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allotmentgirl
Regular Member
82 Posts
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 Posted -
27/02/2010
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22:28
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Has anybody been watching Mastercrafts on BBC2 with Monty Don? It is so nice to see the old crafts being kept alive.I particularly liked the episode about making the chairs out of green wood. I love to see good workmanship. It's a shame we don't buy Handcrafted furniture /articles that have been made and meant to last a lifetime,it would help keep these skills alive if we did buy them instead of this rubbish from Ikea that will be in a skip in 5 years time. It's a shame that we feel the need for new this, new that all the time, I would much rather pay more for something thats been well made and have it for 20 years or more..
Last week I saved a lovely 1920/30s cupboard from someones back yard that was going to be burnt on their fire and I love it.
Anyone else seen Mastercrafts?
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 28/02/2010 : 07:00
Aggie, you're dead right. I've been watching the series and while I have a natural antipathy towards enthusiastic presenters I've enjoyed it. Some of us are still reparing stuff instead of chucking it away, have a look in the forums for Shed Culture. I'll bring it back to the top for you.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk  |
wendyf
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Posted - 28/02/2010 : 09:01
I really enjoyed last week's blacksmithing programme. Everything about it was a pleasure, the people, the camera work, the wonderful smithy where it was filmed.....I even shed a few tears. Its also good to come across a TV programme that doesn't remind you every five minutes about what happened 5 minutes before.
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Tizer
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Posted - 28/02/2010 : 11:24
We are recording them and watching at a more convenient time, so we've seen the greenwood and thatching programmes and still have blacksmithing to come. I don't like the `competition' format which seems to be all the fashion for TV now but I love seeing the experts doing their work. In one of our rooms we still have a couple of carver dining chairs which we bought secondhand for a fiver in about 1975 (and they were old then). The seat cushions could do with refurbishment but the wood frames are beautiful.
I agree with paying more for something that's made well and lasts but you have to be careful now. Price and quality no longer go hand in hand. Many well-known and formerly trusted brands in all kinds of goods have been milked for profit by big, sometimes foreign, companies that took the smaller, original makers of the products. Having something made by a bloke in his shed is the best way!
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 01/03/2010 : 06:55
You're right about the deterioration in some brand names, quite a few spring to mind, brilliant quality buit the name and then they were bought out and the bean-counters started their work.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Flutterby
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Posted - 07/03/2010 : 12:02
I agree about old furniture being betterand I shall bring my rocking chair down from the loft and give it a new -old look . |
Tizer
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Posted - 07/03/2010 : 16:44
Has the blacksmithing Mastercrafts programme tempted anyone to take it up?
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allotmentgirl
Regular Member
82 Posts
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Posted - 07/03/2010 : 19:30
I'd love to have bash at it....HAHAHA
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 08/03/2010 : 05:35
Robert Maudslay, the famous 19th century engineer used to try out forging methods cold using a bar of lead instead of hot iron. So you can have a bit of a practice at drawing out and shaping if you get hold of some scrap lead and cast it into a bar. It's good fun!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
blokman
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Posted - 08/03/2010 : 07:07
Rgretfully I got rid of my hearth a while back but I still have the anvils.....
www.robinsharples.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 09/03/2010 : 05:42
Get a stick of soft plumber's solder and have a try. That's the flat bar solder that is used for wiping joints, it's the softest of the lot.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
blokman
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Posted - 09/03/2010 : 09:23
That brings back memories, Stanley, wiping joints, an old one eyed electrical engineer who used to work for the Lancashire Electric Power Company taught me the rudiments of the skill, he use to use a moleskin rag with tallow.
Another chap I knew ( which goes back to pestering) who was an old time plumber, would only wipe a joint with a ten pound note!!
When the job was finished it went back in his wallet till the next time.
www.robinsharples.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 09/03/2010 : 17:08
Used to be one of the chief plumber's skills. I still have flat solder, Fluxite and the conical dolly for putting the bell-moth in a lead joint. Oh, and a big copper block soldering iron and an old-fashioned blowlamp that works. Brown and Pickles used to have two paraffin blowlamps that stood two feet high and held about two gallons of paraffin each. They used them for warming cranks when they were shrinking them on the shaft, or warming the cranks to shrink the crank pin in. They never shifted if fitted properly.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
belle
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Posted - 09/03/2010 : 23:23
Thanks to the new girl, Lottie, for alerting me to this prog. Had a great night tonight watching two progs back to back on catch up.. the green wood turning, and the stained glass making.. blacksmithing I remember well from my youth (one of my friends was mad on horses and we often watched the smith shoe them) and thatching I have seen done before but can't wait for next weeks weaving...tis in my blood!
Life is what you make it |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 10/03/2010 : 05:58
Belle, I want to see the weaving as well. Wonderful process and so skilled. It was never recognised as such until they started to need intelligent workers for industries like Rolld Royce where they found that old weavers had natural coordination and could easily pick other skills up. They were good timekeepers as well.
I always said that if I'd had enough money I'd have gone as apprentice to Jimmy Thompson the blacksmith at West Marton. He did a lot of jobs for us and I never tired of watching him working miracles on the anvil. I'll tell you a funny thing he taught me, in winter when there was a frost about he always brought the iron he needed for the next day into the forge overnight. He said it worked better if he did that. Now how could that make a difference to iron that was going to be raised to welding heat in the fire? Jimmy didn't know either but he said it made a difference. Try to work that one out!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Another
Traycle Mine Overseer
6250 Posts
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Posted - 10/03/2010 : 07:24
I'm recording the weaving programmes for Charlotte. Last time she was home she brought a simple weaving frame on which she has made some great pieces.
Like Tinks says its in the blood with both my parents and Caths dad ending up as deputy head of textiles at Burnley college after years in the industry. Nolic
" I'm a self made man who worships his creator"  |
Mastercrafts on BBC2
