Shovel and bucket (forge)

A forge typically uses bituminous coal, industrial coke or charcoal. Once specific coal for forging was the norm. But it had the disadvantage te be very smelly and to generate higher fumes. To avoid these problems, which are even more accute in urban areas, coke is used instead, even if this fuel is less suited for this type of activity.

The sound is that of coke being taken in a bucket and dropped in the hearth.

A blacksmith, Felix Dawlat has come to this job trough agriculture and the need to use appropriate tools which often have to be created by the farmer himself. He trained at the Farrier school of Anderlecht (Brussels) and as an Apprentice at a private blacksmith. Today, he is working in a collective workshop in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek which he shares with other artisans (two luthiers, two ceramists, a bookbinder,…). Felix sometimes creates some of their tools for them.

Sound recordist : Gaëlle Courtois / La Fonderie, Brussels