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The tourist season in Killeena House being over and our courses not yet begun, I decided to take this past weekend off and go on a road trip with a couple of friends, Clodagh and Red, and to spend Saturday hitting things with a hammer. We were booked in to do a day long knife-making workshop with Gunvor Anhøj at her forge in the courtyard of Russborough House. None of us had any experience but I can hit things, Red can light fires and Clodagh is an artist so between us we hoped to produce something vaguely pointy looking. I was also wearing a fine pair of red braces which I knew would make all the difference to my cutler capabilities. It was very pleasing to arrive and find that the workshop was of a manageable number with just six of us, two to each of the three fires. The only man was Richard the engineering student, who got so hot at the middle fire that even his elbows sweated, something I had never seen before. Gunvor, who has been a blacksmith for 18 years, was a calm, informative and affable teacher who I found did just the right combination of talking and throwing us into the deep end. And oh what a deep end. I found myself in the joyous position of having a red hot fire, a hammer, tongs, and an anvil of my own. Oh yes, an anvil of my own! We went at it hammer and tongs…sorry…and it was hot, sweaty, dirty and glorious. We forged and hammered our nascent knives, Gunvor used an angle grinder to put in the bevelled edges, then we polished, hardened and finally sharpened our eclectic collection of home-made stabby things. I highly recommend it. Apparently, according to the poster in the forge about female blacksmiths, it also improves your health. It would definitely help with weight loss given the strenuous exercise and heat, certainly Richard’s elbows looked thinner by the end. Now it is Monday and our courses begin. Sign up if you haven’t already, and don’t worry, I’m better at teaching than making knives. *A hardie hole is the square hole on the top of the anvil.