My first job when I left school. Was working for a company in London. Whitey plate works. In Hackney road. To solder things together we had town gas and foot operated bellows . That was over 50 years ago.
Its not that simple. The demand for items like this has diminished massively over the last 30 / 40 years so there was not the volume of work to train apprentices and most kids today would not be interested in doing any sort of manual labour. I think Chimo have amalgamated several small firms including one or two from Birmingham over the years and they supply my business with some items. There is virtually no skilled labour left in Birmingham and I would imagine that Sheffield is the same so at present its all dying out. You only get as good as Ian by doing volume work so colleges are a waste of time and always have been for learning these raw crafts. I was born in 1955 same as Ian and have carried on working but I am retiring next year as well.
Beautiful work
How beautiful! It was lovely before the feet and silverplating. With it- astonishing. You are a wonderful artist!
Lovely work you blokes. Good on you all. I am an Australian Saddlemaker. We are in the same boat. The old skills are going/ gone.
My first job when I left school. Was working for a company in London. Whitey plate works. In Hackney road. To solder things together we had town gas and foot operated bellows . That was over 50 years ago.
Enjoy your retirement Ian.
So when he retires the company he works for and Sheffield will losses This part of the business because they never trained anyone to replace him
Its not that simple. The demand for items like this has diminished massively over the last 30 / 40 years so there was not the volume of work to train apprentices and most kids today would not be interested in doing any sort of manual labour. I think Chimo have amalgamated several small firms including one or two from Birmingham over the years and they supply my business with some items. There is virtually no skilled labour left in Birmingham and I would imagine that Sheffield is the same so at present its all dying out. You only get as good as Ian by doing volume work so colleges are a waste of time and always have been for learning these raw crafts. I was born in 1955 same as Ian and have carried on working but I am retiring next year as well.