Blacksmiths

[Dmoney]

Found an brief history of the Smithy that used to be part of my family this evening.
My great great granddad was a wheelwright and his son ended up being an apprentice at the Smithy next to where he worked. My great granddad ran the smithy until he past away and left it to his sons, my granddad and his brother.

I remember going there when I was really little, and looking at all the wild stuff in there. I even banged on the anvil a bit. It was great. Due to one reason or another, my Dad never took up place in the Smithy, and after my granddad retired, that was that.

I would really like to be a blacksmith. jus' sayin'

[Frank]

I'd like to be an astronaut

[Dmoney]

yeah but let's face it, that job ain't rocket science... oh wait!

[Stevepage]

Blacksmith is a pretty cool job

'what do you do for a living?'

'I FORGE STEEL WITH MY BARE HANDS AND BRAWN!' :bash:

[Dmoney]

exactly!

I was watching this thing in work called The Boat That Guy Built, and Guy as a character is into all kinds of engines as well as engineering practices from the Industrial Revolution.

It reminded me of Fred Dibnah. legend! I remember watching something were he was demonstrating some huge steam powered rivet gun he'd built in his back garden. totally over the top... which is why it's great.

I guess I have technical interests relevant to the time period... if that makes any sense. But grabbing some metal rod out of a forge and beating it into a blade so I can swing swords, wear furs and listen to manowar while riding the tube sounds GREAT!

[Frank]

When I grow up I want to be this guy ...

http://www.tubelab.com/833SE.htm

[Dmoney]

looking at the pictures at the top, I expected some guy with crazy hair whole probably makes his own valves... then I got to the bottom of that page

I imagined the hair correctly, but it turns out he's some kind of Einstein/Hulk Hogan cross bred human, possibly a lesser known X-Men character.

[Frank]

Seriously though, he's some kind of tube amp maniac.

"The chassis on the left is the power supply from an old Motorola public safety transmitter. It puts out 1500 volts at 500 mA"

so ... yeah, you though you'd build an amplifier out of it. Well done.

"I have a large oil cap from a defibrillator but I did not try it yet."

Now he's pulling apart defibrillators to build power supplies. This man is either insane or a genius. Or both.

[WezV]

i grand papa - was a piano tuner - his brother was blind and piano tuner was one of three jobs they offered the blind back then,so my grandad drobe the van as  he was the carer that also learned the trade to help his bro

My grand papa was also a conscientious observer... lets also mention that all my grand parents where JW's at this stage

anway the point is i see my grandparents at this stage, i talk to me grandad about guitars, as well us the unholiness of dissonance and orher stuff which helps when tuning a piano, then he starts talking about his other brother who made guitars - who the hell realised i actually had guitar building in my blood.....very odd

[MrBump]

My ancestors were very successful merchants and slave traders.

They made a bucket of cash, apparently, but it didn't make it far enough down the tree to get to me.

Incidentally - I have no asperations currently to be either a merchant or a slave trader.

Mark.

[Matt77]

My family on my father's side were all farmers going back 7 generations.
They owned a lot of land around Ormskirk, Mawdesley and near Crosby so they certainly would have used blacksmiths a lot. There would be a good chance their paths crossed with your family Dmoney (if the history was around Liverpool)

On my mother's side: Amy Johnson (female pilot), a highway man that was sent to the gallows and General Booth who founded the Salvation Army.

I aim to live my life without having an entry in to wikipedia

[gordiji]

i come from a long line of undistinguished peasants, plebs and general cannon fodder.no wonder i can't pick french
up, or why it's took 30 years to have a basic grip of a pentatonic scale.

[Tellboy]

I have been able to trace my ancestors back to 1525. In the 17 - 1800s my ancestors were involved in the lock and key making industry in Willenhall Staffordshire. Some of the working conditions were pretty poor with young apprentices stooped over benches making locks and keys for long hours and little pay - this apparently led many of the workers to develope hunchbacks and, because of this, Willenhall earned itself the nickname of "Humpshire". The problem was so widespread that some of the pubs had special seats for these workers. (the last of these seats were supposedly removed in the 1950s). My grandfather managed to get away from all of this by joining the Coldstream Guards and ended up as a Seargent Major.