagine my delight then when I went to the Stepney City Farm and found they gave free three hour long taster blacksmithing courses.

It was very hands on and physically heavy, but I haven't had that much fun making something very simple in a very long time.


We started with simply making a spike. It might sound simple but it is much harder than it sounds. The hammer is very heavy and just hitting the metal in the right place is quite difficult. You have to use the short space of time you have while the metal is hot enough to get as much metal moving as you can, and then you have to direct it in the right direction and in the right way. When you do get it right and the metal does what you want it to do, it is the most powerful feeling! To get such a solid material doing what you want, with nothing more than a bit of heat, a hammer and a strong arm.

Then when we had a square spike, we rounded it out and started twisting the spike into a curve. It is a very simple thing, but you can make very beautiful stuff with these simple techniques. I would definitely love to do some more blacksmithing and make some more difficult things!

My metal curve is currently being used as an improvised seal stamp.