The Forge Project began in 2013 when Richard and Juliet Fishenden met with Anthony Dickins, William Warren and Gareth Neal in London and decided a collaboration between the product designers, including their pal Chris Eckersley, would be interesting for everyone. Made by the Forge gets lots of design ideas and the designers get hands on experience in the Forge and an insight into the blacksmiths techniques.
The designers introduction to the forge began in Suffolk where they learnt about what we make and what we do. The boys got a chance to bang a lot of hot metal – changing the shape of a round piece of bar to square and then a square piece of bar to round. This taught them the basic forge techniques and the correct use of the hammer. They moved onto drawing out metal, forging points both square and round, then bumping up metal i.e. redacting its length and then punching holes. The day culminated of the making of a forged hook which included all of the techniques they had learnt. The hook has a punched eye, a thicker piece for strength where the load bearing is and a hand drawn point. It is also turned whilst hot which is also another forging technique.
The next meeting up was planned for March this year.
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