08-04-2021, 10:21 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-04-2021, 10:27 AM by Andy Bennett.)
Beautiful view.
Slightly off subject but, whilst there is often debate about the designation of the multitude of different body types for Austin sevens that's nothing to anvils.
I have an old catalogue from one French manufacturer from the 1920s and they have over 60 different types (then multiplied up in the number of sizes). Catering for all from the Oddsmith making nails, to the fully apprenticed blacksmith. What most in the UK have (including Reckers and me) is the 'London pattern'. My wife paid £20 for mine about 20 years ago at a farm sale and had 3 burly men load it into the back of her 205. She wanted it as a garden ornament as her great grandfather was a blacksmith. A few years after that I decided to put it to its correct use when I took up blacksmithing.
Such was the importance of the blacksmith that they were regulated from 1434. You could only call yourself a blacksmith if you had served your time and the 'Company of the Craft of Blacksmythes' could strike you off if the quality of your work was sub-standard. Meanwhile anyone could call themselves a doctor and chop your arm off (there's a reason doctors operate in theatres, it was public entertainment).
Having said that, in the 18c many small villages had a 'bonesetter' who administered to farmworkers with dislocated shoulders etc. That job usually went to the strongest man in the village who could pull a joint back into position, and that was the blacksmith. Jack of all trades.
Today even a knackered anvil only good for an ornament is hundreds of pounds. Again not a dissimilar price story line to that of the life and times of the Austin 7.
You can tell I am not in the mood to go outside and do some work...
Andy
Slightly off subject but, whilst there is often debate about the designation of the multitude of different body types for Austin sevens that's nothing to anvils.
I have an old catalogue from one French manufacturer from the 1920s and they have over 60 different types (then multiplied up in the number of sizes). Catering for all from the Oddsmith making nails, to the fully apprenticed blacksmith. What most in the UK have (including Reckers and me) is the 'London pattern'. My wife paid £20 for mine about 20 years ago at a farm sale and had 3 burly men load it into the back of her 205. She wanted it as a garden ornament as her great grandfather was a blacksmith. A few years after that I decided to put it to its correct use when I took up blacksmithing.
Such was the importance of the blacksmith that they were regulated from 1434. You could only call yourself a blacksmith if you had served your time and the 'Company of the Craft of Blacksmythes' could strike you off if the quality of your work was sub-standard. Meanwhile anyone could call themselves a doctor and chop your arm off (there's a reason doctors operate in theatres, it was public entertainment).
Having said that, in the 18c many small villages had a 'bonesetter' who administered to farmworkers with dislocated shoulders etc. That job usually went to the strongest man in the village who could pull a joint back into position, and that was the blacksmith. Jack of all trades.
Today even a knackered anvil only good for an ornament is hundreds of pounds. Again not a dissimilar price story line to that of the life and times of the Austin 7.
You can tell I am not in the mood to go outside and do some work...
Andy
Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think!