Well, here is our first blog. Having attended the blog workshop run by 2 of our trustees, Tor & Tori, we shall find out if they were bad tutors or I was a bad student! Seriously though we are defiantly better blacksmiths than we are blog writers. Here goes!
We have had very interesting project over the past couple of months, which we have just finished a couple of weeks ago. The Restoration of two 18th century cast iron plinth lamps and the making of two exact replicas that will be installed at White’s Club in Piccadilly.
Having stripped down the 2 originals the patten maker was called in to discuss how the pattens would be made to enable the mould to be made for casting. The pattens were hand carved in wood and then sent to the foundry for casting. Unfortunately this ended in more components that were originally cast due to the clients budget. More work for us! Thankfully that means more money for us and the farm!
Time to put the originals back together. Easier said than done! The components had been fixed together for over 200years so they took some dismantling as well as damage and wear that has occurred over the centuries. We have kept to traditional methods as far as possible with drilling ‘n’ tapping and using rivets. In a small amount of cases, due to the extent of damage, we have had to resort to more modern methods such as welding and the use of special glues.
With the arrival of the new components from the foundry (eventually! Which idiot said management restructuring was a good thing? Never heard of the saying if it ain’t broke don’t fix it ?) we were able to assemble the the replicas. The fun and challenging bit was making the new doors from brass T section (Damn that stuff is expensive!) as they curve in various directions, But me and Neil both being engineers at heart we love a challenge and got there in good time.
Now the lamps will be sent of to the glass benders to be glazed and hopefully we will be able to see the lamps installed and working by Christmas!
In other news our courses are running well with lots of positive feedback from our students especially the sessions we have run for the farms open volunteers which went really well! Next month we have a couple of sessions with the farms Young Volunteers (God help us!).
Well that’s it! Good Tutors or Good Student? You decide. If we survive the Young Volunteers we will try again next month.
Blog by Richard Pace
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To find out more about blacksmithing at the farm contact Neil Stuart on 07900 940750