I've dabbled in blacksmithing. It's a ton of fun. The local homestead lets me use their cool old shop any time I want. I volunteer there a lot by bringing my horses for events such as the upcoming parade of horse breeds and other events. I used to give pony rides there a lot and donated all the money to the refinishing of the main house and farm buildings. It really is a gorgeous old farm place right on the lake. But that is for another post.
Me hammering away at something I was making. I think this was a bridle hanger I made which I ended up giving away to my moms best friend before she died. She spent many countless hours in this exact same forge. She was a farrier and a blacksmith and made some amazing art out of metal.
I am allergic to dust and mold and boy when I used the blower as seen in my left hand, it started the dust going. I was sneezing and rubbing my nose with my sooty gloves. I looked like I had been in the shop for a week when I was done rather than a few hours. I had black soot all over my face and nose.
The gloves I was using this particular day had a hole in the left thumb. Just after this picture was taken I touched where I shouldn't have and just about burnt my thumb print off. I hollered a little and dunked it into the barrel of water and went on working.
I have some hoof picks someplace. I made them out of old horse shoe. They are pretty cool.
I would love to have a neat shop like this one day. Working with metal has been a very fond past time of mine even before I learned blacksmithing. I used to make jewelry out of wire but theres something about blacksmithing that makes me want to purse my dream of going to the belleville school of horseshoeing to become a farrier.
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