“We think we might have an old forge — do you want to have a look?” said Lisa Harrison’s friends when they bought Trevone quarry near Falmouth three years ago. Quite bit of luck for a Blacksmith looking for somewhere to work. The building had trees growing through it, but sure enough, a forge it surely was, complete with chimneys and hearths. Situated in the midst of the granite quarries of Mabe, it once would have been the place where quarrymen’s tools were made and repaired. A new roof, a power supply and an array of mysteriously named tools later, and Lisa the blacksmith is so settled in that it looks as if she’s been working here forever.
We are at Smythick Forge for the day; it’s Harry’s tenth birthday present, and a complete surprise. Our mission is to make a sword the hard way. Lisa throws Harry in at the deep end. This is no have-a-dabble experience.
After fitting us with safety glasses Lisa lights the coke fire, to enable it to reach the 1200 degrees needed to work steel. While the electric fan hums and the forge spits and cracks, the design for the sword is discussed and quickly roughed out on paper. It’s to be a single-handed short sword, with a ball at the end of the handle.
Suitable mild steel is selected and cut to length and the smithing begins. Soon the building is ringing and Harry and Lisa settle into a working rhythm; heating and hammering on blade on the huge anvil, cooling the handle-end in a trough.
After a couple hours, lunch is a pan-full of chipolatas a-la-blacksmith, eaten by a flooded quarry adjacent to the smithy. While Harry tries out a tightrope we talk about life as a blacksmith. Lisa always knew she wanted to work with metal, and travelled widely to find out more, even working in a silver mine before going into higher education. First a diploma, then silversmithing at Birmingham School of Jewellery, and finally a year’s training at the only dedicated school of blacksmithing in Europe at Hereford. “That meant I could be useful to a smith — but you really learn by watching and helping”.
After lunch Harry moves on to “cold work” with hacksaw and file, tower drill and rivets. I worry that the treat might be turning into too much like hard work. “That’s it, I’ve finished it” says Harry after five minutes of filing the pommel. No you haven’t says Lisa “keep going!”. But his enthusiasm does not wane, and nor does Lisa’s. “Wow that’s perfect” says Harry of the slowly forming T-bar”. “I’d expect nothing less from you,” retorts Lisa.
Lisa’s stock-in-trade is functional, sculptural or architectural ironwork for interiors and exteriors, which she creates at all scales. You can find Lisa’s work from Canada and North America to France and all around the UK. She is also happy to take on (very) small groups of up to two in the smithy so if you’d like to experience real smithing while you are on holiday in Cornwall you can. Please contact Lisa through her website www.smythickforge.co.uk — but do make the arrangement well in advance! Smythick Forge is 30 minutes from our self catering cottages The Cosy Cow Shed and a little closer to Chapel Cottage.
