I'd like you to meet Fingal - I've started a mentoring relationship with him in blacksmithing over this past year. Truth be told, I haven't been able to do much work with him so far - he lives in Acton and I live in Hamilton and I don't have a home shop setup yet, so the only time we have had to work together is at SCA camping events when I bring my travel forge. But I try to support his interest in smithing the best I can until I'm able to do more. We just finished a 3-day get together to sort of hang out and talk about smithing plans.
My prime motive for our get together was to give Fin his birthday/Yule/graduation present for last year ... my old riveter's forge. I bought it at an auction 8 years ago but never got around to using it once I made my SCA travel forge. It definitely needed some work ... the pan had a few holes rusted through it but the blower was in good shape and over all the forge still had some good bones to her. So we took it apart, cleaned and wire brushed the pan and fashioned a sheet steel patch for the area with the holes. We replaced the worn and rusted bolts and bolted the whole forge back together - good as new.The last thing we did was give the pan a good lining with furnace cement.
I figure, since I don't have the facilities to work with Fin on a more regular basis, I want to be able to get him started exploring some of the skills we have worked on at SCA events - and I think a forge is a good place to start. We met up with his mom at Ikea on Wednesday afternoon and I gave her her boy back along with his new forge. I also gave Fin this year's early Yule gift ... my copy of Lorelei Sims' The Backyard Blacksmith and a hammer I picked up for him at Pennsic ... I know ... I can't help myself. It was a good visit.
