10 Oct 22'
"My son and I had a really great couple of days with Mort, learning the skills of pattern welding recreating Anglo-Saxon and Viking era knife blades. He started us off on simple forging skills, then we moved on to forging a ready prepared pattern welded billet of steel, and the second day was spent trying to fire-weld our own billet of alternating high carbon and lower carbon layers of steel. He stepped in and helped rescue things whenever they started to go badly wrong, but gave us plenty of scope to learn from our mistakes as we went along. For us the journey was more important than the destination, in gaining a much deeper appreciation of the skill of smiths of that era, but we also came away with several blades that we can finish and add handles and sheaths at home. Mort was entertaining company and a very good teacher, in what could easily be a daunting and hazardous industrial environment in less experienced hands. If you are even vaguely curious, I strongly recommend that you have a go. It is hard work and a tiring day, but really thrilling to turn a lump of metal into your own project with your own hands using nothing but fire and a hammer, and Mort’s patient skill! An unforgettable experience, and a something to take home at the end of the day as a permanent reminder."
