Manky Monkey Motors

at the weekend me and the family went to the Loxwood medieval joust.
as its name suggests there is a jousting event but there are also battle re-enactments, demonstrations of crafts, falconry etc. there are stalls selling goods and food, stage acts and traveling performers. loads going on all day. it is a great day out and i can highly recommend it. it is on this weekend also so if you want to see it all you still can.

i had looked into it before going and had seen that blacksmith short courses were being run. unfortunately they were all booked up :(.....but someone was smiling on me as when i turned up on the day people had cancelled. so i managed to snap up a session and made this, which i now wear around my neck. ;D

the course was run by https://odysseyblacksmiths.co.uk/. i worked with James the owner but he had three other smiths with him and his lovely wife helping out on the day to. he was a great instructer and i had great time working over the anvil. now i want to do some more work but not sure where i could build a forge  :D. ah well guess i will have to look around for more courses

(http://i68.tinypic.com/w9cpwk.jpg)

Cool! Now you need to visit fellow triketeer, Mr Olds :)

Fun isn't it Craig. Nice bit of work.

Thank you Andy and Dave.  ;D

Yeah it was great fun. Very pleased with what I made and learned. Going to look for some place I can do a bit more and see what else I can do.

How you getting on with your forge Dave?

Still learning every time I light it up.
With the hot, dry weather we've been having, not a lot has got done recently for fear of burning down the neighbourhood. It's also damned hot standing by a forge, when it's 30' in the shade.

Something I've always wanted to do..it's magical..nice work young sir..

Nice piece of work Craig. Looks heavy. It also looks complicated for someone having a go for the first time.  :)